After their fantastic start to a season of promise, Putrid Pardew and his equally putrid Palace team looked set to provide City with their sternest test yet since the season began. Sitting loftily and unbelievably in second place in the table, Palace, having already blow away title pretenders Chelsea set about their business again, this time against an opposition in sky blue.
The so-called Eagles may be flying but today the blue sky was ultimately going to prove to be too much for them.
Pellegrini, never a great friend of the growling, unfriendly Pardew was forced to make changes for the first time this season with Silva having returned from international duty bearing once again the hallmarks of getting kicked all around two foreign terrains. Sterling allegedly twinged a hamstring in the warm up and was not risked by the Engineer. It was a brave line-up of 4-4-2 at a venue that doesn`t often yield anything but undaunting injury to quality opposition footballers.
The six in front of Joe Hart was unchanged and once again provided a blockade in front of goal. Up ahead were Nasri and Navas and beyond that Bony and Aguero, the former really looking to jump start his City life and the latter to reignite his goalscoring touch.
In the first ten minutes Palace were as lively as anyone had been against City this season. Bolasie looked to be causing problems for Mangala with direct running and pace and Puncheon could have City punch drunk had he taken the chances that fell his way.
The Blues stuck to their task, remained robust and only left Hart with one save to make, as the Eagles wings were clipped.
After 15 minutes the game started to take the shape in which it was to remain for the rest of the afternoon as City started to lead Palace a dance and their only response was a predictable one..if you can`t kick the ball, kick the opposition.
None more so when after 20 minutes following a clearance, the Mighty Atom set off on one of his trade mark runs, the type that inevitably end up in the back of the net. But despicable desperate Dann had other ideas. Not for him to tug the shirt and take one for the team, no sir, this ghastly creature lined up his left leg like Tiger Woods lining up his driver aiming a swing clearly intending to damage Aguero. Dann`s tackle bore all the hallmarks of a combined harvester in a field full of wheat as he remorselessly chopped down the Premier League`s best striker, forcing him off from the field of play and out of tomorrow night`s Champions League encounter with Juventus.
” I didn`t intend to “do” him” he bleats in the tabloids with the sincerity of a serial killer. And the chicken referee pulled out a yellow card! All season City players have been getting booked for niggardly little offences, but when a known assassin take a purposeful swing designed to injure an opponent he gets a yellow card? Surely it is time for Mike Jones to revisit his referee`s chart. This was a deliberate kick, it is least serious foul play and that is a capital offence that merits a red card.
City lose their top striker for at least a couple of match and the perpetrator effectively gets away with it. And di I really hear Palace`s awful fans cheering when Aguero was forced to leave the field?
The whole demeanour of this football club is not one that is welcome in football anywhere especially when their master plan involves kicking opponents out of the game.
As City got into gear the chances came and went. Bony showed some neat touches but couldn`t find the corners of the net with McCarthy making more than one decent save from the Ivorian. Nasri added a couple of extras, but was once again off target and Yaya later adopted a shoot on sight policy but may as well have been shooting ducks at a fairground.
The worst miss of all arrived at the door of Navas, put clean through by De Bruyne, forced into action to replace Aguero, he did all the hard work of beating two defenders to the ball, avoiding another hammer and sickle job by Dann, rounding the keeper and shooting into the side netting with the goal gaping. It is misses like this that will ultimately cost Navas his place in the starting eleven once De Bruyne gets going.
Palace did notch up another save for Joe Hart to make in the second half but that was about the extent of their toils although a better player than Gayle would have sealed the points just before the end. And what an end. With Palace thinking the job was done as the match went into injury time, City showed why the bookies have narrowed down their title odds.
Nasri at last got free and fired off a low shot which was on target and that the keeper could only parry. As the Palace defenders dreamed of their hard-earned draw in popped Iheanacho to prod in the winner. Palace were gutted and of course we were delighted. Delighted with three hard-earned points, delighted that Pardew was put in his place after spending most of the second half encroaching into City`s technical area to moan at the referee, fourth official, Channel Four, the voluntary euthanasia party and just about anyone else who didn`t want to listen to him.
Already De Bruyne looks the ticket. He took no time in slotting into the team today despite having only trained with them a couple of times. He has a cool range of passing which finds his men and an eye for the opening. We look forward to seeing more of this young man in sky blue.
Iheanacho seems to have been around the first team a while but is still only eighteen. Not long after heeding his manager`s words of “Just go out there and score”, he almost made it a brace, but the pass from the left was slightly behind him and neither Navas nor Toure could get on the end of things.
This is the kind of wins that has the word “champions” attached to it. You go out, put the work in, rise from the ashes of your best striker getting kicked off the field and just when for one second the opposition think they`ve done it you pounce like a lion and take the food from their hands.
With Chelsea having lost again earlier in the day to Everton, City already find themselves eleven points ahead of last year`s champions and five points clear at the top of the table ahead of the Stretfords and Ashburton Groves dourest.
City may have to take on beaten Champions League finalists Juventus with a depleted line-up but it is an excellent chance for Bony to truly announce his fitness and desire, as well as De Bruyne to use his expertise to provide the assists. No doubt there will be more stray boots flying around in City`s direction as Juve have never been subtle. We all remember that time at Maine Road, was it is the early seventies, when the likes of Causio, Cuccuredu and Gentile et al playing pass-the-booking taking it in turns to kick us all over the place.
Up next in the league is another London team in the shape of West Ham. They will be another set of bus-parkers looking to beat City on the break with the help of some dubious tactics. The week started with three valuable points and once again no goals conceded. I hope it ends that way.
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