Arsenal defeat Manchester City 3-1 in final pre-season friendly

Arsenal rounded off their pre-season preparations, with  a fine 3-1 win over fellow Premier League team, Manchester City.

Theo Walcott opened scoring for the Gunners as early as the 9th minute. Aaron Ramsey’s sublime reverse pass, found the England international spinning of former team mate Gael Clichy on the right. He kept his cool and dinked the ball over Joe Hart. For the rest of the first half, Arsenal were happy for City to pass the ball around, but broke quickly on the break.

The second half began with City well on top. However, 14 minutes after the break, Aaron Ramsey – who was in good form throughout the game – doubled Arsenal’s lead. This time around, Walcott was the supplier. He returned the Welshman’s pass and Ramsey kept his composure to go round Hart and tuck the ball into an empty net.

Giroud made it 3-0 just three minutes later. The French striker chased down a loose ball and beat Vincent Kompany to it, before lobbing Hart. New signing Alvaro Negredo outmuscled Koscielny and squeezed his shot past Fabianski, to get City a consolation goal.

Arsenal and Manchester City begin their 2013/2014 campaign next week against Aston Villa and Newcastle respectively.

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