City took on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge eagerly seeking 3 more points to aim for the top…but in the closing minutes one silly mistake lead to a frustrating end to the game…
The Blues lined up with probably not the strongest starting eleven possible from a squad who were yet again without the main man Vincent Kompany.
After a shaky opening 8 minutes City started to pass the ball around well for the first half until Clichy, caught flat footed, let Torres run past him and put a low ball across the box for Schurrle to tap home benefitting from what in my opinion was sloppy marking in the middle from Demichelis and Nastasic. Following that, Torres began to look dangerous, whipping a shot against the post.
Overall, we looked strong in the first half making just one or two errors, but when they came out we knew City would have to perform.
Nasri picked the ball up in the midfield and ran at the defence as he did for Arsenal, playing a simple but calm ball through to Aguero who with his left foot let fly a peach that burst the net leaving Peter Cech and one Gary Neville stunned. City then began to press the Chelsea defence back looking the more likely to win the game, but after wave after wave of attack City began to concede silly fouls, as we seem to do now every week. This let Chelsea back into the game with the home crowd’s support growing louder.
As we ventured into the last ten minutes the tables had turned and Chelsea were by now making all the running, playing cross field balls that no player could be bothered to even jump for. For City, bringing on Negredo late for Aguero wasn’t going to help strengthen our attack.
Then it happened. The midfield chased down John Terry who played a panicky ball over the top which Willian helped on, Nastasic headed it back only to find Joe Hart was in no man’s land when he should have been waiting to receive the ball from the header. This allowed Torres a golden opportunity to score the winning goal for Chelsea in the 90th minute.
Questions are again being asked about Joe’s recent performances, wondering if he is still fit for England. He goes from making a great save from a Honda strike during the midweek win in Moscow to this terrible mistake at Chelsea. In my opinion he is still one of the big cheeses at the club and without him we would be far away from where we are now but hopefully this is a short term phase that he will come out of to shine as one of the best again.
Looking elsewhere across the side, yet again Aguero showed his class holding the ball up so well but I feel that when played alongside Negredo, that’s our main striking force. Silva and Nasri in my opinion once again played with their usual flare with both almost scoring. Fernandinho was strong, snapping into challenges but unfortunately causing too many fouls to be given away.
Regrettably, substitute Navas so far this year has not been able to contribute enough. He does not seem to be strong enough on the ball and today should have scored but instead made a weak attempt on goal. It’s a shame Kompany was not fit as you only know how crucial he is to the team when he is not there. Furthermore, the solid James Milner needs to be played more. He is fans favourite and always works hard for the team.
Hopefully we are able to come back from this with a stronger, winning performance for Wednesday night’s game at Newcastle in order to progress in the Capital One Cup.
UPCOMING DATES FOR YOUR FILOFAX:
all times East Manchester GMT
We 30 Oct 19h45 Newcastle, St James’ Park LC4
Sa 02 Nov 15h00 Norwich City, The Etihad PL
Tu 05 Nov 19h45 CSKA Moscow, The Etihad CLGS4
Su 10 Nov 1405 Sunderland, Stadium of Light PL
Su 24 Nov 13h30 Spurs, The Etihad PL
We 27 Nov 19h45 Viktoria Plzen, The Etihad CLGS5
Su 01 Dec 16h10 Swansea City, The Etihad PL
We 04 Dec 20h00 West Brom, The Hawthorns PL
Sa 07 Dec 15h00 Southampton, St Mary’s Stadium PL
Tu 10 Dec 19h45 Bayern Munich, Allianz Arena CLGS
Sa 14 Dec 15h00 Arsenal, The Etihad PL
Sa 21 Dec 15h00 Fulham, Craven Cottage PL
Th 26 Dec 15h00 Liverpool, The Etihad PL
Sa 28 Dec 15h00 Crystal Palace, The Etihad PL
We 01 Jan2014 15h00 GMT Swansea City, Liberty Stadium PL
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