The Manchester City Project

Now are you going to believe us? (See the match goals and incidents in the video below). Manchester City sent a further shot across the bows of the top four with a 4-2 win against Arsenal. Robinho and Tevez were both missing through injury – however City have such a strong squad that they insured they kept a 100% start to the season.

Arsenal started the game brightly and should have gone ahead when Gallas missed a header from a corner. City took the lead after 20 minutes when Richards headed a Gareth Barry free kick towards goal, the ball struck the upright and bounced into the net off the head of Almunia.

In the second half Arsenal stepped up to the plate and pressured City’s goal. The end result was a goal from Van Persie on 62 minutes. Lescott making his home debut made his only mistake of the match when he slid in to win the ball but missed, leaving Van Persie to turn and shoot low to Given’s right. Van Persie then ran over to the City fans shouting “F*** Off”.

City regained the lead moments later when Richards did well to cut inside the box and slide the ball into Bellamy with pace. Bellamy struck first time with power to beat Almunia.

Shaun Wright-Phillips rode a heavy challenge to cross the ball into Adebayor who headed in City’s third goal on 80 minutes. I was really pleased for Adebayor to score against his former club, especially considering all of the abuse he has received from the Arsenal fans – which was on a par to a Spur’s welcome to a former player. Unfortunately my heart sunk when I watched him cross the half way to run the full length of the pitch to celebrate infront of the Arsenal fans. I was now witnessing a three match ban for inciting the crowd, not a goal celebration.


However Gary Neville did the same when celebrating a goal for Manchester United against Liverpool and he recieved a £500k fine and no match ban - see the video here on my previous post.

City scored a forth goal when the very impressive Craig Bellamy won the ball deep in his own half and then headed a counter attack with Petrov, Adebayor and Wright-Phillips all running at pace towards the Arsenal goal. Bellamy released Wright-Phillips who deftly chipped the ball over the advancing Almunia. Wright-Phillips will have been pleased to score after missing a sitter from six yards minutes earlier. Adebayor had dribbled past four Arsenal players before cutting the ball back to Wright-Phillips who miss hit the ball wide.

Rosicky scored late in the game after a fine Arsenal move, however it was too late to influence the final result.

The other clear talking point during the game was the Adebayor “stamp” on Van Persie. Slow motion replays show Adebayor making contact with Van Persie’s head after a rash challenge. Van Persie has released a statement about the incident on the Arsenal website and the FA have already started to review the match footage.

With City’s injury list increasing Adebayor will be sorely missed when he is undoubtedly handed a ban from the FA. The ban may even be in place by the time City face Manchester United in the derby at Old Trafford next week.

For the Van Persie Statement in full and video of the stamp incident then please see the previous post: click here.

Match Facts:
Manchester City 4 (Almunia o.g. Bellamy, Adebayor, Wright-Phillips)
Arsenal 2 (Van Persie, Rosicky)
Saturday 12 September 2009, 3:00PM
Att: 47339

Manchester City: Given; Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge; Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Ireland Petrov, 72), Barry; Adebayor, Bellamy. Unused subs: Onuoha, Zabaleta, Taylor, Sylvinho, Vidal, Weiss.

Bookings: Lescott (14) Adebayor (81) De Jong (90)

Arsenal: Almunia; Sagna (Eboue, 76), Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy; Diaby, Song Eduardo, 76), Denilson (Rosicky 52), Fabregas, Diaby; Bendtner, Van Persie. Unused subs: Ramsey, Silvestre, Mannone, Gibbs.

Bookings: Sagna (18) Song (72)

Manchester City continued to gel against Portsmouth despite not driving in full gear. City’s 1-0 win makes it three out of three in the league. City look solid at the back with new arrival Lescott and they look frightening going forward... ...there is certainly more to come.

Adebayor scored his third goal in as many games from a Gareth Barry corner after he lost his marker, the new Portsmouth captain Aaron Mokoena. City should have been 2-0 up minutes later when Bellamy crossed for Richards to slide in at the far post. However the goal was ruled offside due to Barry arriving in the six yard box, despite Barry not interfering with play.

Portsmouth put up a fight after the goal with David Nugent missing a glorious chance after scuffing his shot into the ground and Given stood tall and strong to chest the ball clear.

City could well have had a penalty in the closing moments when Belhadj brought down the impressive Wright-Phillips in the box, but replays show that Belhadj won the ball before making contact with Wright-Phillips.

Robinho was left on the bench for the game, with Bellamy taking his place on the left wing. Robinho was carrying a knock on his ankle and was not risked, especially as he will be featuring for Brazil in the important World Cup qualifier against Argentina in the next few days.

