At the start of this Premier League season, no-one would have thought that Leicester and Watford would be in the top half of the table.
When it came to City’s matches against these two teams over the festive period, City fans were fearing the worst and with both matches.
Leicester City are currently title challengers, sitting second in the table.
City’s first encounter with Claudio Ranieri’s high flyers would come on 29th December, which was a cold and damp Tuesday night, a typical scene for a City slip-up.
City, however, played their own game and Leicester clearly had prepared for City in the case that The Foxes just sat back and defended, letting City attack them.
City used their fast-paced attacking style in an attempt to tire out Leicester’s players and had plenty of chances.
A strong defensive performance from Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala kept the likes of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez at bay, despite Leicester throwing everything at City in the final ten minutes of the game.
For an encounter which could have easily been a loss for City, this 0-0 draw was a positive judging by City’s recent away form and put them in a good position for their trip to Vicarage Road on 2nd January.
Manchester City’s trip to Watford proved to be a more nervous affair.
During the first half, City’s passing was not of a good standard with frequently misplaced passes allowing Watford’s strike partnership of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo a few chances on goal.
The second half proved to be a traumatic one for City fans, Watford made the breakthrough in the 55th minute with an own goal from Aleksandar Kolarov, who flicked Ben Watson’s corner into City’s goal.
Up until the 82nd minute, it seemed Watford would get the win as City were unable to take their chances and it took a moment of class from Yaya Toure for City to get into top gear.
Toure, as he seems to be doing recently, scored a world class goal, volleying Kolarov’s corner into Watford’s goal, now City seemed to be full of life and energy.
It was only three minutes later when Bacary Sagna crossed a ball into the Watford box and Sergio Aguero was there to score a spectacular header which was worthy of being a winning goal.
The match ended 2-1 to Manchester City and showed that if Pellegrini’s men play with high attacking energy away from home, then they have a good chance of winning the league.
Both of these away trips couldn’t have gone much better for Manchester City.
Two solid performances away from home which show what potential City has when the team play with enthusiasm, they would be miles ahead at the top of the Premier League.
