With FC Coachbusters of Scouseland having negotiated their arbitrationally-assisted route past UCL giants PSG last night, it was the turn of Manchester City to get their noses ahead in the Champions League tonight.
But with Guardiola missing from the touchline, it seems he had the script with him in Box 53 and the team, almost to a man sang from separate hymn sheets as City crashed to a poor defeat against an average French outfit who ignored the bookies and pundits and set about writing an epitaph for City.
It is said that the reason the Abu Dhabi Group is in this for the long haul is to ensure City become European Champions. On this showing, they wouldn’t even get to the latter stages of Thursday night football.
Gone was the fluency with which they set about Fulham at the weekend as a gallant Olympique Lyonnais tasked City in almost every direction. They pressed from the front and defended deep, allowing City plenty of space in between to do very little. Former Scouser target Fekir not only masterminded the midfield effort but also helped himself as the blue tide parted on its own inviting the French counter-attack almost to the line as they helped themselves to a pair of gift goals donated by an out-of-sorts City.
Cutting a forlorn figure at 0-2, Arteta finally injected the pace of Sane and within minutes Bernardo reduced the arrears after a trade-mark sprint by the German, but with the stadium set for an onslaught, City continued to fall into the traps set by Olympique and with Delph thinking he playing on the beach and Walker…well quite what he was doing all night I don’t know.
So City go into matchday 2 on nul points. With the other match in the group finishing as a draw, not too much damage has been done, but they will need to forget the press hype of an easy group and get to grips with this competition.
A poor attendance didn’t help. Only 37000 could be bothered to stir themselves and it looked as though the players were showing the same apathy levels.
So who was missed most? Was it the fact Aguero wasn’t selected from the start and de Jesus failed to ignite anything? Or could it have been the influence of General Otmendi or Kompany at the back? Maybe it was De Bruyne as City had no powerhouse destruction method with Gundogan well off the pace? It could also have been the fact that Guardiola was sat on Box Level with his head in his hands.
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Or could it have been the missing 17000 who scorned the opportunity to pay measly £18 to watch football at its supposed highest level? Add it all up and you will arrive at the fact that once again, City have fuelled the pundits with glee and have no excuses for this performance which must rate as the poorest since the Guardiola revolution began