As we enter our 3rd – yes, THIRD – international break of the season even though we’re still-only in the early part of November; I thought it would be a useful time to ‘stop ‘n’ have a look’ at how we’ve faired so far, a season, which, turned just 12 weeks old at the weekend.
The Premier League
In some ways, our league campaign has started similar to last season; perhaps slightly better but it still feels like, as with the previous campaign, a little bit ‘spluttery & stuttery’ at times.
That might sound like a crazy statement to some having recorded two back-to-back 5-0 home victories in our 2nd & 3rd outings and while we currently sit 2nd in the table, just 3 points off the leaders, Chelsea, and with the 3rd-best goal difference in the league.
However, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve…‘done a City’ in terms of losing games where most Blues and pundits would otherwise have had us down for win - I’m thinking the 0-0 draw at home to Southampton and our more-recent 0-2 home defeat to Crystal Palace.
Once we’d reached ‘Gameweek 10’, we’d failed to win 4 of those 10 games; dropping 10 points from a possible 30 and seeing Chelsea take a 6-point lead, as well as gaining a far better goal difference lead over us.
But what a difference a week makes, hey?! ‘Gameweek 11’ saw Chelsea drop 2-points at home to Burnley and Liverpool lose at West Ham; throw-in an away derby day win for us and the end result is a healthy league position at this stage of the season; 4-points ahead of where we were at the same stage last season and with a 10-goal better goal difference than we had at that stage too.
So, ‘all in all’ league wise, “pretty good” / “not too bad at all” are probably the best ways to describe our situation at this stage, I would say.
The cups?
Well, we’re already out of one, would be a blunt way of putting it. But that wouldn’t truly reflect that particular situation, I would suggest.
However, I can’t speak for every Blue, of course, but I found that my disappointment waned pretty quickly as I found myself rapidly catching up with reality; accepting that we really do have ‘bigger fish to catch’ now.
So, with no complacency whatsoever, of course, I think it’s safe for me to suggest that particular cup competition is going very well so far and we await, as do most Premier League sides, our opponents in the F.A. Cup 3rd round, which is to be played at the weekend of the 8th & 9th January 2022.
Mushing it all together?
Let’s have a look at our overall results & form.
Played:17
L W W W W D W W L D W W W D* L W W – F43 A14
Key:
* 0-0 at full time / lost on penalties
Underlined result is a league game
Would there be a phrase to describe that set of results? If so, I think I’d go with…
“Patches of good form interspersed with ‘hiccup moments’”
And, for me, I think the other three sides who currently share ‘top 4’ with us, Chelsea, West Ham United & Liverpool, can all same the same thing, really.
The…‘if onlys’
· A game that I didn’t get to see because I was on holiday at the time in…‘zero sports TV land’; our opening-day game on the first Sunday afternoon of the season away at Spurs.
Looking at their season since, you’d be excused for thinking…how the HELL did we not win that one?! And we did have 66% of the possession ‘on the day’ but we were insipid ‘up front’ to say the very least. 18 shots and only 4 heading in before being blocked / saved.
I recall listening to the whole game on the radio, at least, and as the phrase sort of goes; it was like listening to a slow car crash from our perspective. Pep has since said, on more than one occasion, that result was due to him having few of his main players available. However, when you look at our bench that afternoon, there’s an argument that it was largely stronger than the ‘starting 11’…and that they were, therefore sort of, “available” to him! Of course, he knew the how fit / ready those players were after the short space of time following the Euros but…still; that one rankles with me a little to this day because I don’t think the home side were ‘all that’ on the day, from what I listened to.
That’s definitely 3 points that ‘could have been’ in this ‘if only’ section.
· Palace at home. Players are only human, of course, and although I still-to-this-day question whether both players grappling with each other whilst both falling to the ground constitutes Laporte being given a ‘straight red’ regardless of him being the last man; split-second decisions can change matches.
I’m taking nothing away from the London side who are having a decent season to say the very least; a team we caught ‘bang in form’ who worked hard and proved an attacking threat on the day…but that has to be seen as ‘points dropped’.
IF (that is the theme) that sending off had’ve occurred in the latter stages of the match, I think we’d be on the same points as Chelsea as I’m typing this. I can’t be sure of that, of course, but I recall that we didn’t particularly play that badly, otherwise, against an organised side that had 1 extra man for most of the game.
It didn’t help my mood either when I saw that Leicester City’s Jonny Evans only got a yellow for a similar - but FAR worse - clash in their game the same weekend!
· Shooting boots. It’s something I’m going to move on to soon but if we’d have remembered to pack them before heading off to the London Stadium on 27th October 2021, I’m sure we’d have put ourselves in a position where we could have progressed to another League Cup final come 27th February 2022.
It’s an all too familiar picture, folks; 25 ‘shots in anger’ but only 7 ‘on target’ tells a story many City fans have bemoaned during our fantastic, last-few seasons and do so even more now that a certain Sergio Aguero has departed with no new striker coming in during the summer.
Still…it might be better for us that we’ve now effectively given ourselves a couple of free weeks during an otherwise busy schedule; as we face an even more challenging league campaign and attempt to improve on last season’s Champions League outcome. That’s how I’m seeing this one, this time around…
Flood or drought
A quick look at the “For” column above should have any football fan chuckling at any City fan who suggests that we have a problem scoring; that we’re going to struggle to win a trophy this season all because we didn’t buy a top striker in the summer.
