Crystal Palace away review
Phew. Back to winning ways. I said in my previous, pre match blog that Yaya may well be in the squad and I was right. I also said he wouldn't start, so what do I know?? Hopefully this is the turning point for Yaya, as he certainly could be a useful midfield to use on rotation. He is still an asset and a very good player. Delphy is out injured and struggling with injuries, so we need some midfield cover and Yaya Toure is an excellent squad player to use. He bossed Palace yesterday. He looked lean, mean and like a raring to go machine. He's lost weight, ran, tracked, tackled, pulled into space, passed well and looked keen. He created all the problems, Palace didn't know how to handle him. I don't think they expected to see him and it looked like they were not prepared for him. A good call by Pep.
For the game itself, there was not too many chances, 3 or 4 good chances for both sides all game. I say it all the time that if you want a BTTS cert for a bet, put City in it, they are shaky at the back. I thought we missed Stones today, with Kompany going off with concussion we brought on Zaba, he isn't a CB and Fernandinho had to cover a lot at the back. Where was Stones? He doesn't have an injury that I know of? Rested perhaps, along with Gundogan. I hope so anyway. If they are not injured, they will probably play Wednesday night, Silva too. I was surprised to Aguero start, he looked leggy but created the build up to Yaya's first. I was expecting Iheanacho, so we may well see him soon with the fixture pile up of December coming up. Luckily, we're out of the League Cup and hopefully qualified for the last 16 of the CL come Wednesday night too. We might see some fringe and young players against Celtic at home then to ease the pressure on the key players legs.
With CP, they failed to clear, a poor pass to their left back left him exposed, the ball is played to the left wing of City, Aguero picks the ball up on the edge of the box, passes to Yaya who shares a lovely one two with Nolito and shoots hard and into the leg of the Palace defender and into the roof of the net, past Hennessey. The first shot on target and a relief to be honest. Palace got some good crosses in, a header straight at Bravo from Benteke and the follow up missed from Puncheon some how. Puncheon and Zaha looked dangerous with their pace and I'm surprised Remy didn't start, but CP didn't wish to start with two up top and leave the midfield exposed. Wickham came on, the bogey man to City and he made a powerful run past Zaba (too weak in the challenge, would Kompany have got bullied and tied into a foot race in the box? Stones probably would have and still had the same result as Zaba so Kompany a big loss from the earlier collision with Bravo from a hoof up forward and pressure applied by Benteke) and fires low into Bravo's foot and into the roof of the net. Disappointing goalkeeping. Bravo is an ok goalkeeper, he's comfortable on the ball but he isn't the long term solution to City's goalkeeping situation. Bravo may be rotation next year if Caballero leaves and City replace with a decent keeper. Who that is? I don't know, we signed and sold Rulli with a buy back option so my guess would be him if he impresses in La Liga. Anyone know how he is getting on at Sociedad?? City had a corner, driven low by De Bruyne and found Kolarov who fired straight to the keeper who took a step to the right. City won a corner again minutes later and same again from De Bruyne but finds Toure in the middle. Toure fires low to the left with a clever flick with his right foot (the shot looks harder than it seems) and City go 2-1 up in the final 15 minutes. Crystal Palace didn't learn their lesson of covering the near post. They had no one there. It happened twice and got punished the second time. Late on, puncheon had a nice shot go just wide and City hung on. Arteta, on the bench (he's a coach at City now) breathed a huge sigh of relief at the final whistle and that sums up how I felt yesterday with the result.
Crystal Palace we're hard to beat, pace caused some problems but Palace never took their chances and they did have some. One went but luckily City got two. Something they haven't been able to do in the Premier League a lot when we have been pegged back over the last month or two. So that shows good character. Palace look low on confidence and the fact they have picked up the lowest points tally in 2016 from any team in all of the football league and premier league this year shows Pardew isn't the answer possibly. They have a good team, I don't think they will go down but if the form continues then they will struggle. Leicester and West Ham have the same problem too. But for City, joint top with Liverpool, but Chelsea play today away at Middlesbrough so we'll see how they get on. Up next for City is a trip to Germany and Borussia Monchengladbach away. City won 4-0 at the Etihad but we was on that amazing winning run and playing with a lot of confidence so this game in Germany will be a lot different. It will be close, I'll take a draw to be honest. We won their last season but the situation is a lot different this year. I'll be more than happy to draw as it gives us a head to head record better than Monchengladbach and means they cannot finish over us. If we win City are through. If we draw and Celtic don't win, we are through and if we lose and Celtic lose, we have to just match what Monchengladbach do in Barcelona in the last fixture. If Celtic win and City lose, Celtic need to beat City and hope Monchengladbach lose to Barcelona. If City lose and Celtic draw then Celtic finish bottom and City again need to match Monchengladbach's result in Barcelona. Celtic need to beat Barcelona or they are out. So if City draw and Celtic win then it's all onto the Etihad for the last game of the groups where City would need to just not lose. If City lose 5-0 to Monchengladbach then we deserve to go out. We would then need to beat Celtic and hope Monchengladbach don't win in Barcelona. If City win on Wednesday and Barcelona draw then City need to beat Celtic and hope Barcelona don't win their last game to finish the group top. A lot to ask for, so I'll take just qualifying on Wednesday. I'll preview the situation on Wednesday on my blog, a long with team news, predictions and what to expect. See you then.
