So a lot has happened in a week on nearly all fronts! Firstly last Wednesday night comes and brings with it the league cup a competition I am every year always astounded when it is already the final and it seems like the season has only just started! For this game my view was changed as we were bumped from the third tier for a different perspective on the first! I wasn't best pleased with my new temporary seat though as I was randomly selected the Devils chair 666!!!
Anyway the game started and we were set up in the dreaded formation! We rode out a few early scares with the majority of the first half pretty even, until bony scored a thunder bolt of a header and then (easily man of the match in the end) Iheanacho burst down the wing and with great composure unselfishly squared the ball to De bruyne who slotted it in easily. This pretty much killed palace off and put pay to any first half dogged performances, but not before both sides missed chances once more! Indeed if at any stage Palace could have nicked one it might have been a different game, such was the nights nature. However they didn't and with help of Iheanacho's clinical finishing we were soon away from them in the 2nd half and never looked back as Toure and then another youth player Manu Garcia chipped in with a couple. Which was great for the kid, I just hope the young lad doesn't pronounce his name Man U!!!!!!!! The only bad news of the night being Zaba being stretchered off with a knee injury, gutted for the guy and he was just starting to look like he was getting his match fitness back as well! Once again he will be missed.
Next it was the arrival of the Canaries at the weekend in one of those games you just expect to win, but one of those games over the past year or so we seem to be making a meal of and can actually often now lose! The game started off so flat it was awful, as they seemed to play with 5 at the back and a sweeper as we struggled to unlock them. I remember looking up at the big screen expecting to see 40 odd minutes on the clock and only 23 had gone it was the slowest half of football I think I have ever seen at the Etihad. The team sheet in this game I actually completely agreed with Manuel on, but this was when I assumed we would play 4,5,1 with De Bruyne in the middle however it looked distinctly like 4,4,2 with Yaya again, and De Bruyne on the wing, something I don't agree with. Then all of his substitutions I completely disagreed with, Iheanacho for Sterling I thought was a stupid move as once again Pellegrini seems unable to understand how to build confidence.
However then Otamendi somewhat steadied the ship with a great header, the guys like a salmon for a central defender who is barely 6 foot, he's like a monster in the air both at the back and going forward. I already like this guy a lot and think him and Kompany look like being formidable.
Then soon after one is reminded that if you don't take your earlier chances what can happen as Hart who had made some great safes earlier in the day made a school boy error letting Norwich back into the game. Hart thus far is having a much better season than last season and coincidentally I don't see him on as many adverts! (especially now his hairline is receding!!), however he still has too many mistakes in him for truly world class, especially in smaller games where he seems to have lapses in concentration. On a big stage he seems to rise to the occasion, for let's face it he craves the attention! Also invariably on a large stage the team is good so he is constantly in the action, but put him in a small pond against a team where he has little to do and his mind wanders, and probably starts plotting his next advertising campaign rather than focusing on the incoming cross!!
So with about 10 minutes to go we wake up to ourselves and actually start playing like we want to win this game with the subsequent pressure resulting in their captain purposefully acting like a second keeper to prevent a certain goal resulting in an early shower! To be fair I would have done it, why not! However it was to no avail as Yaya slotted it home to steady the ship! Then within minutes we had another penalty as we rose from our slumber but with Yaya now subbed off the pitch, players began to bitch about who was taking it, with it eventually falling to Kolarov as he first had a senior moment in putting all the young upstarts in their place, then had a senior moment with his pathetic penalty kick that looked like someone with a hip replacement had taken it and thank god it didn't prove to be vital for then he would have looked like a proper idiot! Anyway the final whistle went and it was so City! Yes we won, but my god it was a bloody awful performance it was painful right to the end, for a leopard doesn't change it's spots too much. Again I blame Pellegrini for his in play tactics, substitutions and general motivation.
Then comes Sevilla, and God know's what to expect! So I arrive at Pablo's a few minutes late as he is the only one who has the 'extortionate!' BT Sport and we'd just ourselves finished a game of 5 aside. Entering the room I find out that already Sterling has scored and we are now playing like world beaters! I look to my already present brother and he has the excitement of a kid at Christmas we are playing that well. God it was good that game hey! I loved it to watch. We turned up. We wanted it. It was a joy to watch and highlighted what potential sits in our grasps waiting to be more regularly unlocked.
Why did it work this night I hear you cry?! Well it worked because our wingers turned up and for varying reasons took it to the next level. Navas with a point to prove at his old club and Sterling with Iheanacho snapping at his heals, pushed on to another level both finding that final ball whether it was a shot or a cross. It made us dynamic, exciting and dangerous. Yaya turned up for once probably excited by the world stage shop window to impress. Fernadhino was amazing as he has been all season, he is my player of the season already (yes I am calling it before Christmas) and even Fernando looked like a world class midfielder. Kompany coming back has definitely steadied the ship bringing one of our talisman back to the table and flooding confidence back into the team. Himself and Otamendi I again reiterate look gorgeous together! So much so they can even carry a useless but slightly loveable Kolarov, who is only lovable when we are winning! Hart was great again his ego desperate to impress in front of such an audience and his concentration never questioned for his mind had no chance to wander to anything else. With Sagna and Bony solid performers who did what they needed to do.
So we win rightfully so and I here in the press conferences the pundits swooning over Pellegrini like they have no short term memory! With the potential we have such performances shouldn't be surprising yet they are at the moment. I heard the press saying about his new formation?? That was the side he put out against 'Them lot!' Barring De Bruyne instead of Navas it wasn't some new master stroke and we didn't look like world beaters in the Derby! Like I said earlier in a previous post what we will win this year we will win despite Manuel not because of him and don't forget Norwich it was only 3 days earlier! But let's not take anything away from the fact that it was one of the most enjoyable city games I have ever seen, well done lads, please keep it up.
Colin bell stand, third tier.
