Some days it is really not hard to write about this wonderful football club, and today is one of those days. This really is more of a collection of my thoughts in the aftermath of yesterdays tormenting of Manchester United, many things have gone through my mind in the last 24 hours and I have tried my best here to collect them together.
1) The Power Hasn't Shifted....Yet.
Call it what you want 'Six In The City', the 'Demolition Derby' or one of the many other puns doing the rounds but the real significance of the game is that City are now proving their point. The power has not shifted, we will have to win the league a couple of times before we can claim to be the totally dominant team in Manchester/Salford but we can now stand proudly alongside that lot from Stretford, the 'noisy neighbours' are going to the next level.
For quite a while now, journalists, supporters and players have all spoken about Manchester City and said that having all this money is one thing, but they have to prove themselves to be real contenders and with the destruction of United yesterday we did just that, we all felt we should be have been taken seriously before this weekend but now more than ever the team has proved they are going somewhere, and that is great to see.
2) We Are Now A Team Not A Group Of Individuals
A common criticism of the club in the past has been that City have been merely a group of individuals and there have been questions about how much the players 'want it'. I hold my hands up and say that at times over the past couple of years that attitude has been totally understandable, there have been some players that pulled on the City shirt with their mind on the money, not on the team or 'project'. I think those claims can now surely be put to bed, the idea that there is no team spirit in the camp is now quite frankly laughable. The celebrations at the end of the last minute victory over Villareal were fine evidence of just that, and the win yesterday has further underlined it, the collection of hugely talented players is becoming a team.
3) Nothing Is Won In October
As soon as the final whistle blew yesterday, Sky announced that City were now favourites for the Premier League title, a similar sentiment was portrayed by Alan Hansen on MOTD claiming it was our title to lose, apparently Collymore on TalkSport said the same thing...it's all a load of rubbish, we are in October. Our form has been superb, played 9, won 8, drawn 1. Five points clear of United, and 6 points ahead of Chelsea, there are no complaints from me, and we will be there or there abouts come May, but to claim the title race is over is farcical. We must hold our hands up and say that before yesterday we had enjoyed a lovely run of fixtures, we past the derby test with flying colours but there are more challenges to come and nothing has been decided just yet so lets not get ahead of ourselves. In many ways we need to ignore the pressure coming from outside and just focus on winning games of football, lets not worry about the title for a few months yet!
4) Just Who Is Our Best Striker?
A little bit of a stat attack for your, Edin Dzeko has hit 8 goals in 7 games, Kun Aguero has netted 9 in 8, and Super Mario has notched up 5 in 5. All 3 are in absolutely devastating form, but if we just had to pick one, who would it be? Going into the season Balotelli was probably 4th choice, but now he appears undroppable, the problem is so do Aguero and Dzeko. The Italian linked up with the Argentine brilliantly at times yesterday, and Dzeko proved that although he may be a slightly erratic finisher at times he definitely knows where the back of the net is, in all honesty I still think Aguero looks the most prolific, but it is a very difficult quandary to ponder, one this is certain though, who needs Carlos Tevez?
5) How Good Is James Milner?
A lot of City fans feel the need to have a boo boy, someone to make a scapegoat for disappointing results and for long spells last season that man was James Milner. At times I got sick of being one of the dissenting voices, insisting he was a top player. He is starting to prove that now, and it may have been some time coming, but it has certainly been worth it. He has managed to demonstrate not only his immense defensive skills, he has also shown his supreme work rate as well as some fantastic work in the final third. It was not worth forgetting that he kept Nigel De Jong out of the team yesterday and that is no mean feat. If he continues with this great form it is going to result in some real selection issues for Bob.
I sent a text to my flatmate at about 5:05pm on Sunday that read "We've scored 3 goals away from home, whats going on?", clearly this feeling is not new, we had some fine away days last year, but hopefully it will quieten down some of the more misguided critics of the club who claim we are a negative and boring team to watch.
In truth it wasn't all so straight forward, granted we dominated possession but it was still just a one goal margin that proved the difference at the final whistle, a couple of defensives lapses luckily didn't cost us but on another day in a different time the result could have been a crushing draw.
Whilst it wasn't entirely smooth sailing at the back, the point still remains that City really should have scored a couple of goals more than they did, Sergio Aguero missed a couple of sitters in an all action display and perhaps we were a little wasteful late on.
It was however a slick performance, with attacking threat throughout the game. Bolton away perhaps seems a strange game for Mancini to unleash some of our attacking talent but it was definitely a much more attacking display than some away days last season. With Toure occupying a much deeper role than normal playing alongside the superb Barry, Aguero and Dzeko were left to terrorise the Bolton defense.
There was perhaps some fortune about the first goal, Silva hit a nice strike from outside the area that perhaps should have been saved by Jaaskelainen, but there was no argument about the second and third. Barry struck a stunner from a well worked corner, something that perhaps we haven't seen enough of. At 2-0 City were in total command and it took a very sharp finish from Ivan Klasnic converting a Martin Petrov cross to fire the Trotters back into the game. There is perhaps more Lescott could have done to stop Klasnic from reaching the ball, but it wouldn't be right to take anything away from Bolton who scored a superb goal.
