City give us a fright…on Halloween
This was one of those games that, on paper, screams a home win. Recent results against The Canaries have been high-scoring from our point of view to say the least, so it was not a surprise to see predictions of 5, 6 and 7-0 coming through from a number of City fans pre-match. But every football fan knows that the game is not played on paper; it’s played on grass; and this naivety was again upstaged on Saturday afternoon as Norwich made a right fist of it and nearly claimed a point of their own if it wasn’t for a late Yaya Toure penalty.
The opening hour was tough for City as they struggled to break down a seemingly stubborn Norwich side playing for a point. Wilfired Bony went close on a number of occasions and Kelchi Iheanacho (on his first Premier League start) was lively; but Kevin de Bruyne’s inclusion on the wing and with the absent Raheem Sterling resulting in limited pace, openings were hard to come by from a Blues perspective.
Arsenal’s riot at Swansea made a goal even more useful for the Blues, and that is exactly what they got through Nicolas Otamendi just before the seventy-minute mark; the Argentine rising highest to expertly place a bullet header beyond the helpless John Ruddy. But typical City was looking like it would make a comeback and haunt us as a Joe Hart clanger allowed Norwich to level with limited time remaining.
A team challenging for the league simply cannot afford to drop points at home to sides of Norwich’s calibre; meaning the penalty from Yaya Toure to restore order was much-needed as we look to fight off Arsenal; who sit just one place below us on goal difference after their 3-0 win in Wales. A poor performance; but a good result, was the story of this game. A well grinded out win to stay top of the league.
Pellegrini didn’t start the right team
The manager’s decision to leave out Raheem Sterling and play Kevin de Bruyne on the left was met with raised eyebrows from a number of City fans.
He opted for the same attacking outlets which destroyed Crystal Palace on Wednesday night; however, this time Norwich managed to deal with them much better than The Eagles. Kevin de Bruyne is so much more effective when he is playing centrally; feeding the forward players with his quick-thinking vision and running at the opposition; using his technical ability to his advantage. And with the notable absence of David Silva; many thought this was where Pellegrini would utilise the Belgian.
But his qualities were lost on the flanks as he failed to dictate play from the wide areas and link up with the forward players; something that Bony was screaming out for as the Ivorian had plenty of opportunity to put us ahead in this fixture.
This judgement was proved true as, when Sterling was introduced and de Bruyne was moved central, a goal came (albeit from a corner). City began obtaining more runners and openings were more common; and it was that man de Bruyne who provided the assist from the corner flag. Credit to Pellegrini for playing around with his tactics and getting the job done after he seemed to make the wrong choice during the opening 60 minutes.
Sign of a good team
With so many first-team players out injured and with Norwich content on a point, it was refreshing to see City grind out the win in difficult circumstances. Not only does it show that we don’t overly rely on our two star men- Sergio Aguero and David Silva- but it also demonstrates that we are getting better at playing against teams that set up this way against us.This game could easily have been drawn 0-0, or even lost 1-0 as we seemed to run out of ideas; but a quick change in tactics and personnel meant we were able to claim all three points and show that we mean business this year. They say that scraping out results like these is the true mark of champions. Let’s hope that this is the case.
