…has anyone heard owt from Alan recently?
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| American Express Community Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: Just 2/11! I think that’s a new-record low for me! 😮)
A very fluid 3-2-4-1 / 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Haaland____________________
Grealish___________________________________Silva
_________Gundogan___________De Bruyne_________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Akanji_____________________________________Lewis
____________Dias_______________Stones__________
_____________________Ortega____________________
Subs: Ederson, Gomez, Walker, Laporte, Phillips, Foden, Palmer, Mahrez & Alvarez.
Okay, so my theory is this:
Pep rested 9 so-called regulars last Sunday BUT he still needs to keep them ’ticking over’, SO, he plays ‘em all - or at least most of ‘em - against Brighton; who are a side still pushing for a full-Europa League place; having already achieved reaching the Europa Conference League. THEN…he puts out a-largely “second string”, once more, against Brentford on Sunday; just ahead of our F.A. Cup final 6-days later on the 3rd June.
In theory, that makes logical sense……doesn’t it? 🙄 I could well be VERY wrong - and probably will be - as our manager tries to balance both resting and ‘keeping players active’. Huhhhh…anyhow…
I think Stefan will start once more and may, therefore, be rested on Sunday; being, as he is, our likely keeper in the F.A. Cup final following our last league game of the season in a few days’ time.
A melding / interchangeable back-3 / 4 of Manuel, Ruben, John & Rico.
Rodders comes back into the starting 11 as our deepest midfielder; while Jack, Ilkay, Kevin & Bernardo start as our more-attacking quartet.
I think Erling could do with a start - and a goal - before likely being rested at the weekend and, if so, starts as our one & only striker ‘up top’.
Ederson stays on the bench as reserve stopper for this fixture; Sergio, Kyle & Aymeric are the defenders in ‘the 9’. Kalvin, Phil, Cole & Riyad are the midfielders / wingers on the side and Julian is the back-up striker.
Notable absences:
- Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.
- Nathan Ake – According to our manager, Nathan is in the latter stages of his recovery / return but is unlikely, I would say, to be risked on Wednesday night. I get the feeling that will be the case for this-coming Sunday also but we’ll see nearer the time.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result? Very briefly in this slightly odd encounter…if we go with this line-up or similar then it’s a City win and that’s what I’m officially going for. I will add, on this occasion however, that if we go with a side similar to last Sunday then I think this’ll be a draw.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Win
Result: Won
(There was no pre-match blog posting for that game due to being away on a week’s holiday.)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Very nice. The setting sun, as the game kicks off, leaves long shadows and a starting temperature of around 16C. It stays dry and the temperature doesn’t drop below 14C during the match. With clear skies and a gentle, easterly breeze, that could feel a little chilly with no sunshine for fans on their way home but they’re not bad conditions at all for our continued, league-title celebrations.
I wonder how that p**ck is feeling at the moment?
Have you heard of a fella called Alan Davies? A comedian, writer, actor and TV panellist / presenter? I used to quite like him on most things that I watched. Then he turned into a k**b in one explosive moment.
It was January 2022 and, as you’ll see in this article link, he had a nasty pop at our football club; owners and even individual players. You might recall it, even though it was 16-months ago now, and that Liam Gallagher responded to it / him and basically told the hunched-over, little bitter, southern oik to ‘do one’.
We’d not long since gone to his team’s (Arsenal) ground and nicked a 1-2 away win in injury time. If memory serves, they had the better of the game but we pretty much did a ‘smash ‘n’ grab’ on ‘em right at the death. Huh…it’s happened to us that many times I’ve lost count! It happens not just in football but many-a-sport. That’s when the sour b****rd unleashed a torrent of hate-filled crap in one of his podcast.
I’ll pick out some of it for you in the order that the article suggests that the words poured from his screwed-up face.
- He labelled our club as filthy and assuming he’s not questioning the club’s cleaning staff’s abilities; time will tell on that when our lawyers finish combing their way through the Premier League’s many charges against us.
- Who else was in his beady-eye’s sights? Oh yeah, he decided to tear into Jack Grealish; calling him a moron. He made particular mention of how Jack was gurning at the Arsenal fans. Yes you arse, he was…grinning at the dozens of close-by Arsenal fans who were verbally abusing him at the time; probably the same fans who were throwing multiple objects onto the pitch at some of our other players later on. Was he finished with Jack? No. He proclaimed that Jack had ruined his career [by joining Manchester City]. Yeah, how did that proclamation work out for you, Alan? I hope Jack has sent you a tweet including a picture of his Champions medals from both last season and now this. Actually, I hope he doesn’t; I hope he doesn’t even know or remember what you said. He’s had a terrific second half to his 2022/23 season, by the way Mr Davies.
- Apparently, according to the embittered one, we rocked up at their stadium stinking of money and that, generally speaking, we stink-out football too. Is this the same London club who spent millions and MILLIONS as I watched my club, who I’ve supported all my life since the mid-80s, struggle in the lower leagues; picking up whatever bargains we could find? Is this the same club who I looked at with slightly envious eyes knowing that just one or two of their stars cost about the same as our entire squad? The same team who, way back in the Maine Road days, I, along with thousands of other Manchester City fans, applauded the masterclass performance they played out in front of us as they systematically destroyed us on our own patch, 0-4? I don’t know about stinking out football, Alan, but I know our fans have class, you shallow fool.
- As if you needed a picture painting of this man, he goes on to expose himself for what he really is. He used a word my dad said was an ugly word; one that shouldn’t be used against a person or collection of people. I’ll directly quote Alan: I used to like you more than Liverpool…Manchester United…we hate Tottenham, obviously Chelsea – that stinks as they have robbed the league for years – yes, we hate all of them, but now you [City] are top of that list. Get out of our league, sell up and go. What a nice man, hey? Basically, he admitted to hating ¼ of the clubs in the Premier League. I’ll say it again, what a nice fella. I wonder who might be next on his ‘hate list’…Newcastle United perhaps? That would take him to almost a third of the Premier League clubs that he hates.
- This was all said half way through last season while they had Pep-tutored, ex-City Assistant Manager, Mikel Arteta sat in Alan’s team’s dugout. Then, just 6 or 7 months after his outburst, Alan’s football club decided to approach Manchester City and offer us quite a bit of EXTRA cash. That was nice of ‘em! 😊 This was in exchange for the services of both Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus. £77M in total they handed over to us, if I’m not mistaken? Did we hear Alan protest to his club saying, ‘NOOOOOO…Arsenal! Don’t do it! Don’t give that filthy, sticking, football-ruining club a single penny of ours! No. More likely, he was sat hunched in a corner somewhere rubbing his hands with glee and sniggering as the ex-City pair appeared to further enhanced their already-talented squad of players and were doing really quite well for them. Very quiet was the 57-year-old; very quiet indeed.
And do you know what, Alan (yeah like he’s reading this), I even heard many-a-City fan this season say that if we couldn’t win the league this time-round then they’d be pleased to see Arsenal do it instead. I agreed. Some of that might have been in preference to the likes of Manyoo or Liverpool winning it…but only some. There was a respect from a lot of City fans about how Alan’s team, under Arteta, was playing football. Once again, that’s the difference pal – class.
Anyway, that was last season’s southern rant from Alan – brace yourselves Blues!
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| Solidarity |
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