The Premier League – Monday 23rd February 2009

City haven’t played poorly for a little while now. Not properly poorly, anyway. West Ham away was our last truly rotten shift, and since then we’ve looked okay. West Brom at home was two points dropped of course, but as the first actual point gained in a while, not a disaster. Chelsea was stirring, and the draw at Sheffield United wasn’t terrible.

Last night against Spurs wasn’t so bad either. But in common with the three games that preceded it, we failed to win. Worse, we leaked a damaging late goal. Beneath the rational analysis and the acceptance that we deserved better, do we for the first detect a note of serious alarm about our survival prospects?

I fancy we do. Spurs are overburdened with star players who collectively constitute a poor team; one we’d already beaten this season. For spells it looked like we may repeat the trick and secure the first double of our Premier League debut. In the end, we were left to reflect on a bitter loss.

On an unseasonably warm evening at the Circle, City lined up for the attending Setanta cameras with: Duke; Ricketts, Turner, Gardner, Dawson; Marney, Ashbee (c), Zayatte, Kilbane; Garcia, Cousin. For Spurs, there was no Fraizer Campbell but they fielded Robbie Keane, Darren Bent, Ledley King and Wilson Palacios amid a sobering list of internationals.

Not that City looked unduly fazed. The early pressure was mostly at the North Stand, split amid a becalmed Tottenham following and City fans, and it was City asserting themselves early on. Dawson saw an early caution for referee Probert that arrived after being wrongly let off for a clumsy foul on Aaron Lennon, then being carded for a subsequent and very minor misdemeanour on the same player. Incidentally, let the record that that the stadium clock suggested a temperature of 11c, which still wasn’t warm enough for Mr Lennon to discard the gloves.

City nearly took the lead when a poor back-header by Jonathan Woodgate went past Carlo Cudicini, who’d flown off his line for no obvious reason, but he hared back and clawed the ball to safety with a yard or two to spare. Spurs looked rattled and very much on the back foot, but with a rare foray into City territory they scored.

A good goal too, although City’s contribution to it was depressing. A corner was won on the Spurs left, and with two players over the set-piece finding but a single Tiger trotting over, they fashioned some easy space, transferred the ball centrally to Lennon about twenty yards home and in a shocking degree of isolation, and his crisply hit shot flew pas the unsighted Duke. So delighted with this unexpected turn of events that noise was reportedly heard coming from the Spurs fans.

City heads dropped a little. This was tough to take after an enterprising opening. Still, sleeves were rolled up and the fight gamely taken back to Tottenham, and Zayatte ought to have done better after stampeding past Corluka into space on the left, however his final touch was a heavy one and Cudicini sped from his line to gather the ball.

On 27 minutes we scored, and deservedly so, however fortuitous the circumstances. A corner on the left was swung in by Dawson, Cudicini made a Gomes-tastic mess of collecting the ball and Turner prodded home the loose ball.

The Circle, subdued after Spurs’ opener, was jumping now, and one fancies a minor earthquake could have been caused had a blistering strike by Cousin from 25 yards flown just a yard lower – a sweeter connection you could not have wished for, but just the wrong side of the crossbar.

City were on top, and seeming to be enjoying themselves. There was still time before the break for a couple more chances – a header from Ricketts going wastefully wide after great play by Marney and a Dawson free-kick some thirty yards from goal going over.

Level at the interval, and much to be satisfied with. However, the second half started well for Spurs, who’d obviously been given a severe twitching-to by Harry Redknapp during the break, and the ball spent more time in City’s half of the field in the first ten minutes of the second forty-five than in the whole of the first half.

Duke was called upon to make an alert save from Bent before Kilbane nearly scored his first goal for City after another corner caused positively indecent panic in the Tottenham area. Gardner intervened to prevent a Palacios piledriver from troubling Duke, and a Modric free-kick was headed onto the top of the bar by Corluka as the away side enjoyed their best spell of the game.

The game quietened down a little after that burst of activity, and Phil Brown used the lull in play to withdraw the tiring Cousin for the cult figure of Bernard Mendy. Tottenham reacted by withdrawing Bent for Roman Pavlyuchenko.

City struck wood a few minutes later when a booming header by Zayatte after yet another marvellous Dawson delivery hit the post; with Cudicini grounded, he was lucky the ball fell to a man in white and not amber.