Match Facts:
Sunday 30 August 2009, 1:30PM
Fratton Park Att: 17826 Barclays Premier League

Portsmouth: Begovic,Kaboul,Vanden Borre,Belhadj,Mokoena,Mullins,Brown,Kranjcar,Hughes (Nugent 86),Smith (Utaka 68),Piquionne (Kanu 73) Unused subs: Ashdown, Hreidarsson,Ward, Basinas, Bookings: Hughes and Mokoena

Manchester City: Given,Richards (Zabaleta 60),Toure,Lescott,Bridge,Wright-Phillips,Ireland (De Jong 76),Barry,Bellamy,Adebayor,Tevez Unused subs: Taylor, Onuoha, Petrov, Weiss, Robinho Bookings: Zabaleta

Manchester City secured a place in the third round of the league cup with a comfortable win over Crystal Palace. Goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips and Carlos Tevez ensured that City did not suffer a 2nd Round embarrassing defeat – again.

Joleon Lescott was thrust into the starting line-up after completing his move from Everton on Wednesday and helped City keep a third consecutive clean sheet. Palace threatened City’s goal in the first half with Moses very effective down the left and Sears coming close three times. Given was again on top form to prevent Palace gaining the lead.

City should have been ahead after 18 minutes when Robinho was ruled offside despite actually starting his run in his own half. This was one of a number of wrong desicisons by an inept linesman.

In the second half City completely dominated. They started the half with a goal when Ireland fed the ball through to Wright-Phillips on the edge of the area. Wright-Phillips smashed the ball – beating Speroni at his near post.

With 20 minutes remaining Carlos Tevez put the game beyond Palace with a header from six yards out after being left unmarked from a corner.

The strong starting line-up was necessary in order to ensure victory but also to help the new team gel together, which they are doing with every minute of play. Manager Mark Hughes was pleased with Carlos Tevez getting on the team sheet: "I was hoping that by playing Carlos that it would be an opportunity for him to get off the mark and was delighted that he did so.

"Carlos is a quality player with great intelligence. He makes the right runs time and time again.

"He is working very nicely with Emmanuel Adebayor."

Match Facts:
Crystal Palace 0
Manchester City 2 (Wright-Phillips 50, Tevez 72)
Thursday 27 August 2009, 8:00PM
Selhurst Park Att: 14725 Carling Cup


Crystal Palace: Speroni; Clyne, Fonte, McCarthy, Hill; Ambrose (Smith, 71), Danns, Derry, Moses (Carle, 79); N'Diaye, Sears (Scannell, 71). Unused subs: Flahavan, Lawrence, Lee, Butterfield

Bookings:

Manchester City: Given; Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge; Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Barry; Tevez (De Jong, 86), Adebayor, Robinho (Bellamy, 72). Unused subs: Taylor, Onuoha, Zabaleta, Petrov, Weiss

Bookings: Richards (10)

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

Man City fans were in good voice amongst the 94,123 crowd at the Nou Camp. They watched on as City beat the European Champions by a single Martin Petrov Goal and lifted the traditional pre-season friendly cup – the Joan Gamper trophy.

Vlad Weiss was named in the starting line up alongside Martin Petrov. Vlad Weiss had an excellent game on the wing, frequently showing signs of brilliance and he did not look fazed nor out of place amongst the likes of Lionel Messi, Ibrahimovic, Puyol and Yaya Toure. Based on his preseason form Vlad Weiss could well expect to gain some needed Premiership experience against Wolves on Saturday.

Martin Petrov who has been linked with a move away from Manchester City recently scored again to increase his chances of breaking into the City starting XI. Barcelona controlled the early stages of the match until City broke away after a Barca attack on 27 minutes. Stephen Ireland threaded a ball through to Martin Petrov who coolly slotted home.

City almost scored again just before half time when Petrov struck a freekick into the area and Gareth Barry watch his header fly past the post.

City’s back four stood up to a Barcelona backlash in the second half, with Dunne in good form at the back. Barcelona’s efforts resulted in a Jonathan shot hitting the cross bar and a Messi shot that went just wide.

Shay Given pulled off a number of fine saves to underline his importance in the team. Given saved brilliantly with his feet to deny a debut goal for Ibrahimovic. On this form Given will provided a firm foundation for City’s assault on the Premiership Elite this year.

In the final moments of the game Craig Bellamy had the chance to increase City’s lead after another Stephen Ireland pass. However Bellamy shot just wide.

Richard Dunne lifted the trophy infront of 94,000 fans at the Nou Camp – a major confidence builder ahead of Saturday’s first home game of the season against Wolves.



