We continue the fight to finish 3rd (or 4th at the very least) so let’s put the F.A. Cup semi-final out of our minds and focus on 2 games in 2-½ days; starting with a visit from a team from Trafford.
Alright…I’ll have a little word on last Sunday’s game.
1.
We played really quite well for the most part;
dominated play for large parts of the game and in addition to taking the lead
against a team set out to mostly defend for the first 60 minutes or thereabouts,
we crashed the ‘woodwork’…twice!
2.
We were denied a good goal after the ball didn’t
cross the line when-being crossed into the box and Arsenal kicked us to pieces without
being punished; especially in the first half and, which, left David Silva, Fernandinho
and Sergio Aguero
battered & bruised. In fact, it was City who received more yellow cards (5
to their 2) as we begun to retaliate slightly. I won’t mention the ‘penalty
that wasn’t’ ‘casue they should have had one similarly, so that’s 1-1 in terms
of being denied a ‘spot kick’.
3.
Our shooting radar, not for the first time, was
‘on the blink’ again. For all of our creativity – and Pep has quite rightly bemoaned this several times –
we just don’t do ourselves any favours in front of the oppo’s goal. Against
Arsenal in the semi-final we managed 20 shots ‘in anger’ but only 3 of
those were ‘on target’ (for the record Arsenal managed the same number of ‘on
target shots’ from just 9 attempts). We create…but we don’t ‘alf waste a hell
of a lot! Imagine what we’ll do when Gabriel Jesus is back & firing AND we purchase an addition striker
in the summer (2 if this is Sergio’s last season with us)?!
Anyway…
…v Manyoo
 |
| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome.
Fluid
4-5-1:
____________________Aguero____________________
_________________Fernandinho__________________
___________Outfield player with gloves on__________
Lots of
doubt here with “Slight doubts”, “Late fitness tests” and, otherwise, sketchy
information about injuries. But, here goes…
The “Yellow Peril” appears to be back in
favour and, so, is likely to get the nod to start tonight.
In front of him? I think it’ll be the same
back 4.
In front of them? I think we’ll see Raheem
start this one (has been on the bench of late but we have no David Silva); the rest the same, although
Fernandinho did take a knock last weekend.
Sergio should be recovered enough for this
one.
Willy as keeper cover; Aleks & Pablo
the defensive replacement options. Fernando & Fabian the defensive
midfielders in the ‘side 7’; Gabriel & Kelechi the attacking ones.
Notable absences: Bacary Sagna (injured…but
close to a return), John Stones (injured but, similarly,
on his way back),
Ilkay Gundogan (injured for rest of season), David Silva (injured), & Nolito (not selected).
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
I’d have Willy in net and
Zaba on the right of defence for this one but, otherwise, I’m happy with that.
Result? For games like this you have to
listening to your head and not your heart. Sometimes they tell you the same
thing of course.
You have to go back a whopping 24 Premier
League games to 23rd October 2016 to find Manyoo’s last league
defeat (4-0 losers to Chelsea)! Wow! Had they
managed to turn just half of their 12 draws into wins they’d have been just 3
points behind the afore-mentioned-league-leaders-Chelsea
right now. Huh…fine margins
hey?!
And their away record? Not only better than
their home record but considerably better than OUR home record! They’ve won 10
to our 8; scored ‘on the road’ the same number as we’ve managed to muster at
home (27) and conceded 2 less!
All things considered – and this is a prediction not a ‘hope so’ fearful or otherwise – I’m
sticking with my recent mini-prediction piece and will say
a draw.
And do you know what? If it keeps them behind us - and then looking at both teams’ fixtures after this one - I’d take
that right now. I’d love the win of course…
Additionally,
a red in my local who often speaks lots of sense (I KNOW?!) and, therefore, I respect his opinion;
said to me on Tuesday, “Even if we beat you on Thursday I think you’ll still
finish above us in the league [looking at both sets of fixtures]”. I agree.
Expected weather conditions during
the game: Bit of a brisk, North-Westerly breeze but nothing much else doing really. Dry with temperatures of around 9C (perhaps feeling cooler in the breeze).
No comments:
Post a Comment