City ensured they’ll go into the Manchester derby on what if (for City) very poor form after a 2-0 loss to Newcastle United on home ground dumped The Blues out of the Capital One Cup on Wednesday night. However it was no more than City deserved, taking over 80 minutes to inject any sort of urgency into the game. Alan Pardew and his team will go back home to the north-east with wide grins on their faces after The Magpies’ first win against City in 13 games.
Despite the visit of Manchester United in just four days, Pellegrini tried to ensure the victory by fielding a strong team that included David Silva, Yaya Touré and Fernandinho, as well as giving gametime to players like Caballero and Jovetić, who aren’t seeing much of the pitch except from the bench at the minute. That particular choice of team proved to be a bad one for Pellegrini as not only did he lose, but David Silva picked up an early injury that might rule him out of Sunday. Not good news to anyone with a preference for the colour blue. However Samir Nasri did play most of the game returning from injury.
The first half started in possibly the worst way imaginable. Not only was the magical Silva down within four minutes, but young 18-year-old Rolando Aarons gave the visitors the lead after just 6 minutes. His pace took him in behind Eliaquim Mangala – who is looking less and less like the player he did in that first game against Chelsea – before the young winger slotted the ball low through Caballero to give Toon the lead early on. That lead would prove to be deserved as despite City having the majority of the possession in the first 45, Newcastle’s defence held tight and The Blues couldn’t take any of the half-chances they were given. Perhaps the best City chance in the first half was a deflection off Fabricio Coloccini from a Kolarov cross, which went narrowly wide of the post – that the best chance was from a Newcastle player is probably telling.
The second half started in a fashion that most of the first had been played in; City controlling the possession slowly on the edge of the Newcastle half. Pellegrini tried to change it by bringing Navas and Agüero on but nothing really changed the game a great deal. The Blues never really looked like going on to win the game, and in the end Newcastle almost certainly deserved to get their second goal.
The way in which the goal was scored however, can hardly have been expected. Moussa Sissoko, a player who’d only been on for mere minutes at this point, picked up the ball about 25 yards from goal, before weaving his way through the City defence to put the ball past Caballero, who probably could have done better, from a tight angle. A great goal from a Newcastle point of view, but Pellegrini and his coaching staff will be asking questions about how it happened. Sissoko probably shouldn’t have been allowed to run as far as he did and finish in such space, but it was just one of those days for City.
The majority of City fans are going to find it hard to go into Sunday with any sort of confidence, with United looking on good form whilst it’s been a tough week for City – three bad, bad results in seven days. However hopefully this win makes the players take a look at themselves and realise what they need to do on Sunday. With any luck, this is our bad patch of the season out of the way and we can kick on now, with one less competition to worry about.
