Manchester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur

[funster]

Early-ish start today with rain, rain, rain in the south. At least the weather in the north was likely to be better, according to the weather forecast. Somewhat optimistically I suggested to Saint that we meet at Piccadilly Station at 14:30 to give us time for a couple of swift ones. Mmmmm..... I've got to Manchester in three hours in the past, but at the same time I've missed an entire game at OT and a first half at Anfield on account of the M6! Thankfully today the traffic was light and the M6 Toll was a joy to use. I dumped my car at the hotel out by the airport, got the shuttle to the airport itself and the train into Piccadilly.

I met Saint at the Balcony Bar - my God how Piccadilly has changed - and we proceeded to have a couple of swift ones surrounded by a few City fans.

I used to go to university up in Manchester so know the place pretty well - the station included. The transformation that started after the IRA bombing back in 1996 (on the day of the England-Scotland game at Wembley) has been remarkable. Every time I come back there's more building work, more new buildings, more, more, more, and Manchester seems all the better for it. Gone are the days of dark, horrible little Piccadilly Station. Now its all brightly lit, shops all over the place, and, most importantly, a bar on the first floor with a prime view of the comings and goings. If you catch my drift!

We taxi'd to the ground and getting there with a few minutes to spare hoped that I would have a shade more to write about in the match report than our last outing at Goodison.

The team was a strong one. Much stronger than I'd expected, that's for sure. No King - no surprises there - but pretty much full strength (if you can call it that) elsewhere. A shame Taarabt wasn't playing. Wasn't even on the bench. I'd just love for the lad to get a decent run. We'll just have to keep waiting.

This was my first ever trip to Eastlands. Last time I'd been to see Spurs play City was at Maine Road years and years ago. It was probably February, we'd not won away all season, I left before the final whistle, and Rebrov gave us a one-nil win with less than ten minutes to go! No such luck this time, but at least I wasn't going to have to walk out through Moss Side!

The new stadium is impressive, no doubt about it, but there is a niggle that its too big for City. It was nowhere near full by kick-off. For a 4pm, live on Sky, Sunday game..... tsk tsk. This is what still worries me slightly about Spurs getting a (say) 55k/60k stadium. I'm not convinced yet that we'll sell it out more often than we don't. City certainly seem to have that problem.

Anyway, leaving all that aside, the game itself was OK. Without Petrov City lacked any attacking down the left wing, but they made up for it with the lad on the right - can't remember who it was. He gave Chimbonda a torrid time when it came to running onto a through ball. Miles faster and beat him to the ball twice in the half comfortably when it was played through for him. City, though, didn't really have a great deal to offer.

Mind you, having said that, even with the general solidity of our performance we hadn't exactly created fabulous chances. Seems to be that I'm saying that quite a lot these days. We were much the better side in the first half, but just couldn't create the opening for ourselves until..... until a moment of top quality finishing from Robbie Keane.

We'd already had one lovely move down the left that ended in nothing, but this time a slight misjudgement on the left side of City's defence allowed Chimbonda to slide the ball in to Keane who made the slickest of turns and absolutely smashed it into the net, across the face of goal, just off the inside of the far post! A top, top quality finish. One-nil, and as we celebrated, the City fans just a couple of seats away from us were silenced.

The finish really was superb. It difficult to describe how good it was. To turn and hit it in one smooth movement, across goal, with the power he did..... just fantastic. And having watched the replays its quite clear that he got it in exactly the right place. Any nearer the keeper it wouldn't have snuck into the far side of the goal. Any further wide and the best result would have been a ricochet back off the post.

The goal seemed to shake City a bit and for the last fifteen minutes or so they got themselves into the game a bit more. Having had a couple of scrambles cleared and blocked in quick succession before our goal they pressed forward with a bit more urgency. There was a quality save from Robbo from close range that kept us ahead and we went in a goal to the good.

We'd played well. Certainly a lot better than I'd thought we would after Wednesday's exertions. We were solid at the back and looked sharp up front. A little toothless in the middle for the early part of the game, we got ourselves into it more in that part of the pitch as the half wore on. Lennon had been non-existent for a while but seemed to lift his game after he was switched to the left and then back again, making a couple of strong, pacy runs. Lacking end product though - still!

It came as a bit of a surprise to me then, that he was withdrawn at the start of the second half in favour of Huddlestone. OK, he'd been poor for twenty/twenty-five minutes, but he'd been coming right into the game after that and while his delivery left a lot to be desired, he was beating City players with his pace. Ah well, maybe Huddlestone's passing would enable us to gain more control of the centre of midfield. We really do lack a range of passing there. Much as I like Jenas with his powerful running from the middle, and the less frequent displays of such strength from Zokora, its clear we lack quality passing. The hope is that Huddlestone can deliver this. The jury's still out.

