Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny was handed his marching orders as Manchester City scored twice during the opening 45 minutes of their trip to the Emirates Stadium this afternoon.
The half's major talking point arrived with just nine minutes on the clock. As Edin Dzeko turned inside the area to try to reach a loose ball, he was hauled to the ground by Koscielny. Referee Mike Dean reacted by awarding the visitors a penalty, while also handing the Arsenal defender his marching orders.
Dzeko dusted himself down to take the resultant spot-kick, which keeper Wojciech Szczesny managed to turn onto the post with his legs, before reacting quickly to catch the ball as it trickled along the line.
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However, visiting City did not have to wait too long to make their numerical advantage count. A quickly-taken free kick ended with Carlos Tevez threading a pass through to James Milner, who sent an instant shot past from 10 yards out beyond the reach of Szczesny and into the net via the upright.
Javi Garcia had an opportunity to double City's lead with 27 minutes played, but he headed wide of the target after he had made a run to the near post to meet a corner from David Silva.
Just four minutes later though Roberto Mancini's side were 2-0 up. Szczesny was only able to parry a poked effort by Tevez and Dzeko was on hand to make amends for his earlier failure from the penalty spot.
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The home side found it hard to mount attacks but on the one occasion that they did get forward, Joe Hart was well-placed to hold a rising effort from Lukas Podolski in the 35th minute.
As the half drew to a close City almost added a third when Garcia's header from another Silva corner was cleared off the line by Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere.
Should City hold onto their lead, they will cut the gap on leaders Manchester United to seven points.
Liam Apicella