Match Facts
Barcelona 0
Manchester City 1 (Petrov, 28)

Wednesday 19 August 2009, 9:15PM
Att: 94123 Pre-Season Friendly

FC Barcelona: Pinto; Montoya (Alves, 46), Puyol (Marc Bartra, 30), Fontas (Pique, 65), Maxwell; Sergio; Yaya Toure (Jonathan, 46), Gudjohnsen (Keita, 46); Jeffren Gai, 54), Bojan (Ibrahimovic, 46), Pedro (Messi, 46). Unused subs: Mino, Henrique, Muniesa, Thiago

Manchester City: Given; Onuoha, Dunne, Kolo Toure (Ben Haim, 46), Zabaleta (Garrido, 65); Weiss, Wright-Phillips (Tripper, 81), Ireland, Barry Etuhu, 69), Petrov; Tevez (Bellamy, 65). Unused subs: Taylor, Vidal, McGivern

Stephen Ireland - Homegrown Superman

Stephen Ireland was to finish any hope for Blackburn fan’s in the last moments of the game. After another inspired break away Ireland found himself confronted by Robinson in the area after another pass from Wright-Phillips – he looked up and feigned to pass to Adebayor before coolly passing the ball into the net past Robinson. Ireland topped off another fine display with a cool finish, leaving the pitch to the sound of the 7,000 strong City travelling fans... “Ireland is Superman”.

Oakland is a good ground with decent fans, however after getting off the train in Barnsley I did feel as though I’d just entered an episode of Life on Mars or Boys From The Blackstuff. If any where needs investment then it’s Barnsley City Centre.



There was a good atmosphere at Oakwell on Saturday for the preseason friendly between Barnsley and Manchester City. Both sets of fans honoured the late Bobby Robson with a minute’s applause before the game along with chants of “There’s only one Bobby Robson” and “England”. At half time both sets of fans roundly applauded Barnsley’s Academy player’s as they paraded their trophy from the final of the Swedish International Tournament.

The only complaint must be against the stadium announcer. Surely there are two skills required in order to be an announcer – first you must be able to pronounce the names of the players, and secondly announce the details of the subs correctly. This guy couldn’t do either – I mean if that was my job I’d at least try and practice the player names the night before. Instead of practising the Barnsley announcer simply miss-pronounced “Adebayor” and then giggled and sighed.

City dominated the game even though many of the players were under par since they are preparing for the start of the premiership campaign. Shaun Wright-Phillips, Robinho and Ireland showed some good moments but never really went 100% in essentially a training match. A major positive was the pairing of Adebayor and Bellamy upfront. Despite both players missing chances from inside the box – it was obvious the two strikers could develop a promising partnership (however Tevez will have a lot to say about that).

Former Man City player Jon Macken caused numerous problems for City’s defence and almost scored after 16 minutes but his six yard header sailed over the bar. City responded on 22 minutes with Bellamy forcing Luke Steele to palm away a shot before Steele completed a double save from Adebayor’s follow-up.

In the second half Macken almost scored again after a (typical city) slip from new man Kolo Toure, but he failed to capitalise.

Toure came off the pitch injured after a clash in the six-yard-box. However Hughes later confirmed that Kolo was removed as he was suffering from cramp and removed him as a precaution.

Adebayor could have scored after lobbing the keeper but saw his effort hit the bar and he couldn’t convert the rebound. Moments later Robinho hit the bar after a cut back from Zabletta.
After 74 minutes City broke from a Barnsley corner, Adebayor slipped Bellamy through on goal – however the Welshman failed to hit the target from 10 yards, hitting the side netting.

Bogdanovic put the homeside ahead on 84 minutes after an impressive counter attack. Five minutes later Stephen Ireland and Vlad Wiess combined on the right wing to set up Martin Petrov for a close range finish to end the game 1-1.



Mark Hughes was pleased with the run out against Barnsley, he told the official Man City website:

“We played some good stuff and in the second half I thought our interplay was excellent,

“The final ball was lacking on occasions but we created enough chances to have won quite comfortably. The finishing will come as we get nearer the start of the season. It is just a matter of the timing being off here and there.

“Overall I was pleased with the test and both teams benefitted from the run out. It will have brought us on a lot. On another day we would have won quite comfortably.

“I am happy with what I am seeing. It was good for Kolo (Toure) to get his debut behind him. He gives us comfort on the ball and his ability with it at his feet was there for everyone to see.

“Once he starts to understand those in front of him and the qualities they have and the best way to bring out those qualities the bigger the impact he will have. I was pleased with his debut and he came off early because of a bit of cramp. He has integrated well into the dressing room. He is a great guy and we are delighted to have him at the club.”

Full Time: Barnsley 1 (Bogdanovic, 84) – Manchester City 1 (Petrov, 87)

Barnsley Team: Steele, Hassell, Kozluk, Moore, Foster, Campbell-Ryce, Thompson, Devaney, Butterfield, Odejayi, Macken. Subs: Preece, Sodje, Hibbert, Bogdanovic, Noble-Lazarus, El Haimour, Coulson, Hume.

Manchester City Team: Give, Richards, Toure, Onuoha, Garrido, Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Robinho, Bellamy, Ireland, Adebayor. Subs: Taylor, Zabaleta, Ben Haim, McGiven, Vidal, Petrov, Weiss, Etuhu.

Footage Taken From Oakwell 01/08/2009