One day to go
Rags have been at it already with their “we want our title back” shite – erm it’s OUR title. No wonder…..
I’m not happy. We’ve a new Chief Exec., we brought that bloke in from Blackburn to sort out the deals, Marwood’s procrastinating, and whilst you’d think that Adebayor would accept he’s had a good run and take a drop, we’ve not done good business over the summer. The scouting situation is in disarray, and there’s question marks over the EDS team situation. What’s going to happen if there’s an injury to Vince or Joleon doesn’t bear thinking about. The same argument we had in January still applies though we got away with that one by the skin of our teeth, though I still maintain we could’ve had the Carling cup as well as the Title. It makes Andy Dunn’s stupid article in the recent manumirror seem even dafter now.
Anyway – Chelsea tomorrow – here’s the It’s A fix extract from KK 198
SUNDAY AUGUST 12TH : CHELSEA : COMMUNITY
SHIELD K.O. 1.30 P.M. AT VILLA PARK (due to the Olympics)
Chelsea reached the Community Shield game by winning the FA Cup v Liverpool. They also, of course won the European Champions Cup on the night of the City Swinton Branch’s end of season bash at Clifton Cricket Club with pasty and peas plus live viewing of the Munich v Chelsea clash. I have no sympathy with Bayern Munich after they cheated us out of a win at the Allianz when, after outplaying them for the first half hour and having two penalties turned down we lost 2-0 and it caused the Tevezgate saga to commence. A big roar went up in the other room (rags) when Munich scored, and an even bigger one in ours when Chelsea equalised and went on to win on penalties. So congratulations were in order, even though it strengthened their hand, to complete a shit week for the rags, after we pipped them to the title! Sturridge didn’t feature, and if Roberto is thinking of signing him he should talk to Jim Cassell first.
In the Charity Shield it will be our 9th appearance. We lost to Arsenal 0-4 in 1935, and beat Sunderland 2-0 in 1937. We then lost 1-0 to united in 1956, Bobby Johnstone having his backheeled goal direct from a corner mysteriously disallowed.
Moving on, City recorded the highest ever score in this fixture beating West Brom 6-1 in 1968, then lost 2-1 to Leeds in 1969. Then came a couple of games where the Champs and the Cup winners couldn’t be bothered to help raise charity money and so City played and won 1-0 at Villa in 1972, but lost 1-0 at home to Burnley in 1973. Last season it was the 3-2 loss against united.
We would’ve played Chelsea in the Charity Shield in 1955 if we’d beaten Newcastle in the FA Cup Final that year, but, alas it was not to be. We also lost to them 5-4 in the Full Members Cup Final of 1986, pulling back 3 goals in the last few minutes at Wembley. Let’s hope the fans are better behaved today.
Last season At the Bridge in December we suffered our first Prem 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 Lampard (83) converted. Crowd was 41,730 with 1,458 City.
At The Etihad in March, mid week we won 2-1. Cahill opened (60) with a fluky one, Aguero (78pen) made up for the Lampard one at The Bridge, but not the Silva non one, and Nasri (85) scored the important winner after clever play from Tevez. Crowd was 46,324 with 929 Chelsea.
They finished in 6th place with 64 points.
Our form at Villa Park is good, In the fifteen Prem. meetings there we’ve won 5, drawn 6, lost 4, plus a 1-0 League cup win in 2000/01, and an F A Cup draw 1-1 in 2006 (5th Rd). It also holds happy semi-final memories from the distant past, 1-0 Sunderland 1955, 1-0 Spurs 1956, 1-0 Everton 1969, 1-0 Ipswich 1981 We also won 1-0 there in the Charity Shield v Villa in 1972. (bit of a pattern there!) it was the worst programme cover ever, but last season’s programme had a great poster of the players taking the field in that match.
No doubt all eyes will be on Eden Hazard, the daft sod, and it’s worrying that they’ve spent £63M this summer and us nothing even though we’re also in a strong position with the title under our belts.
Villa Park : Capacity : 42,602 (13,700 for City)
Groundwise, no change to Villa Park. We’ve got 13,700 tickets in the Trinity Road, North Stand and Doug Ellis stand.
Tickets are reasonably priced.
It’s the West Midlands police plus often over efficious stewards, so be careful out there, though Dave Woodhall's put in a good word to aid us selling.
Post Code : B6 6HE. Parking on industrial premises off A4040 Aston Lane (or on side streets) to North West of ground, then return via A38 to M6 jn 7
Pubs : The Yew Tree, The Cap and Gown on Witton Island, The Harriers on Broadway, Barton Arms, High Street Aston. Tesco store has a decent café.
Dave
Well, that was all rather impressive to my eyes. The formation was a little odd, especially with Savic starting, sadly he was not very good and quite fortunate not to be sent off when stopping Torres from getting away. If Torres hadn't thrown himself to the ground, Stefan may well have picked up a 2nd yellow. City unlucky to be one down at half time in a game they had dominated. Ivanovic's tackle on Kolarov was awful and only Andy Townsend didn't see it as a straight red.
ReplyDelete2nd half, blimey we were good, YaYa and Nige totally in control as we started to dismantle Chelsea. All the goals were very good and there could have been a few more. Shame about Costel's late error to give the scoreline a flattering look for Chelsea.
I see Chelsea as our main threat this season, and their first choice eleven were comprehensively spanked by, a by no means first choice, City team looking very good.
Rodwell is a good, young (21) signing, especially as cover when YaYa is unavailable. Another centre back may be needed depending how Roberto will set the team up. We've got our extra striker, it would appear, in the form of a rejuvinated looking Tevez.
All in all, I reckon we can be pretty confident.
I thought we dominated throughout, but too often chose the wrong option when attacking.
ReplyDeleteThree at the back allows Kolarov to push up and provide a decent suply of crosses from the left. However this probably suits Dzeko rather than Aguero who prefers Silva and Nasri threading the ball from a narrow angle. Tevez and Balotelli are both better suited to the lone striker role so I'm not convinced that we have a lethal strike partnersip. More like four excellent strikers.