***city v spuds official match thread***

[Sideshow Bob]

Has what happened to Nastasic been reported?

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Has what happened to Nastasic been reported?

Still waiting to hear. He must have been injured in some way.

[dazby]

It was very strange watching us concede so much possession in the first half. However, after the first 15 minutes they never looked remotely close to scoring.

What a joy this team is to watch at home. Such free flowing play. Beautiful.

[Dameerto]

I like that a goal after fourteen seconds pretty much stops that annoying slow spuds go marching in song.

I like that a goal after 14 seconds spawns a whole load of piss taking with the Bale 'heart' celebration being taunted at the away fans.

[john@staustell]

Superlative day at the Etihad today . Some sublime football from us . Aguero is right on top of his game right now .....supreme world class ! Nasri was excellent again and so were Fernandinho and Zabs .

Two negatives ..... our defence Zabba apart just isnt right , come on Pellegrini sort this out and everything is possible.


Webb , nuff said !

I know Demichelis isn't a top player anymore, but without him these last few weeks we'd have been royally fucked. Garcia or Lescott at right CB would've seen us in mid table.

But dont run us down too much. The 'experts' have been telling us how wonderful Spurs are. We let them have the ball in front of us and only once did they ever look like scoring.

[Slim]

Garcia anywhere is a mistake but I think Pellers insistence on using a left and right footed cb has hurt us and cost us points.

[Cocacolajojo1]

It was very strange watching us concede so much possession in the first half. However, after the first 15 minutes they never looked remotely close to scoring.

What a joy this team is to watch at home. Such free flowing play. Beautiful.

I still think Spurs could've made a game of it at half time. They could at least have gotten a goal or two back. And then AVB takes away a midfielder and we scored what, 2 in 10 minutes. For fun basically. He's a mastermind AVB and he's gotta take full responsibility for making bad situation even worse.

[Goaters 103]

Aguero was unplayable in that game, and Nasri, Navas and Negredo all had excellent outings too, with Fernandinho a welcome return. Ya Ya remained an enigma with a poor first half, then that wonderful run for the 4th goal.

Slamming Spurs was very entertaining, but its absolute no good doing this at home if we then go to WBA and Southampton and lose 1-0 with Pellegrini saying its "incredible how we lost."

We know we are class at home, but its the Away form problem that must be solved for us to get anywhere this season.

[Ted Hughes]

Garcia anywhere is a mistake but I think Pellers insistence on using a left and right footed cb has hurt us and cost us points.

If Demichelis doesn't settle well enough, there is an easy solution to that left foot/right foot problem imo; games. Instead of changing it every week for a new fuckup, put someone, ie Lescott, there & leave them there, mistakes & all; give them time to get used to it, instead of having a different bloke making a fucking mess every week. Then you have a ready made solution to the problem if/when Vinny gets injured

The other three have now dropped more bollocks between them since the start of the season, than JL has in his whole City career. Swapping them around hasn't worked.

[Chinners]

As good a place as any to stick this ....

Blog of a long suffering Spurs fan. This is my occasionally obscure take on the ups and downs of life at the Lane.

Oh Dear
I didn’t expect us to get anything at the Etihad yesterday. I would have been reasonably satisfied with a spirited one or two nil defeat but after thirty seconds, the writing was very much on the wall. A disastrous clearance from the usually reliable Hugo Lloris gave Jesus Navas an opportunity which he converted via a sublime chip. The most important thing for any team going to Manchester City is to not concede an early goal because a rout is always a possibility against this side and that is exactly what happened. Before this match, Tottenham had conceded just one goal on their travels and that is what makes the manner of this defeat all the more disappointing.

On paper, the Spurs back four looked fairly strong with Younes Kaboul returning to the starting line-up alongside Captain Dawson but they were made to look like complete fools at times by the power, pace and skill of Aguero and company. Other than an early Erik Lamela chance, the away side were never in it. Villas-Boas seemed to think if that opportunity had been converted, this would have been a very different game. I have my doubts. None of our performances in the Premier League thus far this season have been particularly convincing and having suffered big defeats both here and at the hands of West Ham tells us there is still a lot of work to do. The majority of premier league betting tips would have pointed to a Manchester City victory in this but not by a margin of six goals.

I’ve always been behind Andre Villas-Boas and I will continue to support the Tottenham manager. Football fans these days expect too much too quickly and while I’m not all that impressed by our brand of football, I do believe the manager will improve both results and performances as the season progresses. The AVB out brigade really aren’t helping anyone and it’s not as if other big sides haven’t already lost a few games in the league this season. It’s how we react to this defeat that’s most important and in particular, how the team performs against Manchester United next Sunday. Although they are a good side, David Moyes men are still very beatable. I hope those Spurs players that have underperformed in recent weeks step up and show exactly what they are capable of.

[DoomMerchant]

great performance and great win. after all the pre-match worry, i thought Webb had a good game

Better second half but he was an abortion first 45 mins....atrocious

care to elaborate? im curious...

aside from the obvious bit of luck with the Navas cross/shot/goal -- which was amazingly good fun, and a couple chances taken half heartedly, Spurs dominated the first 35 mins or so, and we looked like we were second class, stuck in the mud, slow afoot, askew in midfield, etc etc etc.

Honestly, at 0-0 that would have been a fair HT result, but at 3-0 it was perhaps three of the jammiest goals we could have asked for.

What match did you watch yesterday?

