Date: 27 November 2010
KO: 1500 hrs
Venue: Britannia Stadium
Chalk and Cheese
It’s a funny old game, isn’t it? A couple of week’s back we were hearing real signs of discontent from the home crowd with chants of ‘You Don’t Know what You’re Doing’ and ‘Bellaaaaaaamy’ reverberating around the ground after what some thought was an abject and uninspiring performance. Last week though, and away from home, the crowd showed their true form, singing their support for the management, and team, with rousing renditions of ‘Mancini, Whooooaoo….’ and the somewhat comical inclusion of ‘Boring, Boring City’ laced with a touch of ‘Let’s all do the Poznan’, showing that our infamous City humour is still in tact. However, that humour had a purpose and the aim was quite clear, to show all and sundry that we support our team and no matter what the press may throw at us, especially with comments like ‘A Fulham win is a win for football’ or ‘City, a club who are morally bankrupt’, we will stand by our own, and as one, in an aim to put those media types firmly back in their places.
Hate Fuelled Envy
‘Hate Fuelled Envy’, an understatement if ever I heard one!
Did it work?
Well the outcome was 2 fold. We won the day with a marvellous display of football that even had Jamie Redknapp cooing ‘That’s the best 45 minutes of football that I’ve seen this season’, which when you consider the likes of Chelsea’s thrashing of the lower clubs earlier in the season, is a massive compliment. So onwards and upwards as they say and our next encounter sees us travel the short distance to Stoke, the oldest club on record after being founded in 1886 under the little known name of Stoke Ramblers. In all this time they have only won one major trophy which was the League Cup back in ’72, and whilst they have won a few secondary trophy’s, there’s not really that much to shout about. The major achievement for them of recent years was to be promoted to the Premier League and ensure a sustained run in the Top Flight. So, how are they doing of late?
Review Of The Year?
Form
Stoke are known for their physical and direct approach that has kept them in the Premier League, and moreso, took them to their highest finish last year of 11th; not bad for a bunch of cloggers. This year though, and from what I’ve seen, they seem to be in a state of transition and are now going from the long-ball game to a more all-around football minded team. Pulis knows that if he is ever to break that Top 10 barrier he cannot do it just by ‘huff and puff’ alone, he needs to play it on the ground and stop relying on players like Delap with his constant long throw-ins, or from set pieces, hoping to get a flick on; it had to change. They are coming into this game after 3 straight wins, including the battering of Liverpool, and have scored an impressive 8 goals to boot. Not bad at all and with a team on the up, it’s going to take a lot to get anything from the game.
City, however, have had a mixed bag of results with a team that are still in transition, with 2 no-score draws and last time out, against Fulham, we showed what real quality we have. The 1st half annihilation (and I mean ‘Annihilation’), with our old friend Mark Hughes on the losing side, had the back pages of the media struggling to say a bad word. The 26 pass move that led to Gnegneri Yaya Toure (John to his friends) scoring his 2nd goal of the season was sublime, and if it would have been the likes of Arsenal who had done that, it would’ve been re-run time and time again telling the world that this is how football should be played. But alas, it was us, so the best we got was a 5 second mention on Sky’s Goal of the Week; not all bad then!
Head-to-Head
This is the 96th time we have met with City leading 40 wins to 35, and in our last 7 encounters at the Britannia we’ve lost only 1. Doesn’t sound too bad that does it until you factor in that we have only actually won once in all that time when Ged Weikens scored the only goal when we were down in the 2nd Division(How long ago was that). Last year saw us play Stoke twice at the Britannia as we were drawn together in the FA Cup. Both games ended 1 each after 90 minutes with the FA Cup went into extra-time. We’d just come level through a sweet lay-off from Ade to Bellamy, who came through and forced the ball past Sorensen. Unfortunately, Ade saw Red in the extra 30 and was sent off for a flailing arm in the direction of Shawcross’ face. The home team went on to win the game 3-1 against 10 men and put us out of our first coveted Trophy run. Did it really matter though, afterall, we were aiming for the Champions League?
Tactics
As mentioned, Stoke have a decent footballing side who still have a physical mentality, so we may see a different approach from Mancini and possibly a change in midfield with the likes of Milner coming in and possibly playing a 4-5-1 instead of his preferred 4-3-3. Saying that, I suspect Mancini’s preferred partnership of ‘Super Mario’, Carlos and ‘Dave’ Silva upfront may see us go for another away win, but it has got to be asked ‘At What Expense’? Would his inclusion in the team set a precedent that you can do what you want when you want, with no repercussions? If he is in the starting XI he better prove to be worthy, otherwise, he’ll find himself, and Mancini, in for some criticism post match.
Key Players
Stoke
Let’s hope we see none of these shenanigans on Saturday!
Kenwyne Jones has been ever-present in Stokes forward line this season and his physical presence will keep our defence on their toes. Although not the greatest of footballer’s, he brings strength and movement that allows the likes of Walters and Whitehead to back up the forward play and get on the end of the scraps. And with Ricardo Fuller up and running, I can see them trying to force us back with a mixture of decent football and the typical over the top ball that we are used to from them.
City
If he can stop Drogba, then I’m sure he can keep the likes of Kenwyne Jones quiet.
Kolo Toure, and Vince Kompany, are going to be in for a rough ride with Stoke’s forwards more than happy to push them around whilst their midfield soldiers push on to give them back-up. Kolo, who had the captaincy taken away this season, has seemed to come into his own and is well and truly bossing the back 4 with the maturity and discipline that a Premier League Winner should exude. If the back 4 get do their job to the ability we have seen of late, then it will allow the rest of the team to do what they do best – score goals!
Prediction
A difficult one this as both teams are coming off the back of impressive wins; we also beat West Brom 2-0 whilst Stoke took them 3-0 in relatively the same period. And, considering we have won more games away from home and the likes of United and Spurs have beaten them at the Britannia, I’m inclined to think that we can win this one, and at least, not lose.
Shading the odds of course, but as we all know, ‘Football’s a Funny Old Game’, isn’t it?
Thanks go to Beefymcfc of ManCityFans.Net for writing this brilliant preview