With a point minimum required in our last game of the season (3 would definitely see us finish 3rd) I was wondering if our hosts’ decision to sack their Manager a few days earlier would change the ‘feel’ of this fixture at all.
For a team who have dropped like a rock in recent weeks to 16th in the table and with 7 defeats in the last 10 league games (5 of those being their last 5 outings); will the departure of Walter Mazzarri result in Watford’s players feeling a sense of relief and, therefore, play with ‘free abandon’ OR, with nothing to play for other than personal pride and a few league places, will they instead feel a little shell-shocked and lacking any motivation before they set off on holiday?
Let’s hope it’s the latter…
v Watford
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome.
Fluid 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Aguero____________________
_____________________Toure____________________
Kolarov_____Otamendi_____Kompany__Fernandinho
____________________Caballero____________________
Subs:
Gunn,
Clichy, Zabaleta,
Stones, Fernando,
Navas, Sterling.
Notable absences: Outfield player with gloves on (injured for the rest for the season), Fabian Delph (injured for the rest for the season), Ilkay Gundogan
(injured for the rest for the season), Nolito (not selected), Kelechi Iheanacho (not selected).
Same
starting line-up as in the last game; same subs (easy write-up)!
Yep.
Result? I’m
not sure if I take comfort from the fact that most pundits an’ the like are all
talking about the battle this weekend being between just Liverpool
& Arsenal
for a ‘top 4’ finish or not – they appear to be making
this-one-a-City-win as ‘a given’. I hope they’re right!
Aside from what I’ve already talked about
with Watford’s sacking of their manager; they’ll want to finish at home on a
high and it does unsettle me a little
that they managed to breach Chelsea’s defence THREE TIMES in their
eventual 4-3 defeat last time out.
However, their last-10 form of LWWLWLLLLL against
our DDLWWDDWWW does
settle any small jitters I might
have. This is a ‘job done’ City win for me.
The photo you have used of Vicarage Road is a old one. A very, very old one. More than ten years I'd say. The stadium is completely different now. Couldn't you have found a more up to date none? City would have been playing at Maine Road when it was taken!!
ReplyDeleteNo it's not. 10 years ago there were two stands on the East side, then there were none. The picture shows the current stand, so it's less than three years old, but the club shop is shown in the process of construction at the NE corner, so it's a couple of years old.
Delete8- ) Ooops... Will update. Thanks for that - clearly need to update my photo archive! Very sorry about that and thanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry too much about the result - we have virtually no defence thanks to suspension & injuries - no Kaboul, no Cathcart, no Mariappa, no Prodl, no Kabasele and, as of yesterday, Britos is doubtful. Add to that list the possible absence of our defensive attacker Deeney and you'll gather that we're not confident of fielding a team, never mind getting anything out of the game.
ReplyDeleteHi Namorrodor. I wasn't aware of just how many you had out for this game - hope you're right with your feeling on how the game will go! I suspect so too really.
DeleteThank you for reading and for commenting.