And I have had one of these conversations this season already with one such City fan who, following a disappointing result, said something along the lines of, “The problem is that we just can’t score…”; where I pointed out to him the 5-0 Arsenal, 5-0 Norwich, 6-3 RB Leipzig & 6-1 Wycombe results. Since that conversation, we’ve managed to slot in 5 away at Club Bruges, 4 away at hard-to-beat Brighton and another 4 in the reverse fixture against the Belgium side; as well as games where we’ve managed “only” 2.
But here’s where I also side with those who believe that we need more ‘firepower’.
We have to be very inventive and create different ways of scoring than most sides that have ‘recognised strikers’ and as we do that, our opponents are constantly inventing ways to keep our busy attacking midfielders & wingers out.
If we get it right / “they” get it wrong, it’s goals-aplenty! But if we’re having one of those days where we’ve forgotten how to shoot and / or the ‘oppo’ gets it ‘spot on’, that’s when we need someone who knows how to get more shots ‘on target’, at least, and who may also draw defenders away from our other, attacking midfield / wing threats.
To sum up, a lot of our goals / ‘big score-lines’ often come in one game OR in two-or-three-game clusters; leaving us sometimes ‘wanting’ in other matches and resulting in dropped points / missed opportunities.
Just to finish off this goal-scoring section, I was once frowned upon by one City fan many seasons ago - even when we had the mighty Sergio firing – when I suggested that we, all too often, need 25 shots just to get 8 or so on target and that, for all the talent we have at the club both back then & now, was not really an acceptable ratio.
However, as a lifelong City supporter, I’m certainly not going to be moaning too much nor for too long when we’re talking about a statistic that already reads, this season, Played: 17, Scored: 43.
Any surprises? Any disappointments so far?
- Having had form, last season, that was like a Covid-19 chart - starting fairly low, reaching very high figures in the middle before tailing off again; I’ve been impressed with the consistently-high performances of Joao Cancelo this season so far…and that’s without him-being in that ‘inverted right-wing back’ / midfield role that he flourished in last season. No, instead, this time the right-wing back has found exceptional form in the left-wing back position, which is something Oleksandr Zinchenko much be secretly bemoaning; especially after we didn’t move for a new left-wing back in the summer.
Joao has certainly shut me up at least – not so much because I had some early doubts about him after he seemed to take an age to settle in after we signed him but more so because of my open, long-term desires for us to sign a specialist left-wing back. Well done him and long may it continue…
- After apparently wanting a move away in the summer because he wanted more ‘game time’…WOW Bernardo Silva is having a crackin’ season so far! He might not get the week in / week out Fantasy Football goals & assists that most would expect from such a hard-working, huge talent in such a talent-packed team – he does get his fair share though – but what he brings to the side opens up so many opportunities for his teammates. In fact, some of that could have been said about a certain David Silva and although they have slightly differing qualities; Bernardo – certainly at the moment – is like a David Silva on the drug, speed!
- In the past, I’ve seen Kevin take a while to ‘find his radar’ / rhythm following an injury layoff before but not this long. Thankfully, I think he showed signs of getting better in our derby day victory at the weekend and I, for one, am glad…because I was beginning to wonder if there was an underlying issue along the lines of a niggly injury that he was perhaps carrying.
- Disappointed to see Ferran Torres get a rather lengthy injury (due back around Christmas time) – I thought he was developing quite well and would have certainly given us an-often-exciting and different, attacking option.
- Rodders is going back up in my estimation; having started off well, in my eyes, but then began to fade / disappoint a little. He really has become Mr 7.5 and quite often 8/10 and fulfils one of those roles that can go unappreciated by a lot of football fans. In fact, I get a little irritated when we’re linked with a new defensive midfielder and the article often comes with the line, “…as a replacement for the departing Fernandinho”. Hello?! Yes, we’ll need to find an additional defensive midfielder to add to the first team next season – whether that’s from within or from outside the club – but surely that will be one to compete / rotate with Rodri.
- I know he’s not had much gametime and, once again, that might be the problem. But I can’t fail to be disappointed, once again, with the output we often see from Riyad Mahrez whenever he’s given his chance(s). I think I’m just gonna leave that one at that and hope for the best…
- Similarly, all I’m going to say about Raheem Sterling is that I gave him an end-of-season rating, last season, of 5.5/10. This season so far, he’s on exactly the same score from me…
- I like what Pep’s doing with Cole Palmer – keeping him close to the first time and dipping him in & out of the side at appropriate times. And he’s doing very well / looks really good whenever I’ve seen him. And what about that stat / fact?! He comes on as a late substitute for the first team at home to Burnley, walks over the bridge to play for the EDS against Leicester City’s Under 23s; scores a hattrick in that game and then 3 days later he’s in Belgium scoring 1 of 5 City goals in the Champions League! Those first 2 stats, at least, is one for a pub quiz…
I think that’s it really - I think we’re doing really quite well, so far.
I believe that this is a real statement from us too and would like to point out that we’ve already overcome some damn-right-difficult & tricky AWAY fixtures:
King Power Stadium: Win
Stamford Bridge: Win
Anfield: Draw
American Express Community Stadium / Falmer Stadium (Brighton): Win
Scaffold Trafford: Win
If we can just get those ‘orrible little niggles out of our game against so-called, ‘lesser sides’ (there’s not really such a thing in the Prem these days, I would suggest…and it also used to be the bigger games that were often over-thought by our manager and where we came unstuck) and be more deadly / accurate with our shooting; then I think we’ll be in for another season where we’ll add more silverware to our expanding trophy room.
I think we’ll do so anyway…but it would be nice to think that we can do it without fans tearing a few head-hairs out as we fluff good opportunities in front of goal.
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