[twosips]

By 'dominated' do you mean they had a bit more possession? I really can't recall all these golden chances that they created when dominating....whereas i recall us creating several on the break. Yeah they had a bit of the ball, but it means fuck all if you don't do anything with it. We were a little sloppy, but hardly terrible, and we were very clinical up front so it was irrelevant.

[Wonderwall]

great performance and great win. after all the pre-match worry, i thought Webb had a good game

Better second half but he was an abortion first 45 mins....atrocious

care to elaborate? im curious...

aside from the obvious bit of luck with the Navas cross/shot/goal -- which was amazingly good fun, and a couple chances taken half heartedly, Spurs dominated the first 35 mins or so, and we looked like we were second class, stuck in the mud, slow afoot, askew in midfield, etc etc etc.

Honestly, at 0-0 that would have been a fair HT result, but at 3-0 it was perhaps three of the jammiest goals we could have asked for.

What match did you watch yesterday?

Not the same match as you? I never thought we looked in trouble apart from the mis-kick they has cleared off the line which looked like it was actually going wide. Spurs were average and we were in cruise control, they never looked like they would hurt us and whoever thinks webb had a good game seriously needs to watch the game Sober, Webb was atrocious and Spurs should have had Sandro sent off, Walker could also have easily gone. Webb warranted a 3/10 at best

[patrickblue]

I keep on watching that first Navas goal, every time I expect the defender to get there first. Negredo's goal was just out of this world, and Doomy, were you watching an MLS game by mistake?

[City64]

Superlative day at the Etihad today . Some sublime football from us . Aguero is right on top of his game right now .....supreme world class ! Nasri was excellent again and so were Fernandinho and Zabs .

Two negatives ..... our defence Zabba apart just isnt right , come on Pellegrini sort this out and everything is possible.


Webb , nuff said !

I know Demichelis isn't a top player anymore, but without him these last few weeks we'd have been royally fucked. Garcia or Lescott at right CB would've seen us in mid table.

But dont run us down too much. The 'experts' have been telling us how wonderful Spurs are. We let them have the ball in front of us and only once did they ever look like scoring.

Spurs don't score hardly any goals and Soldado @ £25 million must be the worst buy of all time . Can't believe Defoe doesn't start bu.t hey ho who cares ? Lol . Demichelis was all over the place for 20 or so minutes in the first half yesterday , a top team would have punished us IMHO. He is much much better than Garcia though ....... another cb is priority in January and hopefully Vinny back
fit and well and Joe Hart back to his best and full of confidence will be like signing two world class players. Demichiles has done ok in a short time ,

[DoomMerchant]

Not the same match as you? I never thought we looked in trouble apart from the mis-kick they has cleared off the line which looked like it was actually going wide. Spurs were average and we were in cruise control, they never looked like they would hurt us and whoever thinks webb had a good game seriously needs to watch the game Sober, Webb was atrocious and Spurs should have had Sandro sent off, Walker could also have easily gone. Webb warranted a 3/10 at best

I dunno mate....apart from the goal the first 30 mins i think they defo had the upper hand. Apart from that through ball to aguero I don't remember any dominating stuff. At about the 32nd min lil ferdinand and yaya came to life and started to boss the misfield.

They'd have scored if they actually hadn't bought the wrong overpriced spamish striker. #beastly

[AG7]

In post match press talk Yaya says how hungry we are and how to show we mean business after that Sunderland defat blah blah blah ... then says now we have first of three home games but after that the Wigan game will be very important ...

I am assuming he meant West Brom ... He probably read on a paper on the wall somewhere inside the club and saw WBA and then thought to himself it's Wigan?? Is that possible? Are our players that daft? I mean a journo saying or even writing that I could understand but Yaya?

[tc6828]

So, a great result from a free flowing City. To be honest guys, and I am as blue as they come, we were't brilliant were we? I mean we were made to look good and I don't want us to get drawn into the were unbeatable, gonna beat Chelski's world record for goals etc etc.

Only after we went 2 up did we start to believe in ourselves and come the second half, Spuds were nowhere to be seen.

That said, it was something we can be proud of and salute the team, but let's not think that was a brilliant all round performance. Just bringing some realism and context to the debate.

On another thought, who in that line up would make way for Merlin when he is fit again..

[Original Dub]

So, a great result from a free flowing City. To be honest guys, and I am as blue as they come, we were't brilliant were we? I mean we were made to look good and I don't want us to get drawn into the were unbeatable, gonna beat Chelski's world record for goals etc etc.

Only after we went 2 up did we start to believe in ourselves and come the second half, Spuds were nowhere to be seen.

That said, it was something we can be proud of and salute the team, but let's not think that was a brilliant all round performance. Just bringing some realism and context to the debate.

On another thought, who in that line up would make way for Merlin when he is fit again..

It could have been ten.

We were excellent. And from my days watching football, it's generally the first two goals are the hardest to put away, if it's going to end up being a battering.

[zuricity]

So, a great result from a free flowing City. To be honest guys, and I am as blue as they come, we were't brilliant were we? I mean we were made to look good and I don't want us to get drawn into the were unbeatable, gonna beat Chelski's world record for goals etc etc.

Only after we went 2 up did we start to believe in ourselves and come the second half, Spuds were nowhere to be seen.

That said, it was something we can be proud of and salute the team, but let's not think that was a brilliant all round performance. Just bringing some realism and context to the debate.

On another thought, who in that line up would make way for Merlin when he is fit again..

Until he gets his corners right, Merlin can play Centre half with joleon. That will teach him to take corners seriously.