Richard Garcia’s superb shift up front ended with 13 minutes left as Brown introduced Manucho and it seemed that a point apiece was going to be the game’s fair outcome. Not so; with four minutes left City yet again failed to prevent a short corner, Gardner went inexplicably wandering from the centre and the gap in the area was exposed when a Woodgate header flew past Duke.

A sickener. Geovanni was hurriedly brought on by Phil Brown while Aaron Lennon, perhaps mindful of the temperature now plunging to 9c, was brought off for Zakora, but despite four minutes of injury time being declared, City never looked like rescuing a point.

It was a point we’d have deserved, too. All three goals came, directly or indirectly, from set pieces, however it was a generally entertaining game played at a brisk tempo. City had the first half, Spurs the second, yet once again we’ve failed to hold onto a useful result.

It’s not time to panic, of course. A series of winnable games crowd our immediate plans; yet once the distraction of Sheffield United on Thursday night is out of the way, the simple truth is that we have got to win some of them. The lack of a cutting edge is a worry;  the continual leaking of soft goals even more so, however the performances demonstrate we’re not at all out of our depth in the Premier League. With just a little more application at either end, and some overdue good fortune, there’s no reason the results won’t again reflect that fact. (AD)

FA Cup Fifth Round – Saturday 14th February 2009

Our cup run, which is still continuing, has been a curious affair thus far. A torpid draw at home to Newcastle, an uplifting win at St James’ Park, a routine win over Millwall, now another dose of stolidity. Can we hope that boring-ace-easy pattern could carry us all the way to our first ever piece of major silverware?

No, if you base your response on our inability to dismiss a limited Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. Yes, if you hope for a kindly sixth round draw and remain confident about our prospects in the fifth round replay.

Either way, it’s nice to be in the draw at all. It’s been a while since the FA Cup had any significance to us in the second half of February. Neither progressing nor tumbling out in South Yorkshire were: Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Gardner (no, really), Dawson; Mendy, Marney (c) (no, really), Zayatte, Garcia; Geovanni, Folan.

On bench duty for the Tigers were Warner, Doyle, Halmosi, Manucho, Featherstone, France and Barmby. Kevin Blackwell’s men were beaten at home by Sheffield Wednesday last week but sixth in the Championship, were beset by injury worries and the absence of a cup-tied trio of players. Hopes were high among the 5,000 City fans of that rarest of achievements: victory at Bramall Lane, our first in fifteen attempts. Yet some jinxes are not meant to be broken…

The home side took several minutes to take the lead, and it was far from being against the run of play. A cross from the Sheffield right by the excellent Cotterill found Halford, who out-jumped Ricketts to head across goal and past Myhill. The City players complained bitterly to referee Marriner, citing a push by Halford. He was having none of it, and the home side led.

Garcia had City’s first effort on goal when he flashed a Dawson corner over – as per last month’s game with West Brom, this was a shade wasteful. Turner was then (correctly) cautioned for a strong aerial challenge on Chris Morgan. Perhaps mindful of the fact that he should be listening to the game on the radio from a prison cell instead of being an active participant, Morgan kept his protests to a minimum.

Not that he was to have that great an impact in the afternoon’s events. He pulled up after about 33 minutes with a knee injury, and was replaced by one-time City target Danny Webber. And as the thuggish oaf was being wheeled around the stands towards the tunnel, smugly waving at his audience, City levelled.

A free-kick on the right was swung in by Dawson, Zayatte flicked it on and the ball scooted past Paddy Kenny. As easy as that. Half-time duly arrived with little extra goalmouth action.

The second half was little better. Attacking the 5,000 City fans, much of the action was conducted in our proximity, but neither side really looked like breaking through. Folan looked to be in with a chance after being released by a superb ball from Geovanni, but a covering defender nipped in, and you didn’t really fancy Folan to score anyway.

Garcia missed a great chance with a low header that Kenny did well to keep out – however, the Australian international was unmarked and Ricketts’ cross was near-perfect, and again he should have done better.

A Turner header was cleared, a Mendy shot found the legs of Kenny – and it was the Sheffield keeper who was providing much of the amusement now, memories of his preposterous antics a few years ago being the cause of the taunting of his unfortunately well-publicised domestic difficulties. It was that disappointing a game.

City were comfortably on top though, which made our inability to find a winner all the more frustrating. Phil Brown attempted a couple of changes, Barmby replacing Geovanni and then Manucho coming on for Garcia, but it made little difference. Sheffield looked fairly content with a draw, while City will fancy their chances against lower-division opposition at home. France came on for Mendy, but the game had already died a death that few will mourn.

