Surprised how slowly spurs started,as if they weren't pumped enough to get in our faces and allowed us the freedom of the lane last night as spurs barely made a tackle and the game could and should have been all over as a contest by the half hour mark. As if a switch had been flicked spurs suddenly started to compete and the second balls which were almost exclusively getting picked up by city beforehand were now much more evenly contested. Spurs were looking very dangerous with set pieces from the excellent delivery by Erikson(?) and by the half time whistle city's back line was rocking after fortunately getting the decision when Dawson was adjudged to be offside,couldn't tell from behind the goal but spurs supporters seemed in no doubt that it should've stood. Not seen a replay so don't know As is the norm with the PL,the pivotal moments in the big games tend to end up with officials making the headlines and the consistently dreadful marinner didn't didsppoint as he sent off Rose and gave a penalty when he'd clearly got the ball and Dzeko seemed to go down very easily. From then on it was over as a contest,the final score doesn't tell the story of a fairly evenly contested game either side of half time,but we can only beat what's in front of us and be thankful that the rub of the green is going our way at the moment Finally got to Euston drenched but in a happier mood than last season Just felt, like last year,the team that wanted it more took the points Regards PPLF
A fair report and 2 major very poor decisions no doubt made a big difference to the score but there was no doubting the gulf in class that exists. We just need to build a new stadium and feature in the CL on a regular basis and we will be there.
The offside decision was both correct and incorrect, somewhat bizarrely. Adebayor was offside and should've been flagged, but the linesman gave it against Dawson, who wasn't. As you say PPLF, we started badly and got hit with a sucker punch when we appeared to be doing ok. Might not have mattered, but we'll never know. Sherwood got his starting lineup wrong, took too long to correct his mistakes and we could easily have been buried by the time he acted. Early days for him, but it's not a good sign.
Fair summary. The linesman said he gave the offside against Dawson, which was wrong. However Adebayor was offside and probably interfering with play (may even have got a touch). End of first half, we were really in the game, then the sending off and no chance. City are the best team I have seen in a while, please stick a few past Chelsea on Monday!
You couldn't have summed it up better (and this is from someone who's been a critic in the past). City deserving winners in a match marred by the way that, as you say, "big games tend to end up with officials making the headlines." In keeping with the comedy routine which is the consistently dreadful Marriner and friends (see my sig), our goal was correctly ruled out, but only due, apparently, to the crew making two different errors that cancelled each other out. They didn't see Ade get a touch, and also didn't see the central defender who would have played Dawson on if Ade hadn't gotten the touch. Good luck the rest of the way. I certainly want you to beat Chelsea and Arsenal, and you have the team to do it.
I thought Sherwood's biggest mistake was allowing silva free reign to wander around the pitch unchallenged He really makes us tick
No team in the PL has a strong enough defence to stop City in full flow. Even Arsenal scoring 3 couldn't get near. 20 games unbeaten, winning 18. If this form continues, City are unstoppable. The more interesting question is whether any team in the CL can stop City.
We don't look anywhere near as good when we're really pressed We were very fortunate to win against palace and hull at home,both just guilty of not being clinical enough Think Monday will be a very difficult game,can't see Jose being very open
Citeh had obvious flaws. Poor in the set piece defence. And Rose in attack was working them over. Not so much a problem when you can score at will. But when you are faced with Chelsky-style bus parking (Barca in the CL) you are open to getting mugged.
Yeah, though more generally some combination of he and Spurs should have gotten them out of the box breathing fire and determined to outwork City, who'd had an extra game. Instead it was City running their socks off and getting to everything, while Spurs were strolling around, letting the dribbler have time and space. We also would have done well to try to get our best athletes on the field. Ade, Chiriches, Walker and Rose looked to have the combination of size and speed to belong on the same field with City, at times. The rest, not so much--though I think Dembele was injured.
