365 days and counting for City boss Roberto Mancini. What began with a Tevez inspired win over Stoke has ended with a Tevez inspired win over Newcastle. The reaction…
Roberto Mancini:
‘…Newcastle made it very difficult for us. They are a strong side and they look for Andy Carroll a lot. I thought we defended him well…It was important for us to work hard and that is what we did. James Milner was fantastic in this game. All the players did well but he stood out. Our concentration under pressure was good too…It was also important to re-start with a win after not going top of the table before Christmas. As I said then, the season is long and there is time to recover lost ground.’
City’s shrewd boss is now back in town preparing for a season defining double header at home to Aston Villa and then Blackpool, both defeated on Boxing Day:
‘We have to improve at the City of Manchester Stadium. We got the reaction we wanted after the defeat to Everton now we must perform like this again against Aston Villa…We have an incredible four games in ten days and we will make changes against Villa because we must recover in 38 hours and that is not an easy thing to do…All players must be ready to play, that is why we have a strong squad.’
Alan Pardew:
‘The start has cost us the game. There were two big errors…That put us on the back foot but the response from the team, from the goalie up to the centre-forward, was outstanding after that.’
Newcastle certainly gave City a stern challenge:
‘We stood on Man City man-for-man and we’ve given them a good old game today. At 2-1, when we got the goal, we thought there could be something special on here…I thought we missed a couple of chances at that stage and unfortunately for us, they get a bit of a flukey goal…You just can’t give away goals, and when you come up against strong opposition like Man City, they’re going to make it very difficult for you, which they did. A lesser side might have got beaten 4- or 5-0 today but we dug in and had a real battle.’
Scragg:
‘City continue good away form; 19 goals scored compared to 9 at Eastlands. Things will ease at home if a big striker is signed in January. But it’s now W10, D1, L1 from the 12 games City have taken the lead in. 31 out of 36 possible points.’
Thai Blue Fan:
‘Can we play all our matches away? Great result at a very difficult place.’
Philly Blue Moon:
‘Well, even though they have two games in hand, we’ve just put the pressure on Chelsea and Arsenal. The squad looked great today, good win, now we have to rest up quick and get another on Tuesday.’
neverstops:
‘From hereon we need to win the home games consistently to challenge the title contenders.’
fifth column blue:
‘Job done, and we scored three, but not our best performance by a long way.
Could do with more than one game a season where my nails aren’t chewed down to the quick…’
CITY VERSUS THE VILLA ON VMC:
Head for the VMC Match Day Experience Forum for the build up and beyond to the second part of City’s festive trilogy when legend in his own fish tank Stephen Ireland and Aston Villa come to town on Tuesday.
Vital Man City on:
Vital Man City on:
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