It seems that the home fans are very chatty this week, and not too many of them are very confident. Could it be that we have finally turned a corner, and even our away opposition are nervous? Or is it just their squad depth, and injuries that are making them scared? Either way we should take advantage of it. I want to go into the Arse game full of confidence with maximum points from the last two games.
Team Selection
Gazza
Chambers - Fonte - Lovren - Shaw
Cork - Davis
Lambert - Lallana - JRod
Osvaldo
Subs (Gulp!): Cropper, Yoshida, Hooiveld, JWP, Reed, Ramirez, Gallagher
My Favourite
Gonna be difficult to avoid conceding goals against a prolific City side !
And the rest
I would personally put Fonte back into the centre of defence. Im not entirely sure why he was dropped, unless there was some injury I missed. I'm not sure what other changes need to be made. Cork needs time and patience.
I don't think we will win and we shouldn't be too disheartened if we do lose. Villa was a shock result but everyone gets those. Arsenal lost at home to Villa too, Man Utd lost at home to West Brom and Liverpool lost at home to us.
It's going to be tough, no doubt about it, seeing as we're pulled about by a flurry of injuries. I know Gazza's been chucked in unexpectedly, but he has to speed up his reaction times and be proactive, not reactive, as he was tonight. We're on the ropes a bit, but must come out fighting and be confident in our own ability. We beat them last season that way and we can do it again.
Can't see anything but a loss here I'm afraid.
4-1 City.
I can't see anything but a defeat here, City will target our weaknesses and shoot on sight knowing Gazza has let in virtually every shot he has faced this season.
he reminded me of a low Bartoz Bialowski getting up off the ground when Villa scored the third sharing at the ground not wanting to make eye contact with anyone.
saints 1-4 Man City
2 weeks, 4 defeats, 0 points, and a clutch of injuries could leave our confidence, morale and indeed the season in tatters.
Let's pray we pull something out of the mire.
A loss. Starting to show our lack of squad depth. Bring Fonte back in though.
with the amount of injuries we have 3-1 loss
Defence looks shaky and Gazza is yet to make a save(?) 4 nil I think
Think we'll get a hiding
My prediction is that Gazza will be Saturday's scapegoat (although Ossie will obviously run him close!!).
Would leave Lambert on the bench and get Osvaldo and Rodriguez running directly at Kompany as much as possible. Kompany said in his interview after the West Brom game that he just wanted to keep things simple in that and not try to be a hero (incase of breaking down again with injury?).
Not seen much of Demechellis either, but can't imagine he'd deal too well with being dragged all over the place.
I think we are starting to see that the title will be 1 from arsenal, city and chelsea.
their quality and obvious squad depth is starting to show. with the CL groups all but over and the the probably purchases in january. I think any points against this lot will be very hard.
man united are terrible by their standards. Everton are very good mind. spurs...have no idea how they will come
liverpool are not different really. Suarez will be gone by the start of next season
then you have the rest. including us.
I think the relegation spots will be out of Palace, Fulham, Sunderland, West ham, Norwich, cardiff and hull. Expect west ham to pull away though
odd to see norwich's super, amazing signings doing poorly
Have faith - we beat Man City last year with a weaker side than the one which will go out on Saturday (despite the injuries).
You'd expect to lose away at Arsenal and Chelsea and let's face it we ran them close..we played well in patches against Villa but got hit my three sucker punch goals. Yes, we defended poorly in places but how many times do you see 3 shots, 3 goals? It's a freak result and everyone gets those.
I have confidence MP will sort out the defence. Let's just get behind the team. 4 defeats from 4 wouldn't be ideal but it looks worse as a stat and not quite as bad when you consider the circumstances. We have not become a bad side in the space of one week and I sincerely hope the players know that (even though many of the usual suspects on here think otherwise).
Fonte will come back into the middle so we will be more solid there but Yaya and Fernandinho vs Davis and Cork (or JWP) would be a huge missmatch.
With a fit and non showboating boruc we could well get a result from this as we've beaten them before, but with the injuries and gazzaniga in goal we will get hammered unfortunately, can't see any other result unless the players out make a miraculous recovery
We'll certainly compete. City are starting to hit their stride but their away form is still shakey so if we can keep things tight we've got a chance.
Shame that Kompany's back as well, but is he ready for two games in a week?
Could it be a 7-0 drubbing? In normal circumstances 'No' but these are far from being normal circumstances. I wouldn't bet on less than 4 that's for sure. If it turns out that way we're up a gum tree for this campaign.
I don't know, I just think City can blow hot and cold, especially away from home. I still look at Demecheillis and wonder WTF he's on sometimes, looks an awful defender when turned against pace....so if we deploy Jay up alongside him, we can get some joy. I think we're going to have to score a few though.....
City need to concentrate for the full 90 and not switch off, like they did against West Brom. Otherwise we might score.
I think Man C may get a nasty shock Sat.
