Chelsea v Manchester City
Sunday 25th November 2012
Stamford Bridge
4pm KO live on Sky Sports 1
Referee: Chris Foy
4th Official: Howard Webb
Its all about perspective…
When King Kev mentioned on the www.mancityfans.net forum on Wednesday that 14 years ago to the day we were playing Gillingham at home in the league I couldn’t for the life of me remember the game. So I lifted the decade old book ‘Blue Moon’ (written by Mark Hodgkinson) off the shelf and had a flick through to discover the result. A 0-0 home draw in front of 26,529 supporters.
‘We have dominated the game, had a redundant goalkeeper, their keeper is man of the match, everything flashes around the box and we’ve come away with a draw,’ said Joe Royle after the Reading game.
I found myself reading through the book again for the first time in years and refreshingly the book is neither a glowing tribute nor a hatchet job. The book is more of an observation of events, accompanied with, at tines, insightful analysis and feeling of the club at the time. There is both praise and criticism for the board, the players, the staff and the manager but the one’s most singled out for continuous praise is the supporters and the belief that we are the most loyal masochists around.
The one other constant throughout the book was the documenting of the bile by the media. The Mirror being the biggest culprits to the point where the editor felt the need to justify the papers stance on the constant barrage of abuse he sent our way, which culminated with City supporters storming the press box at Maine Road.
More interesting (to me at least) was the next 5 games after Gillingham:
• Luton 1 City 1 (9,070)
• Darlington 1 City 1 (7,250)
• City 1 Mansfield 2 (3,007)
• City 0 Bristol Rovers 0 (24,976 – Season Low)
• York City 2 City 1 (leaving us in our lowest League position in the history of the club)
YOU TUBE YORK v CITY
cos we don’t edit our history
On Wednesday night arguably the second best team in world football left the Eithad Campus grateful for a point after 80 minutes of time wasting, feigning injury, remonstration with the referee and whinging, just 14 years after the club was about to enter its darkest winter in history. The supporters got behind the team and the support for the manager both vocal and unanimous.
Admittedly it wasn’t Roy of the Rovers stuff and we were dreadful defensively in the first half an hour but this was addressed at half time by Mancini. The back line for the goal was nothing short of criminal as Maicon lost his man and Benzema scored one of the easiest goals of his career. Once they scored Madrid put on a master class of ball retention and time wasting but City came back into the game in the 2nd half. Our style of play under Mancini has often meant that we’ve been a second half team and this was no different as for the trillionth time this season we recovered from a goal down to take something from the game.
Courage. Fortitude. Nerve. Guts. Resilience. Determination. All words conveniently ignored by the media when describing City.
They are all words that will be etched into Pablo Zabaleta’s gravestone as he ran himself into the ground and significantly closer to immortal status. The ground covered, the tackles made and his overall commitment to the Manchester City cause may be unparalleled by any player at any other club.
Kompany again showed signs of coming back to his best with some terrific defensive play and marshalling of the FAKE Ronaldo. Nastasic showed again that he was a million times more upside than Savic and is both a player for now and the future. Maicon saw a lot of the ball but didn’t always put the best final ball in. I’m happy to give Maicon the benefit of the doubt due to a lack of number of games and he adds two things to the team that no-one else currently does. He can carry the ball quickly up the field and he offers us genuine bona-fide width.
In midfield Yaya Toure is the one that everyone in Europe fears. The tactic seems to be to force him as deep as possible and prevent him from crossing the half way line and it has worked well for the opposition this year. I am convinced the cut on his ankle he received in Amsterdam has played a bigger part than anything else. When we work out a way to counter this we’ll be laughing.
Javi Garcia had his best performance in a City shirt. He passed the ball well, covered defensively and his movement was so much improved I swear he’s been reading my previews.
Up front Aguero and Dzeko were mostly isolated but worked hard for the team. Aguero deserved his goal and should have scored earlier. When Tevez came on he gave it his all and really tried to stretch the play.
Man of the Match? By an absolute country mile was our man David Silva. They kicked the fuck out him, they marked him as best they could but he twisted, he turned and he out manoeuvred them all night. His passing, movement and vision were superb and he had one of his best outings in a City shirt which is no mean feat.
Chelsea
14 years on what are our next 5 fixtures?
• Chelsea Away
• Wigan Athletic Away
• Everton Home
• Bourissa Dortmund Away
• Manchester United home
So the next day the nations media would have printed their morning editions of toilet paper such was the expected amount of wanking material to be written over Mancini’s imminent sacking had Abramovich not sacked Di Matteo; a manager who’s own winners medals are still warm from the stamping press.
If you want the Chelsea managers job smile
It used to be that managers would get the sack the week after they lose to City. It seems Chelsea have taken the precaution of sacking the manager the week before they lose to City! Normally teams with new managers are ones to avoid until the honeymoon period is over. Fortunately for us Chelsea appointed Rafa Benitez.
Chelsea sacked Roberto Di Matteo because they want the team playing the attacking expansive football that Chelsea were renowned for when Di Matteo was a player. They want to build a dynasty akin to Barcelona. If this is the case then it asks two questions; why did they appoint Rafa Benitez? Why not just wait for Guardiola in the summer?
