With City still in seventh heaven following their destruction of Sheffield Wednesday in midweek the stage was set, finally for the Blues to kick ahead in the Barclays Premier League. And the KC Stadium in Hull was to prove to be the venue for the renaissance of City’s tilt at the title.
It was all-change at full back again with Zabaleta and Clichy restored, with Pellegrini retaining the first-team services of Willy Caballero guarding the sticks. Joe Hart, who performed heroics in Munchen and gave a creditable performance against Chelsea was retired to bench duties, no doubt with the forthcoming Champions League encounter against AS Roma top of his manager’s priorities.
The rest of the selection was predictable with Kompany and Mangala in tandem in the centres, Milner, Yaya, Fernandinho and Silva across the middle with Aguero playing off Dzeko at the pinnacle.
This line-up is clearly a combination of power and class and it was as early as the first minute that the hosts started to feel the draught with Aguero testing McGregor with only seconds on the tick-tock.
City were in no mood to let the Tigers out of the pen, starting with the power, pace and pressing that they demonstrated against Chelsea and then once again against Wednesday. There were only 7 minutes on the clock when Aguero once again created problems for the home defence. Hull failed to clear with the ball finding blue and white all around the edge of the box before Zabaleta’s header found Aguero completely forgotten and unattended. The Mighty Atom turned on the proverbial sixpence and rifled the ball into the far corner in typical Sergio style.
We have said all season that Dzeko has toiled away, systematically getting hammered by systematic defenders, getting nothing and scoring nothing as nothing was falling his way. He put that to bed a little in midweek and this proved to be just the catalyst he needed to spark some kind of revolution. Often hailed as a “confidence” player and one known to thrive once he gets his seasonal sights set, today was living proof that big Edin is finding the form with which he steered City towards their second title in three years last season.
Once again it was the Blues teamwork along the edge of the box that resulted in the ball finding Dzeko in the number 10 position. He coolly controlled it, stepped to his right and unleashed an exocet into the roof of the net.
As against the incumbents of the Steel City in midweek this should have signalled the kind of landslide the Scottish Nationals could only dream of, but the new hero of the back line, Mangala was soon to look more like a mangler as Hull City were to accept two gifts in ten comic cut minutes that were more reminiscent of the Stretford Theatre of Nightmares, than the culture Club that is City. First off Elmahomady, who usually enjoys a good game against City squirted in a cross from the right, which didn’t really look dangerous and could even have been routine for Caballero. Until of course Managala intercepted it with a bullet header straight into his own goal. Quite why City never seem to score a goal of this nature at the correct end has remained a mystery to the Pedmachine since the days of Dave Watson, but let’s make no bones about it, this was a top drawer header which gave his keeper not a prayer.
This was a lifeline to Hull who hadn’t really been in the match and looked set for a long afternoon. So they kept on pressing and ten minutes later the Mangler’s second gift of the day arrived on a plate. A looping ball into the edge of City’s penalty area didn’t seem to pose any threat with two defenders in attendance one of which was Kompany, who appeared to be waiting for the bounce.
Inexplicably, Mangala came flying through like Tinkerbelle, taking out Abel Hernandez, conceding a penalty and earning himself a yellow card. Hernandez himself took the spot kick sending Caballero all over the show and placing the ball neatly in the other direction to level the score.
It was of course unbelievable stuff and the Tigers probably didn’t deserve their slices of luck. But this is a game where at times you have to make your own luck and they certainly did it here. The remainder of the first half was pretty much end-to-end stuff with each team getting in position to stake a claim for the lead.
And this continued into the second half. City time came and went and another afternoon of toil and no reward looked to be the recipe at the Blue Moon Café. Enter the magician. Once again subjected to the only kind of treatment possible, mainly by Huddlestone, Silva appeared to glide across the field like an ice dancer, with the ball tied to his bootlaces. The slightest of movement opened the door just wide enough for him to measure a slide-rule pass in the direction of the big Bosnian and once again Dzeko accepted, planting the ball beyond the outstretched fingers of McGregor to fire City back into the lead and to claim his second brace in 4 days. Not bad for a player who was out of sorts this time last season and looked destined for pastures new.
It is for reasons like these that City sorted him out a new contract. If it doesn’t go his way he works hard at it and finally he makes something happen. He did that today despite continued close attention from Dawson, Davies and even Rosenior. He hit a handful of shots in on goal and scored twice.
City were now in the driving seat and Silva was in the middle of it all. For their part, the Tigers didn’t throw in the towel. They continued to press City as best they could and did create a couple of acceptable chances for themselves, only to find Kompany solid as a rock at the back.
By now Navas had replaced Fernandinho, and Aguero handed over to signing-of-the-season, Lampard. The Magician had also taken a seat in favour of the newly out-of-favour Demichelis, whose performance in this very stadium last season probably paved the way for the title finally turning in City’s favour.
Hull were on offence as City broke away on the counter attack. Lampard made himself available in midfield and set the ball running to Yaya who drove ahead and played it wide to Navas. The jet-heeled Spaniard left Brady for dead and as the cover arrived he cheekily lifted it over the oncoming man-mountain and into the space behind, only six yards from goal.
Once again Lampard arrived by Starship Enterprise and easily slid the ball beyond McGregor and into the back of the net. If you analyse his contribution to this goal, bear in mind it started in City’s half and was involved in the passing and movement. He then slowed down and drifted towards the edge of the Tiger’s box before proof reading the Navas pass and arriving in the nick of time to slot home. Dzeko was waiting in line for his hat trick but Frank was once again taking centre stage for his fourth goal in less than a week for his adopted Club.
The margin of 4-2 was easily one that City deserved in what ended up as a topsy-turvy encounter where City had it won, handed it back and then had to kick on a second time to wrestle the full complement of points from what, for the Champions, should have been a routine confrontation.
Over the years and in particular as Manager of Wigan, Steve Bruce often found tactics to thwart the Blues, but in reality, today, they were simply different class. The guns appear to have been oiled and the sights reset as they set about trying to catch a Chelsea team who last week showed that they could struggle if they meet a decent team, especially one with defenders who can blunt the scoring threat posed by Costa. I don’t see too many sets of those defenders in the Premier League right now. Of course, the best wear sky-blue shirts, but even then, after a baptism of power and strength last week, Mangala displayed a vulnerability today taking unnecessary risks in a position where, if they don’t come off, they end up in the net. Maybe this is why the engineer was keeping him under wraps. He played well against the division’s second best team, but didn’t keep it together against lesser opposition. I’m sure that will change under the tutelage of Vincent Kompany.
So City have raised themselves to third and five points off the Chelsea pace. As we know, they were further adrift than that for much of last season and they quietly crept up on the rails patiently awaiting the errors of their rivals. When they came, City were ready. Today City told us that once again they are ready.
It’s difficult to look beyond Edin Dzeko for man-of-the-match, but there were excellent performances across midfield, none more so than Silva who is now back to his best. His laser-like eyes seem to know where everyone is and he is getting the movement that unlatches the gates to find his men in dangerous positions, resulting in inevitable goals.
AS Roma are next up at the Etihad, whereas next weekend delivers City to Aston Villa, the scene of a poor defeat from a winning position last season. A tricky fixture but if they can overcome the match against the Romans without adding to the injury list I think it will be a different proposition this time around…but as you know…the Pedmachine does not make predictions!!
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