And so we replay. Writing before the draw before the Sixth Round draw, we can only hope for a favourable tie being given to us, and that it provides the incentive for Phil Brown to ensure he picks the strongest side to enable a rare victory over Sheffield United. We remain potentially 180 minutes from a semi-final trip to Wembley, but this match has marginally tilted the odds in our favour. (AD)

The Premier League – Saturday 7th February 2009

27^th November 2007 was the last time City drew a league game 0-0. It’s ordinarily a result that provokes grumblings of frustration from both sets of fans. Not so at Stamford Bridge as City held one of the world’s richest football – on this occasion, the only discord was from the pitifully spineless and horribly spoiled Chelsea supporters. In the corner of the ground populated by the vibrant Tiger Nation, there was only celebration.

For in the final reckoning, this result may prove as valuable for the change in spirit it’ll engender as for the addition to our points tally. It felt just a little like October again, when City stormed to the upper reaches of the table via some stunning results and stellar performances. No amazing victory this time, but the display was as impressive as any of those.

On a cold afternoon in London – now thankfully open again after the horrific experience of some snow paralysed the place – the Tigers made a single change to the side that was held by West Brom last week as Geovanni replaced the suspended Dancin’ Bernard Mendy. It meant we lined up: Duke; Ricketts, Turner, Zayatte, Dawson; Garcia, Ashbee (c), Marney, Kilbane; Geovanni, Fagan.

On the bench were Myhill, Doyle, France, Halmosi, Hughes, Barmby and Manucho – no place for Folan. For Chelsea, the magnificently-monickered Henrique Hilario replaced Petr Cech, but it was otherwise a largely full-strength side. England internationals Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry were on duty alongside their galaxy of expensive foreign imports.

It was John Terry who had the first chance of the game. A Lampard free-kick broke to the England captain with Duke grounded and no defender in immediate proximity, however he somehow scooped the ball over from about three yards, to the crowing delight of the City fans in front of whom this shocking miss was made.

A major relief in just the second minute. Chelsea were unexpectedly doing the bulk of the attacking, although with close to ten minutes gone and City beginning to settle a little, we had our first attempt on goal when Geovanni flashed a shot at goal from outside the area that flew well wide.

Encouraging stuff thus far – Chelsea were controlling possession, but with Ashbee and Marney refusing to let City be trampled through in midfield, our grip on proceedings was fairly secure. Until, that was, we got a little over-confident with twenty minutes on the clock. A corner won at the far end was cleared by Chelsea, mis-controlled by Kilbane in midfield and they broke with terrific pace towards the City goal. It ended up with Quaresma on the City right and he cut towards goal by shooting, but Duke produced an excellent flying save to divert the ball wide.

It was the opening to Chelsea’s best spell of the game, and a few minutes later Alex directed a header from a Lampard corner over the crossbar. A minute later Lampard shaped to shoot in a dangerous position, but a thudding challenge by Ian Ashbee did enough to deflect the ball wide.

We were rocking a little now, but found some relief when a sparkling run by Geovanni saw him cover thirty yards in an instant before being assailed by Ballack just as he entered shooting range. The German international was cautioned; Geovanni’s free-kick was disappointingly off-target.

Back came Chelsea with a free-kick chance of their own, which Ballack took and sent into the side-netting with Duke completely beaten. It was becoming more end-to-end now, with Fagan narrowly missing the goal with a long-range shot before another Chelsea free-kick generously donated by the, shall we say, generous referee Lee Mason was taken by Lampard and blasted into a sensitive part of Kamil Zayatte’s anatomy. After a few moments of deep breathing, he was fit to continue.

As half-time neared and the refrain of “let’s just hold on till the break” swept the stand, City had a great chance to nick the lead. Firstly, a superb cross by Ricketts found Kevin Kilbane, whose header struck the outside of Hilario’s post with the Chelsea keeper beaten. However, we entered the interval with parity achieved, and an improbable point becoming a legitimate target.

What a curious and largely disagreeable place to watch football Chelsea is. It costs £47 to get in, a truly obscene sum of money for a single match. The home fans are astoundingly quiet. Granted, Stamford Bridge doesn’t appear the greatest of grounds for noise to move from one part of the ground to another; but to go ninety minutes without hearing them even once is a new low for the Premier League.