Defensively far too open to even contemplate winning the CL Would love to have Vertonghen next to Kompany and Shaw at left back
Fair enough. Dawson was onside but Ade jumped and tried to head it so no complaints about it being given offside, he definitely interfered with play. The Rose one was the linos call, Marriner was giving a corner but it was the lino that raised his flag and gave it. I could've understood if Marriner gave it as at least he was at a bad angle, the lino was in the best position to see Rose make contact with the ball. Dreadful decision. Dzeko wasn't at fault though, it looked like he got taken out in the challenge and everyone falls theatrically these days, Aguero was the one playacting trying to pretend Dawson elbowed him(there was barely contact. As for Marriner, I've never seen him as a particularly bad ref(probably because he's given us a couple of penalties this season ) and I thought he had a good game in general, not to blame for the lino getting it all wrong for the pen. Interestingly the linesman apparently said at half time that he disallowed our goal for Dawson being offside so even the decision he got right he made for the wrong reasons Starting slowly seems to be a pattern for us under Sherwood and it's ****ing annoying. We did do well at setpieces but frankly it was flattering us to call us a threat considering some of the chaos you were causing at our end. I think it helped our players when we saw yours losing their discipline, shoving Dawson after Aguero feigned injury whilst Toure and Zabaleta looked like they were starting to lose it as decisions went against them. There was some hope that we could repeat last year's turn around as we at half time but that was pretty quickly snubbed out by the double whammy of a penalty and red card. All in all I've no real complaints about the result you guys were very good. Aguero, Silva and Kompany were excellent, I'm just relieved Aguero didn't play the whole game and Negredo was left on the bench. Always good to hear your opinions on the game, I'm sure you have the support of all our fans for the title race
"Defensively far too open to even contemplate winning the CL" I meant the PL. And even in the CL, there are only going to a very small number of teams capable of withstanding the current Citeh attack while scoring more.
Yeah, I wasn't sure who to blame for that really. I find it hard to believe that Walker would've been told to follow him across the pitch so really it comes down to either Dembele and Bentaleb not doing their job or Sherwood not realising that Silva will move inside a lot. I don't think I saw Sherwood trying to correct the problem so I think it falls on his head. At the other end you guys showed how it was done, Eriksen was comfortably dealt with by Fernandinho and Toure and for some reason we never really managed to get Lennon on the ball.
Sigurdson is an enigma to me,just don't see what he offers Would have the work rate of Holtby every time
A very fair summary by the OP. I don't think too many here were surprised by our slow start, it's been a constant problem under Sherwood and needs to be sorted out. We were lucky that it wasn't all over after 30 minutes, as many posters had warned in the match thread. But it wasn't and then we started to get back into the game, until it was ruined by that **** of a linesman giving the penalty decision which led to 0-2 and 10 men and game over. City may well have won anyway, they're certainly the better side, but we'll never know and it's just sickening to lose like that.
Sherwood was the one that recommended we sign him so I think that explains why he plays when fit. He's a decent player and has a great shot on him but he doesn't really work on the left wing and he's not good enough for us to make him our attacking midfielder. I expected Chadli to start as he's better defensively and offers an aerial threat at set pieces. I'm with you on Holtby, only Sherwood knows why he refuses to give him a chance, same with Capoue. I'll be glad if Holtby goes out on loan, if he can't get a kick when Sandro, Paulinho, Townsend and Lamela are all injured he's unlikely to get on the pitch for the rest of the season. If Sherwood doesn't get top 4 then hopefully Holtby can come back and get a chance with a new manager.
City have so many class players that it's hard to stop the threat, which can come from almost anywhere. Having said that, we were crying out for a Sandro last night. Our back 4 was left completely unprotected by Dembele and Bentaleb. With players like Silva around, that's just plain stupid!
Gylfi can be quite a good CM for a midtable or below-mid table team because of his shot and eye for a pass. But he's not quite good enough to start for a Spurs level team, he's slow and the eye comes and goes, and he's one of those players who doesn't react well to being a bench player. I also think Holtby has more potential. His downsides are that he's small and slow, but he really has an excellent football mind and, I think, is talented enough to be CM for Spurs--almost, because Eiriksen is a shade better. I really like the move to Fulham. If he lights up the league, we can get him back. If not, not.
