Defence worries going into Stamford Bridge clash

2 away wins without our Vinny is great…but this is Chelsea away. Early indications were than Kompany would make this match but Pellegrini has confirmed that he is the only injury heading into tomorrow’s clash in London. That worries me.

Analysis

Let’s get straight to it then. If Vinny is indeed the ONLY injury going into tomorrow’s game then who does he pick alongside Nastasic? Surely…SURELY…SURELY he won’t pick the very fragile-looking Javi Garcia again. We got away with it somewhat at West Ham as Allardyce chose not to press us too hard in the middle of our defence for most of the game but at CSKA Moscow we got away with it [in terms of how vulnerable Javi made us look at the back]. We’ll get crucified if we play the makeshift defender on Sunday.

But Manuel seems to agree with a lot of top-flight managers these days in that you can’t have 2 same-footed central defenders playing together - a phenomenon I hadn’t come across until the partnership of Sylvain Distin and Richard Dunne; where it was first emphasised [to my knowledge] just how important it was and how well it worked. And it did.

But is it all that important? I suppose I’ll have to bow to the expert managers’ opinion on that one.

Stamford Bridge

So for the Chelsea game I’m HOPING that he’ll see sense and not pick Garcia and I’m ASSUMING that he’ll stick to his “no 2 left feet” policy…and, therefore, not go with the ever-more frustrated Lescott. So does he go Micah Richards or does he give Martin Demichelis his Manchester City debut?

Probable line-up against Chelsea:

4-4-2:

____________________Negredo_________

 

___________Aguero___________________

 

 

Nasri___________________________Silva

____________________Toure___________

_________Fernandinho________________

 

Clichy___Nastasic___Demichelis___Zabaleta

 

 

_________________Hart________________

Subs:

Pantilimon, Richards, Lescott, Milner, Navas, Jovetic, Dzeko

I think we’ll see Martin making his debut…albeit a very tough one.

Score? We’re capable of winning it but I’m going for a goals and a draw; possibly 2-2. I’d take that.

The Yaya incident

It’s all been said and we’re waiting for UEFA to decide on what action, if any, they’ll take. But I suppose I should at least chuck a few thoughts down.

I’ve got to agree with those who are showing frustration with UEFA for not having cracked this issue already…or at the very least made far more progress than they have. What really annoyed me is the fact that they made the flippin’ players in all Champions League games pass along, in their respective line-ups, an anti-racism pennants. Surely if UEFA are serious about this they could, at the very least, get the crowd to pass along large anti-racism flags in the stands before the KO. I’m betting that if they did, any group of hardcore racist intent on giving abuse during the game won’t be so keen to participate and, therefore, UEFA could identify problem clubs & areas within grounds. It’s a simplistic idea but one that’s better than getting the players – who are probably all on board with it anyway – to hold up token signs.

And once found guilty? Don’t force them to play home games at grounds miles away and don’t force them to play home games at their own ground but behind closed doors. Instead, first of all give them some points deduction from whatever cup competition the incident occurred in and for a second incident? Kick them out of the competition completely! This will, surely, force the Clubs to take responsibility for the behaviour of their own fans; just as Manchester City and other responsible clubs around the world do.

This bugged me a little too…

I don’t know about you but I look forward to Manchester City Manager, pre-match press conferences. I want to hear how training has gone; I wanna hear who’s fit, who’s got a chance of playing and who is out injured. I want to hear about the mood of the squad and, in general, I like to try to gauge the general frame of mind of the Manager going into games.

So I was particularly disappointed with the press’ questioning of Pellegrini ahead of the Chelsea game. GOD did they harp on too long about the Yaya incident and what on earth were they trying to do by persistently hounding our Manager about his “relationship” with Jose Mourinho? Of course the answer is simple…mischievous headline grabbing. Pathetic!

Pre-match press conference video 1

Pre-match press conference video 2

I couldn’t give a…rat’s arse about what Jose thinks of Manuel or vice-versa and once key questions had been asked of the Yaya incident early on in meeting…MOVE ON!

I want to hear questions like, how is John Guidetti’s road to fitness coming along. How close is Jack Rodwell from being given a chance of first team action…perhaps even pressing the Manager on why, if he is considered fit, he hasn’t been on the bench at the very least in recent games. EDS questions; how does he think things are progressing on that front? Anything closely related to footballing questions would have been good to listen to.

What a wasted 11 minutes or so that was.

Fixtures/results

So, come on (Managerless) Palace; c’mon Villa, c’mon West Brom, c’mon Stoke, c’mon Fulham, c’mon Hull…AND C’MON CITY!

(Update - 27.10.2013): With all of those teams who played yesterday letting us down, it's most certainly up to us now to get some kind of a result. Tottenham v Hull play today.