Rags vs City
The Swamp
Sunday 23 October 2011
Thank you to SLIM for his Match Preview.
Overview
I had hoped at the start of the season that come derby day it would be exactly as it stands, first versus second as this will be the way it is for most of the year. When the final result is known in May there will be no surprises should it finish the way the top two stand today and whilst this one match may not decide the title, nothing would be sweeter for either side than to claim the title on the back of points taken from their closest rival. The greatest scenario I can fathom is to win the league by a point, on the final day of the season and City fans around the globe can point the match at Old Trafford in October and say “If only you’d taken a point.”
Manchester City
Seven wins from eight in the league is the best start to a season City have ever had, and with City it’s not so much the wins as the manner in which they have been accumulated. Some rumblings from around the net have it that City haven’t really been challenged this season, another way of looking at it is you can only beat what’s in front of you. And beat them City have, 4 past Villa, Blackburn and Swansea, five past Spurs at White Hart Lane no less. Watching City has been a lot like watching a bully belt the ever-living out of some scrawny kid with glasses. Their attack has at times been terrifying and it’s hard to see how a forward line stacked with so much talent can be shut out for a full 90 minutes.
Manchester United(filth)
Who cares, they are runners-up. Fine! The scum have been doing their best work at Old Trafford, however a home draw to Basel and a couple of dodgy results on the road have shown they are not defensively sound as they have been in the past. This probably comes in the form of switching their defensive lineup with Smalling, Evans and Jones all playing their part, while good players, defensive units are not interchangable and disrupting the status quo has shown it’s cost. Up front they as formidible as anyone outside top spot(did I mention they were second?) and while they look like they are banging in goals for fun, they have run hot and cold in that regard, the sort of form that comes in second instead of first.
Where the Game is Won
Obviously there is a hole in the middle of the park for United, they haven’t found a replacement for Ginger Nuts and every time they have been challenged(read that, dropped points) it has been through the middle of the park. Jones moving there to shore things up last week didn’t work as well as Whiskey Nose would have wanted and they came away from Anfield with a solitary point against a decidely average Liverpool side.
However the big one is the half time score. City have scored 8 goals in the first half to a whopping 19 goals in the second. If the score is even at the break, expect City to release Yaya further up the pitch and press for the winner in the latter half.
Key Men
Nigel de Jong(City)
Back to full fitness and how City have missed the wrinkly dog, he really provides the freedom for City’s attacking force to let loose knowing they have a midfield destroyer of his calibre behind them. I doubt he has forgotten two years ago when the Illegitimate Spawn of Whiskey Nose ran riot scoring two completely untracked goals in the corresponding fixture, a quick touch up early on should keep him in line.
David de Gea(United)
Aside from early nerves and that horrendous gaff in the Charity Shield(shove your Community Shield right up it) and then thinking he signed for Liverpool in the summer and quickly thieving his way into the papers have not overshadowed some brilliant displays as of late and looking more like the keeper from Atletico. However win or lose, he will still have a beard made of pubic hair.
Prediction.
With all the attacking talent in both sides, it should have 7 goals in a thrilling 4-3 result. One manager will be looking at his watch wondering where the extra 14 minutes added time have come, the goal will come in the dying seconds, fans will go mental as the striker flings himself into the crowd, picking up his second yellow but who cares in moments like this. This SHOULD happen.
0-0. “Typical City”
Get well soon Bingo.