Whatever the real reasons for the departure of Di Matteo (he didn’t even have time to piss off John Terry), Chelsea have failed to win their last 4 games including their last 2 at home.
Since their comprehensive 4-2 demolition of Spurs at White Hart Lane, one of the best performances of the season, they somehow managed to finish with 9 men and lose at home to United with an assist from of the most shocking refereeing displays this side of Old Trafford. They were then held at Swansea in a 1-1 draw which followed by another 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool in a game they dominated for long spells before surrendering the lead. Last week they lost 2-1 at West Brom despite having 20 attempts on goal, 13 of which on target and an astonishing 44 crosses.
Chelsea’s problem has been similar to ours; they’re in-ability to keep a clean sheet. Domestically they’ve kept just 3 and none in the last 7.
Without Terry their centre half partnership of Luiz and Cahill has been a catastrophe at times. Cahill is a solid defender with a good partner but Luiz is a defensive liability. Terry is still injured and fortunately for him won’t have to go up against Tevez again.
The day Terry bottled it
Ashley Cole is a doubt with an ankle injury (source: guardian) but Ryan Bertrand has been of enough quality that its highly likely that Ashley Cole will be allowed to leave Chelsea in the summer.
At right back Ivanovic has been solid if unspectacular yet has chipped in with 3 goals making him a fantasy football managers dream. Cesar Azpilicueta, a £7m summer arrival from Marseille, is also an option at right back if they choose to move Ivanovic inside.
Petr Cech is as solid a keeper in the Premier League.
In midfield, lifetime member of the career made by scoring against City club, Frank Lampard is injured. The midfield has typically consisted of Ramires and John Obi Mikel as deep lying holding midfielders to protect the back four.
The attacking midfield 3 has typically been Mata on the right, Hazard on the left and Oscar in the fantasist role.
Up front Torres will play, if his team mates will pass to him, as he represents 100% of their strike force with Sturridge out injured. Victor Moses represents an unlikely alternate as is Lucas Piazon who has made just two starts. Benitez has most likely be brought in to get the best out of Torres and therefore he may be forced to change the way Chelsea play.
We’ve met before…
Back on a pissing wet day in August the Champions treated us to a day out at Villa Park to play the FA Cup/Champions League winners in the name of Charity. On the day despite Chelsea taking the lead we simply played them off the park and in the end 3-2 flattered Chelsea and referee Kevin Friend did his absolute best to keep 10 Chelsea players on the pitch as they resorted to trying to kick us off it.
The Game Plan
I genuinely think the key to this game is tempo. If we can press Chelsea high up the field, taking advantage of the smaller pitch, keep the ball amongst their back four and not allow them to get it to their creative players we’ll force their back four to make mistakes.
How do we do this? I’d consider playing 4-3-3 with a front line of Silva, Dzeko and Tevez. I think Dzeko needs to be the target man against Cahill and Luiz. He needs to hold the ball up and allow Tevez to play off him. Alternately Silva and Tevez need to get into wide positions and attempt to pull the centre halves out and get crosses into Dzeko.
What no Aguero? Sacrilege…Yes I know but I don’t believe that Tevez and Aguero play well together, in the last 2 league games, Aguero has come alive when Tevez has gone off. However I’d start Tevez ahead of Aguero as Kun has been isolated in games, he’s run his heart out for little reward whilst Tevez has been able to drop deep and be more effective. What’s most likely is he will start with Tevez and Aguero. Dzeko will drop to the bench. Mario is still out with a back injury.
So three up front means three in midfield? The front three will require a lot of hard work and pressure on the back four. That means were going to need discipline and determination in midfield. For me that’s Barry, Milner and Yaya. The three of them will need to cover a lot of ground to support both the attack and protect the defence but they will also need to know when to do it. If Mancini chooses a 4 man midfield he will most likely include Nasri and replace, in my selection at least, Milner with Garcia.
The defence almost picks itself this week as both Clichy (ankle) and Kompany (knee) are doubts. If Zabaleta can move his limbs after Wednesday night I’d select him over Kolarov at left back, which means Maicon at right back. This could be a big ask of Maicon’s defensive abilities.
If Kompany doesn’t make it the centre half choices are Lescott, Nastasic and Kolo Toure. Karim Rekik turned out for the EDS but I’d doubt he’d travel to London.
We will need to play to our very best to win this game…
Chelsea 2 – 4 City
…but we do occasionally win at Stamford Bridge.
Prediction?
Two teams with the ability to score goals and both finding it difficult to keep a clean sheet. One team with a new manager and one allegedly under pressure. Its got the makings of a classic. So 0-0 then.
In all seriousness its difficult to say what will happen. I respect what Mancini’s achieved at the club sometimes his team selection is like picking the lottery numbers but more often than not he selects a team that seems to work. 3 years ago Chelsea couldn’t handle the pressure and width of Bellamy and Tevez. 2 years ago we put in very disciplined defensive performance until one mistake cost us a point.
A massive thanks once again to Bobby Brows of www.mancityfans.net for another insightful premier league match preview