THEY can claim to be hampered by injuries, but there is no disguising their Achilles heel. In just the kind of awkward, physical challenge that proved to be their undoing last season, especially away from home on a Saturday night, Arsenal came up short once more, this time against a team who had not beaten them since 1991.

Where they failed at Bolton (twice) and Newcastle last term, they failed again here, however spirited were their efforts to prevent it. Arsenal had almost all the possession, and a fair few chances to go with it, but it was not enough against a Manchester City side, heroically marshalled by Richard Dunne and Sylvain Distin.

In the end, all that separated the sides was a penalty after 41 minutes by Joey Barton, which his team more or less deserved for their lung-bursting work in the first half, and clung to like a drowning man in the second.

Despite their opponents’ increasingly frantic efforts to come up with an equaliser, which Robin van Persie nearly provided with a header that slipped by the post, City held on for their first win of the season, and a result that brings a traumatic few days to an end.

Given the adverse publicity attracted in recent times by Barton, City needed last week’s controversy like Pedro Mendes needed a hole in the head. After coming up with the goods on both fronts, Ben Thatcher has been fined and suspended by his club, while the game’s authorities contemplate how best to deal with his midweek assault. The solution on the pitch was to replace him with Stephen Jordan, but the damage off it will not be so easily repaired.

A foreigner? Handbagged by Thatcher? It wasn’t so much a throwback to the bad old days as a kick up the eighties, when Stuart Pearce was making his mark as a player. That City’s manager has matured since then was underlined by the sensible manner in which he reacted to the crisis. He was no less careful here, encouraging the aggression needed to beat Arsenal, without risking another dent to his club’s reputation. With the tenacious Paul Dickov starting up front alongside Bernardo Corradi, there was no mistaking City’s intent. “Man for man, we are not as good as Arsenal,” said Pearce afterwards. “If you don’t match or surpass them physically, they will beat you. If you don’t work as a unit, they will beat you. And, at times, you have to ride your luck. We did all three.”

Thierry Henry returned to Arsenal’s starting line-up, but his chances were few. When Alexander Hleb lobbed the ball over City’s back four, the striker turned Dunne inside out before slapping it against the goalkeeper’s legs. Then, when Henry beat the offside trap, he was able only to pull his shot across the face of goal. A Van Persie effort was closer than either of those, but his sliced shot came off the post.

City, though, were in their opponents’ faces. Even Pearce intruded on the technical area of Arsène Wenger, who was shooing him away as though he were some kind of bluebottle. When Justin Hoyte misjudged a header down by the touchline, Trevor Sinclair capitalised with a pass to Barton, who sidefooted narrowly wide.

The goal, when it came, was the result of another mistake by Hoyte. Again it was Sinclair who eluded him, this time in the box, which prompted the left-back to bring him down and Barton crashed in the penalty off the underside of the bar.

It was incumbent upon Arsenal to exert rather more authority on the second half. In Tomas Rosicky, making his Premiership debut on the left of midfield, they had a player with the ability to see gaps others couldn’t, which was pleasing on the eye, but too often fruitless. When Fabregas burst through in the middle of the pitch, he somehow bundled the ball into Van Persie’s path, only to see the Dutchman skew his shot across the penalty area.

Predictably, Arsenal’s possession increased as their position grew more perilous, so that City’s attempts to relieve the pressure were ever more sproradic. How they must have wished that Dickov had made a better connection late on, with an attempt from the edge of the box.

When Theo Walcott replaced Rosicky, it was in the hope that he could set up an equaliser, just as he had against Aston Villa. It was too much to ask.

Star Man: Richard Dunne (Man City)

Scorers: Man City: Barton 41 pen

Referee: U Rennie

Attendance: 40,699 Player Ratings: Manchester City: Weaver 6, Richards 6, Dunne 7, Distin 7, Jordan 7, Sinclair 7, Barton 7, Dabon 6, Vassell 6 (Mills 80min,4), Coradi 6 (Miller 90min,5), Dickov 6 (Samaras 86min,4)

Arsenal: Lehmann 6, Eboue 5 (Flamini 83min,4), Toure 6, Djourou 6, Hoyte 5, Hleb 7 (Adebayor 77min,5), Fabregas 7, Gilberto 6, Rosicky 6 (Walcott 66min,6) Henry 6, Van Persie 7

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