Manchester City v Fulham
Saturday 19th January 2013
Eithad Stadium 3pm ko
Referee: John Moss
“It’s a very different club to what it is now. Back then City had ups and downs every single season, but where they find themselves now and to win the league last year is fantastic. The City fans deserve it. They’ve always had great gates; even when we were in what’s now League One, we were still getting 27,000 through the turnstiles. They’ve stuck by the club and they deserve that success.”
– Michael Brown this week on his time at Manchester City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do3O9q45BgU
If City do go on to win the league this season its most likely that we will be able to go back to this point of the season and mark it as a turning point.
To say the pressure was really on the team would have been an understatement; travelling to a ground where we’ve not won for 36 years and not troubled the score sheet for 6. Add to that playing a mere hour after the lead at the top was extended to 10 points thanks to Liverpool and their bizarre attempt to park a bus depot in front of their own goal. Although most people will talk about Arsenal’s red card as the deciding factor in the result, but City put in a shift befitting of Champions and dominated Arsenal from the first minute.
City’s tempo was terrific, similar to the Stoke game they started from the kick off, and the passing was done with purpose, at pace and, most importantly, passes were played just in front of the man they aimed for (not at or slightly behind) allowing us to build momentum and get Merlin into the final third as often as possible.
As a team everyone put in a shift as both centre backs marshalled the game and even when Lescott came in after Kompany went off chipped in with a couple of important headers and a clearance off the line.
Zabaleta has formed a real partnership down the right hand side with Milner and is significantly more effective in the final third as opposed to when he plays with Nasri and they get in each others way or they both stop and pass it to each other until they give it away. On the other side despite being booed by the peasants for 90 minutes Clichy put in the sort of performance expected of the wings backs like Maicon and Micah.
Milner had a storming game and its beggar’s belief how he’s been left out of the team sometimes but he’s such a pro he’ll never let you know if he’s unhappy and I’m sure Mr Woy will think twice about Kieran Gibbs as a future England left back after the run around he got. They gave Dzeko man of the match and whilst he worked hard it was surely Milner.
In the middle of the park Barry was his typical, reliable, irreplaceable self and kept their midfield quiet. I don’t know how long Barry has left at the top level at 32 but I’m not sure who in world football will be able to replace him.
Going into this game with all the injuries and all the players on international duty (and Nasri being abused by the peasants on the streets of London) I always think someone has to really step up their performance in games like this and for me that man was Javi Garcia. I’m by no means a fan of Garcia and I weep at the thought of the £3m Milan coughed up was only a fraction of what it cost to bring this man from a league that is effectively Scottish football with a climate but I thought he had his best performance in a City shirt by some way. In the past he’s hidden from receiving the ball when we are in possession and been ridiculously exposed when trying to win the ball back. In the absence of Yaya he formed a good partnership with Barry and linked up terrifically well with the forward line. For the first team I saw something in him, aside from being a good header of the ball, which made me think he had a future in a City shirt. More of the same please Javi
Fulham
Doubtful Sidwell (hamstring), Ruiz (hamstring), Petric (calf)
Injured Diarra (knee, Feb), Etheridge (hamstring, Feb), Frei (pelvis, Feb), Davies (hip, Mar)
The media will portray this as a home banker and although it should be supporters will know that we’ve got form when it comes to dropping home points to Fulham. Fulham are slowing recovering from a difficult end to 2012 when the Cottagers lost 6 of their last 11 games (including at QPR) and won just the once in that time (Newcastle).
They’ve had a reasonable start to 2013 winning on New Years Day at West Brom where they were murdered for 90 minutes but defended well and scored two terrific break away goals. They fought back to claim a 1-1 draw at home to Wigan last week leaving them in 13th with 25 points from 22 games and 6 points clear of the relegation zone. Away from home they’ve won 2, drawn 4 and lost 5 of their 11 away games so far so fortunately we’ll not be the one’s gifting them their ONLY away win this season and they spent their mid week at Blackpool struggling through extra time to see off the tangerines.
City
Doubtful None
Injured Maicon (knee, 26 Jan), Richards (ankle, Feb)
Unavailable K Touré, Y Touré, Razak (all international duty)
A miraculous thing happened at Carrington this week; there was room to move in the physio’s room as our bad luck with injuries finally abated (slightly) as Kolarov, Aguero and Rodwell, yes, Rodwell were made available for tomorrow’s match squad.
In addition with Nasri returning from suspension Mancini will actually have options in midfield for the first time in almost a month. The temptation will be to rotate the squad and possibly leave one of Milner or Garcia on the bench and bring Nasri back into the side. If it were up to me I’d resist to reward Garcia’s and Milner’s performance last week but also to remind Nasri that for the second time this season he has let his teammates (and supporters) down.
Up front Dzeko and Tevez have both worked well together with Tevez playing behnd the lone striker. Again the temptation might be to rush Aguero back into the starting line up but there is no need this week when there is a tough run of games ahead of us. If Mario was truly interested in turning his City career round this would be the game to demonstrate his desire to stay at the club; unfortunately I don’t think he’ll get that chance.
Prediction
The weather hit this fixture hard last season and the media were quick to point out the empty seats at a game that was sold out but also shown live free to air on ESPN meaning many people took the option not to risk travel and stay at home. We were comfortable winners that day and the men with the shovels put in a decent shift as well. I’ll go out on a limb and say 3-0 City.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3SSuBCAMxI
Our thanks go to bobbybrows of mancityfans.net for writing this excellent preview