There was an air of apprehension in the car, bordering on trepidation as the Pedmachine and his sisters hit the road for Wembley today. My younger sister reminded the world on facebook that this was probably the first time we had all been in the same car since the mid-1970s!
In recent seasons City seem to have disposed of Tottenham and Everton as bogey teams, but inherited Sunderland, who have a habit of 1-0 wins over the Blues, despite City having the lion’s share of possession and coming up against a brick wall.
The plazas around the stadium were freezing cold, the wind having a low howl to it and it was little better once the turnstiles opened.
Our potential for misery was compounded with the announcement of a line-up to include Dzeko and Demichelis, when Negredo and Lescott might have been better suited to this fixture. On the plus side, the Mighty Atom himself, Sergio Aguero was deemed fit enough to make the starting eleven.
With the Mackems lining up 4-2-3-1, the tools were there for the three to add to the defensive shield or push on to support the lone ranger that today was Borini. There was a degree of fluidity to this set up although in the early stages City’s 4-4-2, adaptable to 2-4-4 with Kolarov and Zabaleta designed to provide the width, the Blues got their game plan going as the Black Cats surrendered space and invited City to the door.
Borini might have been destined to forage alone but he fired a warning shot across City’s bows breaking into the inside right channel, getting clear but unable to capitalise.
Aguero fired off City’s first chance but the third pillar of Hercules known as Vito Manone in the Sunderland goal shoved it away for a corner. Just as City looked as though they were set for the rhythm of constantly attacking and forcing Sunderland back, Fernandinho unnecessarily gave up possession and a hopeful punt out of defence to the same inside right channel found Kolarov too far up field, Demichelis caught underneath the flight of the ball and the covering Kompany making the wrong decision in going the wrong side of Borini who was on it in a flash drilling the ball beyond Pantilimon and into the net.
There was an air of deja-vu and shock horror at the blue end of the stadium and a condition bordering on delirium at the opposite end as the Mackems went mental. They have seen their boys hang in like grim death to 1-0 leads against City a number of times recently, so they were no doubt believing it could happen again. They even had the audacity to do the Poznan as a clear mickey-take.
The remainder of the first half gave them no reason to think otherwise as City couldn’t get going, being over-run by the five-man midfield with either Colback or Cattermole forcing Yaya into a deep position from where he was unable to make those penetrating runs. The rest of City’s midfield hung together far too narrow and caused absolutely no problem for the Sunderland rearguard, a defence that didn’t see the need to mark the hapless Dzeko, preferring to double-up on Aguero, the accomplished dangerman.
In fact the first three times that Dzeko got near the ball he conceded possession every time and on one occasion an attempted header from a corner actually cleared the ball for Sunderland. The big Bosnian’s confidence is clearly shot to pieces and in reality he is only getting a game because of injuries to Aguero and Jovetic. He doesn’t do enough work to get himself injured and has been a constant source of irritation and disappointment amongst the Blue Mooners this season.
For the rest of the first half nothing seemed to go right for City as the Black Cats eased their way to half time, good value for their 1-0 lead. So by 14h45 hours City’s season was in tatters. Already 2-0 down to Barcelona in the Champions League and sitting six points behind Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League, albeit with two games in hand, a season that promised four trophies had an Arsenal-esque look about it as they trailed 1-0 to a team threatened with relegation.
Indeed this could have been the second consecutive cup final where the Blues might have suffered this indignation as the woes of Wigan looked set to be revisited. Over the last few seasons the Gooners have looked decent up until February and then seen their seasons implode as they got themselves systematically eliminated from each competition, returning empty-handed.
The shining light from the first half against Sunderland was Samir Nasri who was staring at a hat trick of cup final defeats against teams that ended up in the Championship. It was he more than any other that tried to give City some drive, but all too often it came to nothing as apart from Aguero there was no intelligent support cast.
There was a greater feeling of doom as half time came around as the massed ranks of sky blue and white clad City fans simply couldn’t make out what was happening on the field.
Readers of the Ped pages will know that I have often referred to the first ten minutes of the second half as “City time” as particularly under the tenure of Roberto Mancini they had a penchant for scoring in that period. During this time City got a free kick 35 yards out. Too far for a ceremonial free kick but seemingly fine for a training ground routine that in fact went hopelessly wrong and just about summed up City’s afternoon so far. However in the next move Yaya finally drove himself into space and unleashed an unlikely shot which flew past Manone and into the net. The relief around the blue and white hoards was tangible as we now moved to the edge of our seats on Level 5. Sixty seconds later, Sunderland’s hitherto unblemished defenders didn’t read Nasri’s run into the box and his driven shot also left Manone stranded as it too flew into the net.
The Blue Mooners went nuts and it suddenly looked unlikely that Sunderland would get back in it in a hurry. This signalled a flurry of replacements. Aguero, returning from injury could be spared any more exposure to the brutal treatment dished out by anyone in a red and white striped shirt, which saw Nasri asked to play further forward and Navas sent on to provide what was to prove a game-changing performance down the right.
