CRISIS may not be a word one would find in Arsene Wenger's dictionary, but it aptly sums up Arsenal's plight at the moment.

Even before a ball was kicked last night, the Gunners found themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons when William Gallas was stripped of the captain's armband for his public outburst this week.

Wenger read the riot act to the French defender by dropping him for the game against Manchester City after he went public on rifts in the Arsenal dressing room.

The Gunners' off-the-field problems translated onto the field when they fell to their second Premiership defeat in a row.

Mark Hughes' men piled on the misery on the Gunners when they condemned Arsenal to their first back-to-back defeats in 58 Premier League outings following the 2-0 home loss to Aston Villa last week.

With as many as seven first-team players out through injury or suspension, Wenger was forced to hand a Premiership debut to 18-year-old Gavin Hoyte, the younger brother of former Gunner Justin who now plays for Middlesbrough.

The right-back hardly put a foot wrong on his debut, but the same cannot be said of his fellow defenders.

Arsenal's makeshift defence was in shambles as they sorely missed the services of Gallas.

It was a defensive mix-up between central defender Mikael Silvestre and left-back Gael Clichy which resulted in Man City's first goal scored by midfielder Stephen Ireland in first-half injury time.

The Republic of Ireland international burst into the box after playing a one-two with Benjani Mwaruwari.

Heavy

His first touch was a tad too heavy but Silvestre and Clichy clashed into each other to gift the ball to Ireland who hooked the ball over Manuel Almunia, Arsenal's captain for the day.

The goal aside, chances were far and few between in a largely-uninspiring first half.

French midfielder Samir Nasri had the Gunners' best chance in the 34th minute, but his free-kick was saved by City goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Things got worse for Arsenal when Robinho made it 2-0 in the 56th minute with a goal of the highest quality.

The Brazilian latched on to a through pass from Shaun Wright-Phillips and deftly chipped the ball over Almunia.

Arsenal's defensive frailty was exposed once again in the 64th minute when Clichy played a suicidal back pass to Almunia which was almost intercepted by Robinho.

Two minutes later, the Brazilian put the ball in the net with a cheeky back heel but the goal was ruled out for offside.

The home side should have put the result beyond doubt in the 74th minute but the out-of-sorts Mwaruwari missed an open goal after Robinho's shot was blocked by Almunia.

Robin van Persie thought he had pulled one back for the Gunners in the 89th minute when he nicked the ball from Hart as the Man City custodian prepared to take a goal-kick.

But the referee disallowed the goal to Wenger's anguish.

The home team earned a penalty when Johan Djourou upended substitute Daniel Sturridge in the box in injury time. The nephew of former Derby striker Dean Sturridge made no mistake from the spot to complete the misery for the Gunners.

Gallas may have paid the price for blowing the lid on the Gunners' internal problems, but he may be speaking the truth after all.

Indeed, Arsenal are a team in crisis.

And no prizes for guessing who's having the last laugh.