The concourses were familiarly cramped, the prices for refreshments eye-watering, the banners draped at the far end together with the hired flag-wavers to our left looked like a dismal attempt at creating a kind of southern Anfield. It was horribly artificial – but perhaps some clubs like that sort of thing. At least the stewards left us alone.

Chelsea’s title challenge has been repeatedly undermined by dropping points at home, and as they trooped out for the second half a sense of déjà vu almost seemed to be settling upon them. On the other hand, City came out looking determined to make the most of a solid opening forty-five.

Our captain, as totemic as ever, was cautioned after a few minutes for a foul on Michael Ballack, but we started the half in the ascendancy and fashioned a couple of real scoring chances. Firstly, Ballack blocked a header from a corner before Fagan strode easily through what should have been a 50/50 challenge to advance on goal. He raced towards Hilario and opted for a deft chip – sadly he failed to get the ball high enough and the ludicrously-attired keeper comfortably caught the ball. Dean Marney was to his right and was screaming for a pass. Fagan’s decision-making was perhaps awry on this occasion.

Mikel, poor throughout, was the first player to be brought off as Phil Scolari – note, it’s now “Scolari”, not “Big Phil” in the media – introduced Belletti in his place. With the game drifting a little and the noisome Tiger Nation now in full cry, he made a second change on 62 minutes, withdrawing Quaresma for the muscular presence of Didier Drogba. It mattered not, for what attacking play was occurring was largely instigated by City.

Midway through the half, we had our best chance to take the lead. Geovanni skipped into space in the area before playing a delightful reverse pass to Marney. His left-footed shot was low, hard and zipped past Hilario, but flew inches wide. From this observer’s perspective in the upper tier, it looked in.

Mr Mason had spent a lazy afternoon giving most decisions in favour of Chelsea, to the obvious and increasing displeasure of Ashbee, but he levelled things up by denying a very good penalty claim when the ball struck Andy Dawson’s left arm. It was a powerfully hit shot, but there was time for the City left-back to withdraw his errant limb. He didn’t, and was a relieved man when Mr Mason accepted his immediate suggestion that the ball had struck his stomach.

Ballack had been bested by Marney and Ashbee in the midfield battle, and he was withdrawn for the scheming genius that is Deco. However, the game was slipping away from Chelsea and they were consistently failing to pierce the resolute City back-line. Geovanni sent another free-kick frustratingly off-target after a foul on Kilbane, but as the game entered the final ten minutes City began to sit back a little.

Kalou burst through a challenge on the end of the area and appeared to be clear on goal, however as a frantic covering defender arrived he was hurried into shooting too early and too close to Duke, whose handling was assured.

Ryan France replaced Geovanni as the celebrations in the away end reached even higher levels of intensity, and there was time for just two more chances – both, remarkably, for City. An Alex blunder gave Fagan a sight on goal, but a brilliant covering tackle by Terry saw his shot screw away for a corner. From this set-piece, the ball broke to Ashbee about ten yards from goal, but he slashed a shot badly wide.

No matter; Chelsea had been a spent force for nearly fifteen minutes and we comfortably held on for the three minutes Mr Mason added to claim a superb point.

Our first clean sheet in the League since October will probably gladden the manger as much as our intelligent counter-attacking play. For the first time in quite a while, we looked clever, composed and controlled through out. Plaudits for all – Matt Duke was a steady influence at the back and made both of the saves he was required to. Turner and Zayatte were both at their marvellous best, while Dawson and Ricketts refused to let Chelsea’s runners from deep lure them out of position.

Kilbane and Garcia shored up both flanks, forcing Chelsea inside where they found Ian Ashbee having one of his finest hours in a City shirt, ably supported by the tireless Marney. Up front, Geovanni kept Chelsea occupied in a deep role, while Craig Fagan was simply magnificent: aggressive, fast, skilful, committed. Arguably his finest hour in black and amber, too.

Twenty-nine points are now ours. If we dropped two last week, we certainly gained one here. And while win-lose is obviously better for your tally than draw-draw, the implications of this result go beyond a mere point. We looked back to our best again. This was no streaky draw, achieved with our post being rattled, Duke being kept busy or referees giving us everything. We fought one of Europe’s top teams at home, took the game to them, and deserved our result. There’s a spring back in our step – and for that, huge credit to Phil Brown and his players. (AD)