The Manchester City Project

Manchester City won their second game of the season with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak watching from the stands. The City fans produced a number of new banners for the game including one from bluemoon forums that thanked Sheikh Mansour.

Other banners featured were “Ireland is Superman” and “We’re Not Really Here”.

Before the game Mike Summerbee was introduced as the clubs new ambassador infront of the fans with Garry Cook and Mark Hughes.

Mark Hughes made one change from the side that won at Blackburn, replacing Craig Bellamy with Carlos Tevez, giving a three pronged attack of Robihno, Adebayor and Tevez.

City completely dominated the first half. Wolves placed 10 men behind the ball and frustrated City until the 18th minute. Bridge passed to Robinho who worked his way down the left wing before passing back to Bridge who hit a ball across the face of the 18 yard box. Tevez deftly cushioned the ball into the path of Adebayor who turned and shot low and hard into the bottom of the net. That was Adebayor’s second goal of the season. (See video below).

It wasn’t until the 40th minute that Shay Given was called into action. Matthew Jarvis broke through the centre of the pitch and sent a powerful drive heading for the top right hand corner of the net. Given matched it – diving high he pushed it around the upright.

City lost a little composure in the second half and failed to close down the opposition who had decided to make a fight of the match. Wolves came close on 69 minutes when Andy Keogh smashed the crossbar with a drive that should have resulted in a goal. However Ireland should have put the game beyond Wolves on the 57th minute when he miss hit the ball with the goal at his mercy.

Overall City deserved to win the game on chances created, they had 11 shots on target compared to Wolves 2 and dominated possession with 65% of the play.

After the game during an interview Mark Hughes acknowledged that City and Everton were now in dialogue over the transfer of Joleon Lescott (see interview below).

Match Facts:
Manchester City 1 (Adebayor, 18)
Wolves 0
Att: 47,287

Manchester City: Given,Richards,Dunne,Toure,Bridge,Wright-Phillips,Ireland,Barry,Robinho (De Jong 83),Tevez (Bellamy 72), Adebayor Unused subs: Taylor, Zabaleta, Onuoha, Petrov, and Weiss

Wolves: Hennessey,Edwards,Stearman,Craddock,Henry,Keogh,Ward(Vokes74,Halford(Elokobi46)Jarvis,Milijas(Doyle46,Mancienne Unused subs: Surman,Hahnemann,Jones,and Berra

Bookings: Stearman