chance for us to reset our season, to move beyond the inertia of
consecutive draws. And we've done it. A 3-0 win and now 2-1 against
the league leaders adds up to a seriously impressive week.
As exciting as the Arsenal Reserves win was, this was an exceptional
team performance. Possibly - whisper it - the best under Mark Hughes.
With the exception of the own goal, the penalty and Drogba's late
chance we limited Chelsea to far fewer chances than they are used to.
We attacked and stifled Chelsea, shutting down Lampard and Deco.
Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry were excellent in the middle, Shaun
Wright-Phillips and Micah Richards pressed Ashley Cole down the left
and both centre backs dealt well with Drogba and Anelka. To see us
functioning so well as a unit was a delight - even more so given the
absence of Craig
Bellamy, the one man who drags the team up by the straps.
Even more impressive was the chronology of the match. We went down
early but fought back to equalise. Remember how we folded last year
after conceding early to Essien at Stamford Bridge or Rooney at
Eastlands. In the second half we seized control to go ahead - as we
did at Anfield but have failed to do too often this year. And then we
sat out a late seige to hold onto the win. Part of me is frustrated:
if we can weather Chelsea's storm, why can't we do it against Burnley
or Hull? But we can't look too far behind: we've just beaten Chelsea
and we're back on track. We've got a big battle with Spurs in 2010
but fourth is plausible again.
7 comments:
Fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyed it. The team are learning how to win; how to hold a lead. They've shown all season that they aren't quitters - but just need that extra bit of effort and composure, which makes the difference in holding on to points.
Come on you BLUES!!
Still got a daft smile on my face. Why must we go behind before we seriously go on the offensive?
Chelsea, Burnley, Liverpool
The evil mercenaries of Chelski have finally been slain by the hands of City! hahahaha
Immense game. I'm still exhausted! :-D
We really stepped up against strong opposition - not for the first time this season.
I've really enjoyed watching City clash with the "top 4" teams so far this season. We're really giving it a go and we really CAN beat them. This is what it's all about..
Now we just need to learn how to be ruthless against the lower teams and Europe might be in reaching distance...
That's 14 goals in 5 games against last year's top four. Terrific.
Now Bridge is out for a couple of weeks, can we have Lescott at left back and Onouha in the middle? I don't expect we will see that, because Hughes' policy is to keep playing Toure and Lescott until they gel, but it could work really well. My guess is that Sylvinho will be given the job.
I'm still not convinced Bridge has got what it takes at the highest level. Not amazingly solid in defence and not that strong in attack either. He's okay but I don't think he's gonna b good enough for our new standards. Now he's out for a few games it's a good opportunity to try someone new..
I'd love to see Lescott try LB too but I agree with Trinder I don't think Hughes will risk breaking up Lescott x Toure. Is Sylvinho any good?
I was at the game(South Stand) and loved every minute.. my only annoyance was some of the stick toward the end that Robinho was getting. calls to get him off as he wasn't coming back to defend the "alamo".
In my opinion it a perfect tactic by Hughes to leave him up on his own as whenever he received the ball he was the only forward player who can hold onto the ball for more than one touch giving the defence a break and then he would always find another blue shirt once he'd pulled two or three defenders to him.
A thankless task as he didn't get to do anything amazing, but it all added to the team performance.
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fantastic.
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