Saturday, 30 October 2010
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Manchester City
Molineux, Kick off: 3pm
To say Manchester City are a one man team would be a little extreme, however this weekend’s clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers will pose a difficult test for Roberto Mancini’s side in the absence of leading scorer Carlos Tevez.
The Argentine suffered a leg injury City’s disappointing 3-0 home defeat to Arsenal last week, and he may in fact be out for up to two weeks. The club has also given Tevez permission to return home to South America for a few days to see his family and he will be back in Manchester early next week.
While the team as a whole have been a bit hit and miss this season, Tevez’s performances have been of the usual very high standard. His grit and determination helped grind out a win following a very abject team performance away to Blackpool, and he was the catalyst for wins over Newcastle United and of course Chelsea.
If there were a case to be answered for Tevez being the one man show at Eastlands, the prosecution would point to the fact that of the twelve goals scored by City in the league so far, he is responsible for seven. The defence would counter that by pointing to the fact that City were without their expensive signing Mario Balotelli during that period, while Emmanuel Adebayor was also sidelined through injury. Saturday’s game at Molineux represents a chance for one or both of them to step up to the plate and fill the admittedly massive shoes vacated by Tevez.
Club captain Kolo Toure, who has been absent since straining a hamstring against Newcastle United at the beginning of the month, says that City must forget that loss and move on as soon as possible.
“It’s been a difficult week – it’s always hard against a team like Arsenal,” he said.
“They are challenging for the title, and if we want to be on top then we need to win these games. We know that.”
“When you play against a team such as Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea, you never know what will happen. But the key to the season is to win the games that you expect to win.”
While City will have had six days off before the game, Wolves were in midweek action, going down 3-2 to Manchester United in the League Cup. Winger Matt Jarvis was the best player on the park on Tuesday night and will be hoping for another big performance against the blue half of Manchester.
“We need to start getting points in the Premier League and push ourselves up the table,” he said.
Jarvis also said that the club are looking forward to welcoming back skipper Karl Henry who was red carded recently for a horrific challenge on Wigan’s Jordi Gomez.
“Although it wasn’t a great challenge at Wigan, because of what happened before it has been made even worse – but Karl is not that sort of player,” he said with the ever so slight hint of a cliché.
“It was one of those things, a spur of the moment thing and everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon. Once you get labelled, it is hard to shake off and that is what has happened.”
“You see him last season and the start of this season and he has not been like that at all. He gets into challenges and breaks play up but he’s not a dirty player.”
Wolves currently sit second from bottom in the Premier League, and a win wouldn’t guarantee that they move out of the relegation zone. City, meanwhile, are level with Manchester United and Arsenal on 17 points with all three lagging five points behind leaders Chelsea.
Key Players:
Wolves: Kevin Doyle
The Irishman may not be the most prolific goalscorers around but he is certainly one of the hardest workers. His great engine and ability to simply annoy defenders can lead to goals and if any of City’s back four are sleeping on Saturday you can be sure that Doyle will be on hand to take advantage. Wolves boss Mick McCarthy may opt for just one striker, but if he pairs Doyle with Sylvain Ebanks-Blake then it could be a tricky afternoon for the visitors.
Manchester City: Nigel De Jong
He looks like a bulldog and plays like one too. De Jong has been an integral part of City’s midfield and will need to be at his dominant best against a notoriously physical Wolves midfield. Like Karl Henry, De Jong’s tackling has come in for criticism this season but the fact remains that there are very few, if any, better defensive midfielders in the country. His passing has improved and Mancini obviously sees leadership qualities having let him have the captain’s armband recently in the absence of Tevez and Toure. Maybe one day he’ll even score a goal…
Prediction:
Wolves 1 (Fletcher)
City 2 (Silva, Balotelli)
Thank you to Xavi6 from www.mancityfans.net for this insightful Match Preview