I have to admit, there are a number of things that Manchester City are doing very well, better than most of the clubs in the league at the moment. Their website is excellent and the video content they produce also sets the standard for the rest to follow. I’d imagine their budget for this sort of thing is somewhat bigger than most clubs.
They’ve been using YouTube for a while now, recently signing a formal deal with the website, and are
Not the scoreline we hoped for, but certainly one we feared. Not a great deal to discuss really, we were soundly beaten by a side who are clearly superior in every single position. We’ve now lost our unbeaten status. Not unexpectedly.
Mario Balotelli opened the scoring by leaping on the opportunity to pull a bicycle kick out of his toolbox, scoring from six yards. That was the only goal of the first half, but although we had created the same number
We’re back in action for what is the first really big test for Alex McLeish since he came to Villa, possibly one of the toughest of the season, but also as good a time as any to play Man City at their own place.
Over the last 10 times this league fixture has been played, we’ve won just two and lost eight times. No wonder the Castrol Football Prediction doesn’t think much of our chances.
Here’s how McLeish is looking to grab
Eight changes, first starts for Chris Herd and Michael Bradley. It didn’t work, not at all. A routine beating at the hands of a frankly bemused City. A lacklustre and, at times, completely inept performance during the first half deserved the 2-0 half time scoreline. The third goal wasn’t entirely merited, there was a little fight about Villa after the break, but overall it’s probably a fair reflection on City’s superiority.
There was much head scratching before the game when the
Gerard Houllier says he’s determined to erase memories of the “lowest moment of his career”; the 4-0 loss at Eastlands to close out 2010. How’s he going to do it? Here are the starting lineups:
Man City
Aston Villa
25
Joe Hart
1
Brad Friedel
2
Micah Richards
31
Chris Herd
17
Jerome Boateng
5
Richard Dunne
19
Joleon Lescott
21
Ciaran Clark
5
Pablo Zabaleta
16
Fabian Delph
24
Patrick Vieira
25
Barry Bannan
18
Gareth Barry
19
Stiliyan Petrov
21
David Silva
13
Michael Bradley
42
Yaya Touré
11
Gabriel Agbonlahor
13
Aleksandar Kolarov
14
Nathan Delfouneso
45
Mario Balotelli
18
Emile Heskey
Subs
Subs
12
Stuart Taylor
33
Andy Marshall
32
Carlos Tevez
36
Kyle Walker
11
Adam Johnson
8
Robert Pires
10
Edin Dzeko
20
Nigel Reo-Coker
27
Jo
12
Marc Albrighton
38
Dedryck Boyata
7
Ashley Young
57
Reece Wabara
6
Stewart Downing
Well there you go, another dire game, another awful result to put 2010 to bed. The anti-Houllier voices now reaching full crescendo; maybe they’ll get their wish and we can look forward to our 4th manager in a matter of months. That’s generally worked out well for clubs that have tried it in the past.
I hate to single him out, but Eric Lichaj had a shocking opening eight minutes – nothing seemed to work for him – capped with
I wouldn’t blame you if you’re not that interested in the stats from this one, it might feel a little anti-climatic now I suppose. Nevertheless, I’ll chuck the usual statistics in and for the “feature stats” I’m going to break our passing down into 10 minute chunks graphically which demonstrates how the game evolved quite nicely I think.
Wingers
One quick point about Downing and Ash; they spent much more time on their natural wings during this game, they usually swap
90 seconds was all it really took, but the dream of qualifying for the Champions League next year is finally over after we lost 3-1 at the the City of Manchester stadium today.
City dominated the first half, but we opened the scoring with the first attempt on goal to cap a quite beautiful passage of play. Stuart Downing cut in from the right and found just the right reverse ball to match Carew’s intelligent diagonal run. Carew shot
Man City recently visited The Emirates with the clear primary intention of avoiding defeat, their cause largely assisted by an Arsenal side devoid of much interest in winning themselves. Mancini’s thinking could not have been more clearly stated; take a point against Arsenal, then win the points they need for fourth from Villa and Tottenham. Cheeky bugger if you ask me, but he’s technically correct since both games happen to be “six pointers”. He’s got to pull