[center]Manchester City v Chelsea
Sunday 24th February 2012
1:30pm KO Live on Sky Sports 1
Referee: Andre Marriner
One Man’s Vision[/center]
It was a gloriously sunny day last Sunday as we stood on the Metrolink heading to the Etihad. The tram was packed full of young lads from Leeds determined to make the most of their day out and leave no-one in doubt that Kevin Webster was ‘one of our own’. When Gary Cook first took over the club one of his visions was for the area around the Eithad to match similar European grounds where supporters could mix, and most importantly spend money, in club owned ‘fanzones’.
As we got off at the Etihad Campus for the first time, crossed the track and rose up the steps into the fanzone it was clear that Cook’s vision had come to fruition as the area around the club shop swelled with the additional numbers coming off the tram; the Summerbee Bar swelled and buzzing with anticipation; Programme Vendors quickly sold out and the pre-match entertainment in full swing on the stage in City Square; all with the decorated Stadium as a backdrop. It was a terrific experience and enjoying a beer in the sun with the Etihad in the background felt like the most continental and sophisticated of experiences. Whatever people think of Gary Cook he had a vision and put it into practice. Other clubs will eventually copy the idea but the club can smile in the knowledge that’s all they can do…follow.
Maybe it was just the weather, or using the tram for the first time, Leeds were really, really poor but for the first time in months but something felt different about the team. Maybe defeat at Southampton lifted a weight from the team and they felt they could just go out and play. For the first time in a month City played with a tempo and purpose. When playing a lower league opposition at home with a huge and vocal following the key is to score early and put them on the back foot. City did this and effectively killed the game off minutes later when Michael Brown got his first assist for City over a decade. Fans memories are longer than players and the desired rout never came as City’s players were happy to maintain possession and wait for Leeds to make a mistake but there were several terrific performances in the side.
For once this season Milner and Zabaleta were able to take a back seat in leading the way as an almost front 3 of Tevez, Aguero and Silva simply passed Leeds to death playing in feared triangles so coverted by Barcelona and the world’s media. It is amazing how much of a confidence player Aguero is and another goal (well two) will do him the world of good as he’s looked a completely different player in the last 2 home games since he embarrassed Reina. It was great to see his family in the stands celebrating. It was also great to see the return of Tevez who looked he’d never been away and played like all he’d thought about for a month was covering every blade of grass on the field.
A post match pint in the Summerbee Bar in the sunshine whilst stood just yards away from the lovely Natalie Pike discussing our performance for CityTV whilst the queue for the tram died down capped off a quality afternoon.
So just one home game against lower league opposition for a chance to return to Wembley where hopefully we will be playing Blackburn for the right to play Wigan in the final!
[center]"Fucking hell, I can't continue to answer questions about this.”[/center]
So we return to the league and the media’s 3 biggest talking points of the week have been Mancini telling them where they can go with regards to his future, Edison Cavani being our number one summer target and the fact there is a 99% chance that we’ll be 15 points behind the Vermin come in kick off time.
For those people whose livelihood isn’t based around taking the smallest scraps of non-news and making headlines out of them the visit of Chelsea will be about ensuring we secure 2nd place, maintaining our form for the FA Cup and ensuring that Chelsea will have failed to have beaten us in 3 meetings this season should we meet again in the FA Cup.
[center]"Mario not being here, that must be a big problem for the paparazzi and The Sun,"
[/center]Chelsea have a full strength squad to choose from after their last gasp winner on Thursday in the Europa League. We were the opponents when Rafa Benitez took over at Stamford Bridge and we could have won on the day. Since our previous meeting; Chelsea have shown the sort of infuriating indifferent league form that Benitez was famous for at Liverpool but the quality of the league this season has meant that they’ve not had to be outstanding to be in 3rd place.
"I haven't given him a chance. It's not his fault. He's working well every day and he hasn't caused any problems ever so I'm very sorry."
Just as Southampton was looking to be our darkest hour with no one in form and too many keys players to name missing from the line up; the break from the league has seen all but Micah Richards return to the squad. If Gareth Barry and Vincent Kompany are both fit then I would expect Garcia and Kolo Toure to make way from last weeks line up. It would be great if they would be able to line up in the same way with the trio of Tevez, Aguero and Silva leading the line.
[center]Prediction[/center]
As always at home we are the favourites and as long as we play with similar purpose as last week going forward and don’t make any mistakes defensively we should win this. We have a decent recent record against Chelsea at home, we've come from behind to win twice in the last 3 years.
2-1
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