Fair play to Gus Poyet. Realising that this game could now be slipping from his team’s grasp, he re-shaped to 4-4-2 surrendering Johnson, who as usual promised much but delivered nothing, proving once again that a 90-minute contributor he is not. His comments in the Saturday RedTops were disappointing as we all know that ex-City players always get a warm welcome when they present themselves for an opposition, for Gardner and bringing on Fletcher for Larsson.
And fair play to Sunderland. They were now matching City’s 4-4-2 line-up and for the next 20 minutes denied City possession of the football as they set off in search of an urgent equaliser. Then came the Pellegrini masterstrokes of sacrificing the magician, Silva for the less-effervescent Garcia, whose introduction allowed Yaya to finally play further forward, which was clearly not in Sunderland’s best interests. Neither were the electric runs being made by Navas who was at last forcing the Black Cats back line to make decisions and giving them an uncomfortable time.
Sunderland were clearly looking for restart situations to try to force City onto the back foot. At times they did this quite effectively, but the end product time and again was Fletcher getting himself offside which allowed City to run down the clock. It was indeed Wembley’s 2-speed clock. Why is it that with Sunderland leading 1-0 and clearly wasting time that time flies, but with City winning 2-1 and wasting time it takes on the air of a made-in-china cuckoo clock and drags and drags?
Jesus Navas was rapidly becoming the key to this match. His direct running and electric pace started to cause incessant problems at the back for Sunderland and the United rejects that adorn their back line suddenly looked flat-footed and off the pace. And with time almost up, the good lord himself again cut in from the right and instead of looking for the pass placed the ball past Manone on the near post to seal what was to look to be a comfortable victory for the Blues and shepherd the season’s first major trophy into the hands of Vincent Kompany who today did not have a distinguished game by his standards.
Sunderland couldn’t make four minutes of added time count and despite Negredo getting booked for kicking away the ball, something which went unpunished when Johnson did likewise ahead of half time, City saw themselves through to the final whistle comfortably.
In many ways the scoreline might have flattered Pellegrini’s men. Sunderland battled and fought as is their custom when they play against City, but today they came up short, undone by two quality finishes by Yaya and Nasri. Luck is one thing but quality is another and both of these finishes were of the highest order. Based on the full 94 minutes Nasri deserved to be named man-of-the-match and to receive the Alan Hardaker Trophy.
Today even the generally unshakable Kompany looked a bit out of sorts, Demichelis started as a liability but grew into the game. The midfield had a hard task being out-numbered in the first half and Dzeko was simply a waste of space and will be hastened towards the exit door at the end of May along with Lescott, Richards and Rodwell.
Sergio was clearly feeling his way back after injury and Silva tried and tried but couldn’t make much happen. The beauty about this team is that when something misfires, someone else makes things work. Today it was Nasri, later it was Yaya, it was also Fernandinho as the middle of the park anchor.
Sunderland’s magnificent supporters were totally magnanimous in defeat and stayed to observe the ceremony. Their team was applauded by City fans as they collected their runners-up medals and the Black Cats fans to a man returned the compliment as Kompany held aloft Pellegrini’s first of five, as promised to the Board. Some might say that this is the minimum trophy in English top-flight football but try telling that to the thousands of exceptional fans making the exceptional journey from the North East. They might have thought they didn’t have much chance of beating City, except their team has shown time and again that they can. For City it was pleasing to see the image of Mike Doyle projected onto the jumbotrons after four minutes. He was the last City captain to collect the League Cup back in 1976 and the Pedmachine was there to see Dennis Tueart’s overhead kick settle the match against another team from the North East.
As we stepped back out onto the surrounding plazas Sunderland supporters to a man and woman applauded City fans as they headed to the car parks and stations. What fantastically sporting supporters. On another day, against different opposition we would have definitely wanted Sunderland to win. Their performance today might spark off a Premier League survival package, whereas City would probably want to see them out of the Premier League to save their annual 1-0 defeat at the Stadium of Light. Deep down, the Pedmachine thinks Gus Poyet will steer them clear of relegation forcing City to endure another awkward visit to the North East.
You people from Sunderland. You were simply fantastic.
As the Ped vehicle set off back up the M1 to the Elbow tune of “One Day Like This”, we realised that it is not enough. We want more trips to this magnificent stadium and we want to come home with more trophies. It will happen.
UPCOMING DATES FOR YOUR FILOFAX:
all times East Manchester GMT
Su 09Mar 16h00 Wigan Athletic, The Etihad, FACQF
We 12Mar 19h45 Barcelona, Nou Camp, CLR16
Sa 15Mar 12h45 Hull, KC Stadium PL
Sa 22Mar 15h00, Fulham, The Etihad, PL
Tu 25Mar 19h45 The Stretfords, the swamp, PL
Sa 29Mar 17h30, Arsenal, The Emirates, PL
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