Tuesday
Off to the Irish Centre, Cheetham Hill, tonight where Joe O’Neill’s doing a presentation on his book re the Manchester Martyrs – 8pm if you fancy it.
Then tomorrow it is of course shit or bust v Chelsea. Here’s the It’s a Fix extract from KK195 :
GAME 29) WEDNESDAY MARCH 20TH : CHELSEA (HOME) KO 7.45PM
Promoted in 1988/89 (with us) and despite being as daft a club as us until the Harding and Abramovich money came in they‘ve been ever present in the Prem and have picked up a host of trophies missing out only on the European Cup/Champions League. This is the 134thl league meeting. Most recent connection is Danny Sturridge.
At the Bridge in December we suffered our first defeat. Mario (2) opened, Clattenburg missed a blatant penalty on Silva, but after playing superbly we conceded to Meireles (34) then degenerated into sloppiness, Clichy being sent off and Lescott conceding a ball to hand penalty which Clattenburg fell over himself he was that eager to award it. Lampard (83) converted. Crowd was 41,730 with 1,458 City.
This season so far they’re in 5th place with 49 points from 28 games and 5 wins 5 draws and 4 defeats away from home.
In the Carling Cup they beat Fulham at home in the 3rd rd 4-3 on pens after 0-0, Everton away 2-1 aet in the 4th, but lost at home to Liverpool 2-0 in the 5th rd
In the Chimps league they’ve beaten Bayern Lev 4-1 on agg, Valencia 4-1 on agg, Genk 6-1 on agg, and surprisingly overcame Napoli 1-3 away and 4-1 home aet with a tremendous fight back at the Bridge and face Benfica in the next round.
In the FA Cup they beat Pompey 4-0 at home in the 3rd rd, QPR 1-0 away in the 4th rd drew 1-1 with Birmingham at home in the 5th rd. and won 2-0 away, and have just beaten Leicester 5-2 in the 6th round to face Bolton or Spurs in the semi-final. Not bad for a club in crisis.
At home to Chelsea : Last season at COMS in September 2010 City registered a 1-0 win, Chelsea’s first defeat of the season, Tevez (59) Crowd was 47,203 with 2,844 Chelski
This was our second consecutive win and only our 3rd in 16 meetings since 1991.
Comment : Not quite the season they expected under new manager AVB and turmoil over the latest Terry alleged misdemeanour. AVB went after the defeat at West Brom where Sturridge missed sitters and probably cost him his job (as did Howard Webb in their game v the rags). Roberto de Matteo, failed Albion manager, ironically took over and needless to say they‘ve had a resurgence under his management. Just before they play us, inevitably, with Torres even, starting to score. They’re fighting for 3rd or 4th place so this will be our biggest test of the season, another one, and we daren’t fail. Tevez could be on the bench and you fancy an El Cid type moment to redeem him in the eyes of the fans and put us back on track.
We need revenge for our Clattenburg motivated defeat there and our improved home form against them indicates we can get a result. We must.
WWTWTWShite? Crowds were down to an average of 12,672 in 1982/83 and this season’s average home attendance is 41,591.
Dave
“Cheap and dreary mind games from a succession of nondescript past and present United players could really make the difference” confided Johnny Evans and Clayton Blackmore.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Fuckin' Evans!! Possibly the only central defender worse than John O'Shea and he's joined in the chat now. I can imagine the first day for new recruits at Old Trafford and their induction day course, topic three (11.15-12.00) just before lunch is "Mind Games" presented by guest speaker, United Legend Clayton Blackmore.
ReplyDeleteSimples. A central defensive pair of Savic and Kolo and we lose. Not heard what the score is with Lescott and Vinnie but unless at least one is back then we'll be up a creak.
ReplyDeleteWas really surprised that Torres scored before playing us. I would have thought the combination of our not having dropped a point at home all season and him not having scored left him nailed on for an 89th minute winner tonight. At least it means he may well start and I'd much rather have Drogba, especially if we're light in central defence. Drogba vs Savic and Sturridge vs Lightning-fast Kolo doesn't appeal.
Here we go again, the is time it's Captain Crocked's turn to wheel out the same old shite.
ReplyDeleteAccording the the unbiased ME(U)N, Bryan Robson reckons United’s old boys’ network will outrun City in the race for the title. The Old Trafford and England legend is backing veterans Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand to clinch a record 20th league championship. And Robson, who won two Premier League titles at United during a glorious playing career, believes Sir Alex Ferguson’s side could even be crowned champions at the Etihad Stadium on April 30.
Glorious!! spent more time on the fuckin'treatment table. Why does he only have two championship medals in a career that spanned 13 years? It's because United failed to win the league for 27 years, but once they were gifted it for the first time in 1993, they went on to dominate. We might just do the same thing.
ReplyDeleteTerrific result in a match that looked like it had gone away, but quite a few issues. Chelsea constantly got between the midfield and our defensive line, DeJong turned into the invisible man leaving Yaya to double up constantly. Mario was awful, as he was against Swansea, but with Dzeko so ineffective at the moment, there doesn't seem too many alternatives until Tevez is 100%. Edin's 15/20 mins were very poor last night. Silva looks totally shot and had a very poor game, highlighted by corner after corner being wasted. Sergio battles on but is running on his reserve tank at the moment. Still, Nasri was excellent, Micah great in the centre ( thank God Savic was omitted ). Man of match for me was Zab, yet again faultless and would be an automatic pick for any other team.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of whether we blame Mancini or Tevez, the fact remains that City are paying the price for only having three strikers after the events in Munich. Aguero has been overused and given his terrific start to the season, Dzeko was rested at the wrong time and has since been underused. Balotelli continues to bite the hand that feeds him and as far as I’m concerned, the sooner he leaves the better.
ReplyDeleteDespite a sterling defensive performance from Zabaletta, we lose our attacking threat when Richards doesn’t appear at Right Back. Similarly, although every single City fan would prefer Clichy, our only outfield players who can cross a ball properly at pace are Kolarov and Milner.
I’m not sure what has happened to Milner, but like Dzeko, he has struggled for form after being rested at the wrong time.
Last season United played thirteen games in the Champions League and City weren’t even in the competition. This season they both played Six, but despite City struggling in the Group of Death, nobody expected United to fail to qualify for the latter stages. This will weaken their ability to replace the ageing Giggs, Scholes and Ferdinand, but in the short term it has helped them focus on the one competition.
Ironically, Mancini has prepared all his rotational thinking for a three game a week battle that has never materialised. Meanwhile United have brought back Scholes to paper over the cracks. It's vital that we continue to push them all the way because even if it takes another year, we will only get stronger.
100% agree with that Neil. I once again stress that we should have bought a new striker and centre half in January, FFP or not as we are going to have to anyway. The way we have been playing for the last few months, reminds me of what we looked like earlier in the season when Silva was injured for a few games. He is clearly burnt out/carrying an injury as he doesn't look the player he did back then. We should start with Nasri and give Silva a chance to recharge his batteries. I was so proud of the team/crowd last night, but I have to say Chelsea looked poor, no wonder United pulled three goals back. Arsenal iis the only remaining game we have anything to fear about. None of the others will be easy, but none all are games we could win. Mancini must start Tourre YaYa in his best position, not leave it untill the 50th minute to change things.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why Milner is so out of favour either, though agree with Neil about the similarity with Dzeko; being rested at the wrong time and not getting into the groove again. Zabaleta is an able deputy at right-back and we needed Richards in central defence for this one. I didn't think Barry was at his best, a few sloppy passes putting us into trouble. Overall a deserved win, but still more questions than answers.
ReplyDeleteAlex