john68 wrote:There is another angle BBS. In general terms, a point at the swamp appears a solid result.
But given that we are now supposed to be competing against the top elite sides, a draw serves us no purpose whatsoever. We are several points behind and need to make up lost ground. A draw merely serves to consolidate the status quo, whilst giving us one less game to catch them.
They are potentuially 9 pts ahead with games running out. They have a massive advantage over us and the derby is a great chance to to close the gap.
My thoughts against Arsenal were that we adopted the strategy of hgolding them because we didn't have the necessary tools available to do much else. As it stands, we have Silva to create, Dzeko to as a cutting edge and Tevez to do a bit of both. Add to that the threat of Johnno and Yaya down the flanks and through the middle, we have all the artillery we need to beat them.
That depends on what your thinking is.. a draw would maintain the status quo yes, but it also states that we are on a par with the best team in prem. So if your thinking is really longer term a draw has positives towards next season. If you are thinking well we still have a shout at the title and this is the best opportunity that remains to slam a big fat foot in the door, then a draw is no good whatsoever. We are still a few games away, so we will have to see how things stand when we get to derby week, but i rekon Mancini has a bit of a dilemna, just like the rags coming to coms they did not want to lose and were wary, i could imagine that Bob does not want to lose and we have yet to be convinced of his out and out desire to try and force a challenge on the title this season.
Outside that my own opinion is that we have fuck all to be worried about on paper and in practice the only thing to be wary of with the rags is their ability to turn the pace and string rapid attacks together with accuracy. But then the same could be said for City and the rags will be wary of that.
We are suited to playing against teams that come out and play.. the away form was better until teams started playing at home like they would at coms, but the rags wont do that, so in some ways the game will suit us.. in fact this is a major plus.
I still expect it to pan out as a stalemate unless someone gets a goal, as the major consideration for both is not losing. That said if we keep our distance over Spurs in the table over the next few weeks then i think we will have more lee-way to go for it more in the derby and have a bit of a fucl it attitude.
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