Cith, a goal down, clearly had to come at us harder. They sort of, kind of did, but they didn't exactly create quality chances. The goal, when it came, was a bloody travesty. We were stood at the other end of the pitch but my first reaction was "How the hell was that not offside?". Seriously, I couldn't believe it. After watching a LOT of football, even when you're the length of a football pitch away, you just instinctively know when it looks offside. I was stunned it wasn't given. You can decide yourself from watching Match of the Day. The City fans were happy.

Not long after a double Spurs substitution with, surprisingly, Keane taken off. Malbranque too, but that was of less relevance. Kenao was clearly unhappy. From the moment he turned to see his number to when he threw down the jacket handed to him when he came off the pitch. Passion? Desire? Disappointment? All those things, no doubt, but probably not necessary to show quite that level of disquiet. I'll let him off! He's given his all for Spurs, and having been probably our best player on the park, he was clearly upset to have not had the chance to add to his tally and give us a chance to win the game.

As it turned out City scored again not long after. A set piece. Oh dear. We'd got so much better at those in recent times, but this one, well, it looked a free header, but as Saint pointed out, at least one defender - Dawson? - didn't do the job needed.

A goal up, dominant, and all of a sudden we were behind. This wasn't right, and that goes even without going back to the offside equaliser!

We had a shot at getting stuck back in - sort of. Chances were still at a premium. At least once, probably twice, Bent got the ball played to him just like he used to at Charlton. A chance for him to chase on to, chest down, and smash a shot or two in. Sadly not. I remember one great opportunity for him to chest down when the ball was played over the top and he beat the defender to it. Just bloody smash it son! Alas, no. Hmmm.....

Worse was to come when we did score. It looked like an own goal to me, but I'm reliably informed that Bent did well to stretch and get to it first. Only, the lino ruled it offside. Rubbish. Utterly, utterly rubbish. Never in a month of Sundays was it offside. Crap decision. Costly.

The game fizzled out and we were left disappointed. Having led, seen an offside equaliser, gone behind, then had one chalked off when it shouldn't..... Well.....

The City fans enjoyed giving out. Gobby bunch, they really are. You could say it was banter, but I don't think so. Banter was what we had with PSV at The Lane a couple of weeks ago. This was just gobby. Shame. I used to quite like City when I was at university - in comparison to ManUre at least! It clearly got to a couple of Spurs fans. At least two were thrown out early in the game, including one big lad behind me who almost sent me two rows forward as he crashed out of the stadium!

Saint and I walked back into the city, reminisced on the disappointment and sank a pint before going our separate ways.

I suppose I'd say the performance was a lot better than I'd set out expecting. But a goal up, dominant..... to then lose after some very dicey decisions by the ref and his assistants..... leaves a bitter taste. I think our two best performances today came from the full backs. Chimbonda had a really good game and Hutton, as usual, took no prisoners and was only too happy to get forward in support. Woody also had a really good game. Other than those, nothing especially stand-out. Keano gave it everything, as you always expect. Berbatov showed some flashes of brilliance but not enough. Lennon was taken off as he started to get stuck in. Jenas a bit disappointing compared to what we'd like to see. We'll see what happens in terms of team composition with the games to come.

And tough games they are in the next week with Chelsea on Wednesday and Pompey at the weekend. Could easily see us picking up no points there. Would be a terrible shame if that happened. At the very least I'd like to see us put a spanner in Chelsea's title challenge! Mind you, I expect Defoe will score next week..... ah well.

[yidno1]

Will Defoe be aloud to play against us then?

As for the City game well thats good description of the game, I could tell on TV the City fans were taking the piss towards the Yids after the diss allowed goal they were cheering in jest at our disallowed goal! Sad tossers!

I think the main angle on this game was the just how poor the midfield is at the moment, a complete lack of enterprise!

[SamioTheYiddo]

It's really as if we have nothing to play for at the moment. Im nto even sure I want some Cheslea tickets for wednesday.

[DamoSuzuki]

It's a relief that we won the Carling Cup or this season would be just like the dark old days of Francis,Graham,Gross or Hoddle(soz glenn i really hoped you do well with us) etc having nothing top pay for in march and stranded in mid table.
As poor as Lennon crossed the ball he is still our only midfielder who can get wide and can beat people for pace. Jenas has been awful since the carling win and there has been nothing exciting from the rest either.
Please get it right in the summer as i had forgotten how flustrating mid table is for the last couple of years.