Manchester City 0 Arsenal 3

ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger believes yesterday’s win at Manchester City will give his side the belief to march on again.

The Gunners have gone through a sticky spell in the past month with defeats by West Brom and Chelsea.

They responded by winning at Birmingham last week and, following a Champions League thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday, Wenger feels his team are firing again.

Arsenal overwhelmed 10- man City 3-0 with goals from Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner.

Their performance contradicted recent criticism of their record against supposed Barclays Premier League title rivals.

Wenger said: ‘‘For us it was important to get a win in a big place, to strengthen belief of the squad and continue our march forward.

‘‘I think we did it today with calm intelligence. Collectively we completely dominated the game.

‘‘I hope that will give us the belief and confidence to take into other games.’’ The key moment was the fifth-minute sending off of Dedryck Boyata for bringing down Marouane Chamakh when clear on goal.

Wenger said: ‘‘It looked to me that it was a sending off from the bench and the referee had no option.

‘‘After the sending off it became electric and we got some yellow cards quickly.

‘‘It was important that we did not get a second yellow and I asked the players at halftime to focus on playing in a positive way.

“I wanted them to try to score a second goal, to focus on playing football and not just defending our advantage.’’ City had a number of good opportunities but the muchmaligned Lukasz Fabianski had a fine game in the Arsenal goal, producing two particularly good saves from David Silva.

‘‘From game to game, he shows what we see in training,’’ Wenger said. ‘‘Sometimes in our job you have to be steady and fight against opinions.

‘‘It is easier when you know a player has the talent and I believe he has the talent.’’ When asked if Fabianski could retain his place when Manuel Almunia is fit again, Wenger added: ‘‘You always want the freedom to change when needed but looking at his performances at the moment you cannot fault him at all.’’ City boss Roberto Mancini felt the sending off was harsh and his team would have won otherwise.

The result saw City drop from second to fourth in the table with both Arsenal and Manchester United passing them.

Mancini said: ‘‘I think against Arsenal it is difficult to play 11 versus 11.

‘‘Ten against 11 is worse, but it is my opinion that we if played 11 against 11 we would have won this game.

‘‘I am very proud of my players because I think they played very well.

‘‘They tried always to score, always to defend very well.

‘‘I think they showed we are one of the best teams in the Barclays Premier League.’’ On Boyata’s red card, he said: ‘‘I do not agree with the referee.

‘‘I thought the rule is always the last man, if there is a clear opportunity to score a goal, it is a red card.

‘‘But I think when Chamakh touched the ball, the ball was probably going out or on the way to the keeper.’’ Mancini played down fears that talisman Carlos Tevez, who was substituted early in the second half, had suffered a serious injury.

‘‘He took a knock on his muscle in the first half in a tackle but it is not serious,’’ he said.