The second half began as the first half had done with City on top, not more than 2 minutes had past before Edin Dzeko fought for a Milner flick, marauded past Zat Knight before firing a superb finish into the Bolton net, it was a great goal from a player who is now firing on all cylinders, cynics of the Bosnian should really take note, Edin was first class again and lead the line superbly. Much to Mancini's disgust however City endeavoured to give Bolton a way back into the game again with Kevin Davies heading home a good fee kick which maybe again Lescott could have done better with. There were late cameos from Johnson and Tevez and in truth even though Bolton were just one goal behind the game ended with City being on top again.
2 wins from 2, and more important a couple of very impressive performances, next Sunday will be a real test at White Hart Lane, but until then lets enjoy being top of the league, and more importantly being the team who has played the best football in the first two weekends of the season.
Enough of my diatribe, lets get onto the numbers:
Joe Hart: 7 - Nothing he could do with either goal to be honest, made a couple of smart saves early on, other than that he really didn't have a great deal to do.
Micah Richards: 6 - Got a great assist for a goal that was wrongly ruled out for a foul, good attacking performance, he was at times troubled by Petrov though and perhaps could have done a bit better on the first goal.
Vincent Kompany: 6 - Never looked totally comfortable with Davies, did a good job for the most part but didn't always have his supreme confidence. Having said that the Bolton captain is one of the hardest players in the game to deal with.
Joleon Lescott : 6 - Strange one really, generally defended really well, perhaps better than his partner, but was at fault for both goals to a degree. He was the right sort of player for the occasion, should perhaps have marked Davies and left Klasnic for Kompany though.
Aleks Kolarov: 7 - He replaced Clichy and was superb to be fair, lethal coming forward, provided some great ammunition and created width exceptionally well. Defensively he dealt with Eagles well and didn't give him a sniff.
Gareth Barry: 8 - Superb performance, dominated the Bolton midfield with Yaya Toure, shielded the defense expertly and I think it was probably his best performance in a City shirt, even if it wasn't for his stunning goal it was a quality run out.
Yaya Toure: 7 - Played a much deeper role than normal and he excelled, didn't offer as much offensively as can be expected, but he shut things down well and his power and presence infront of the defense steadied the ship.
James Milner: 9 - This was why Milner was signed, his energy and enthusiasm was great, he created chances, was unfortunate to not score, and he got back and defended too. It was an all action display from the Englishman, more of the same please, absolutely superb.
David Silva: 8 - Another quality display from the Spaniard, scored a good goal and was once again the heartbeat. Mr Reliable is always there when we need him and his ability to just pop up between the lines is exceptional, if it weren't for Milner he would be my man of the match.
Sergio Aguero: 6 - A good performance from the Argentine but he should really have had 2 goals. Nice runs, good link up, and very hard working display, but not great in front of goal, plenty will follow though, there is no doubt about that.
Edin Dzeko: 8 - I could fast run out of positive things to say about the massive striker, another top performance. He held the ball up, brought in his team mates, he bullied defenders, fought for the ball and scored a superb goal, fantastic game for Edin and his tally is now 3 in 3.
Substitutes
Carlos Tevez: 6 - Where to begin? He looked interested, hungry, and passionate, whether he will remain though no-one knows. He doesn't look fit yet, but a good 30 minute run out.
Adam Johnson: 6 - Good cameo, but not really enough time to do anything, some tricky runs, but he was barely on the field for 10mins.
Pablo Zabaleta: N/A - No time to judge.
I have to give man of the match to James Milner personally, but to be honest it could have also gone to Silva, Dzeko or even Barry. The midfield and attacking unit was for the most part superb, but Milner stood out for me because I think he proved to some people just how useful he can be, and showed what he is capable of. The hard part for the England man now is to continue in that vain because he has proved what a massive part he can play in our push for success.
One of the things that I set up this blog for was to write match reports and deliver ratings on each game that City play, most of these in preseason will be more accounts of players that impressed me as opposed to actual match reports as personally I think performances are more important than results at this stage of the season.
As expected the side was entirely changed at half time with only Weiss playing the full game. In fact as I understand it the only members of the traveling party not involved were David Silva (slight knee problem), Mario Balotelli ('unwell') and young Spaniard Denis Suarez who has to sort some transfer formalities.
Edin Dzeko played the first half and after a slow start he began to impress, maybe it was just me, but he appeared quicker and more mobile than he did at times last season. His hold up play was impressive although he was aided by players getting closer to him, something that we didn't do particularly well last year. He still didn't have the best service, the only crosses came in from debutant Gael Clichy, they were pretty impressive and it looked like a route to goal that could be quite fruitful this season. The Frenchman fitted in well, he played behind Ryan McGivern who played in quite an unnatural left midfield position, this allowed Clichy to race up field and join in the attacks, his speed and pace were impressive and I really think he will prove to be a great signing.
It would be wrong to not say a little about McGivern as well, he has been around City for ages but has never really had a chance to shine. He was probably the least likely scorer on the pitch but when he calmly slotted a right footed strike into the far corner that theory was disproved. It was a hard working performance and he covered for Clichy well, but it was apparent at times that he is a left footed central defender being played grossly out of position at left midfield, he wasn't poor by any means but don't expect to see him in the role when the season begins!
