Agree, interesting. Is Slimani injured? I would have thought he'd be in for his last game before he and Mahrez disappear for ACON. City starting XI: Schmeichel; Simpson, Huth, Morgan (c), Fuchs; King, Amartey, Mendy, Mahrez; Okazaki, Ulloa. Subs: Zieler, Chilwell, Musa, Wasilewski, Gray, Hernandez, Albrighton.
Slimani is ill, has a fever apparently. Drinkwater not risked after his injury. Need a good performance and would like a first away win.
We haven't won the first game in the new year for 10 years apparently and that record doesn't look like it will be broken today. Hopefully we'll get a point though..
If ever a game was there for the taking then this was it. Dire performance from both sides. With our upcoming fixtures we needed to win this one. No pressing and no energy from midfield.
I've not looked it up but I'm sure we beat Millwall away on New Year's Day what must have been 3 years ago in the promotion year. At least I remember driving back from Sheffield where I'd spent new year with it on the radio. It was that long winning run we had
I watched on sky today and there was some obvious errors in the commentary that was quite amusing, a case of them trying to be clever but not getting their facts right. I remember one of them was their stat that it was the first meeting of the sides at the Riverside since the prem in 2003. Erm what about the couple of seasons we were both in the championship? I forget the others but it is poor and I imagine stringer is the same
A win would have taken us up to 11th which would have been a massive psychological boost for the team and put those below us under more pressure. It is entirely possible we will get few or no points from the next 5 games and those extra 2 points yesterday could turn out to be so important.
... it was entirely possible that Man City would come to ours and give us a drubbing ... turned out a lot different. Personally, I'm happy that we have got a second clean sheet in the bag ... we have the potential to steadily climb into the top half ... and I think we will. We dropped 4 points to Bournemouth last season but took 4 from Spurs ... that's the nature of the EPL.
Agree with your points, if you look at the last 5 games before yesterday, we are no worse off points wise than the same fixtures last season Last season Man C (h) 1 pt Stoke (a) 1 pt Bournemouth (a) 1 pt Everton (h) 3 pt West Ham (h) 1 pt This season Man C (h) 3 Stoke (a) 1 Bournemouth (a) 0 Everton (h) 0 West Ham (h) 3 Perspective. Last season looks better as no defeats but only 1 win in those fixtures still and still 7 points
Clean sheet was great, but better finishing from Gaston and we would have been dead and buried. That was clearly a game we could have won. It's all well and good comparing selected results from this season against last season, but pretty meaningless over a whole season. We are still in a precarious position and need as many points on the board as quickly as possible. You never know what's around the next corner regarding injuries, suspensions etc.
My comment was just a bit of perspective really, it doesn't mean a great deal. My thoughts are, Defence is looking better but still work to be done The reason for the negativity is more down to performances than results themselves. In the last 6 we've won 2, drawn 2 and lost 2. This isn't good Or bad but distinctly average. But, we've not played great sides admittedly I think it was the 4 games spell prior where we lost to Watford, West Brom and Sunderland and drew at home to Boro that was the worst spell tbh. In the last 6 since there have been signs of improvement albeit with some set backs
