Manchester City beat Arsenal 1-0 to seal their place in the FA Cup fifth round on Friday and Nathan Ake delivered a Man of the Match performance. The 27-year-old started in a makeshift left-back role for City and was the best player on the park, even scoring the winner in the second half, so he can be delighted with his efforts.
Despite having a tricky opponent in Buyako Saka to contain, Ake kept the 21-year-old at bay until he was substituted in the second half. Saka failed to whip in an accurate cross, failed to create a chance and failed to make a successful dribble. He had three unsupported touches and was dispossessed three times, so Ake did his job.
Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News gave the Dutch international a player rating of 9/10 and said he was ‘outstanding’. Jamie Spencer of 90min gave Ake a player rating of 8/10 and said he put in a ‘solid’ shift defensively.
Against Arsenal, the 28-year-old played for 90 minutes, had 51 touches, won one aerial duel, completed 90.9% of his 33 passes, had one shot he scored from, made three tackles, blocked one shot, made one successful dribble and made four clearances.
Ake’s performance is likely to keep Joao Cancelo on the bench, as he isn’t putting a foot wrong of late.
In other news, Kevin De Bruyne was poor v Arsenal
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