Date: Sunday 3rd April 2011
KO: 1600 hrs
Venue: City of Manchester Stadium
At long last we're back at the sharp end after the International break. And it's a Big Day, probably one of the biggest in Manchester City's footballing history; a proud day that all Blues should take note of. Yes, you've guessed it, the Premier League debut for the one and only, all new and improved, ManCityFans.Net Banner. At great expense to our members and at a personal cost to those who created it, all should be proud to see it flying high in the centre of the 3rd tier of the legendary Colin Bell stand. What better place to show that we are not just remembering our proud past, but also looking forward for a Bright Blue Future. Well done to all involved including the City Officials who kindly allowed us to place it in such a prestigious position.
'Proud to be Blue, Proud to be CityFans'.
Connections
So, onto the game. Sunday see's us entertain the BlackCats, a team that we have many connections to. Currently we have Chairman, Niall Quinn, who used to be a City hero and still many see as a modern day Legend, scoring close to 80 goals in 245 games. There's also City favourite Nedum Onuoha, the long time City fan and 'A' Level graduate who went out on loan after an unceremonious attack toward our current manager on Soccer AM (not the wisest of move for an intelligent person).
Oh Brother, those were the days!
Then, on the other side of the coin, you've got the ex-Devil Worshippers who will do anything to put one over us to stay in the grace of old Slur Taggart. Steve Bruce, a tusk of a man, will be reminiscing on the days when he used to play in the Red jersey where he won National and European honours, with the likes of Kieran Richardson, Frazier Campbell and Danny Welbeck hanging onto every Elephant'esque type word. Pity he hasn't achieved as much in his managerial career, but then again, he probably only got into management through Old Rashers connections, rather than his own managerial acumen.
A picture saves a thousand words.
A Bit of History
Seeing as I've mentioned History, Sunderland do have a fine history of their own. Originally founded in 1879 as Sunderland District & Teachers AFC, they soon changed their name to his present in 1881 after their founder, James Allan, had a disagreement with how the club was being run. They went onto join the league in 1890 and went on a run of 67 years in the top flight, winning the league in only their second year. They went onto winning many trophies in the early years and were even named 'Champions of the World' after beating the Heart of Midlothian 5-3 in a sort of World Club game. More recently however, they've not had it too good. Years of yo-yo'ing up and down the divisions and certain financial irregularities left them in breach of league legislation. Their last top flight pot was won way back in '73 with their last league title coming way back in '36, a long time in anyone's books, even ours.
The Game
It's an important one isn't it, made more important with our 3rd place rival Chelsea drawing away against Stoke. Not to mention Arsenal not being able to score against a 10-man team that they've trounced by 4 goals in the last two corresponding fixtures (Is there still a chance of 2nd?). Tottenham are still hot on our heals but they won't be happy with a no-score draw at bottom of the league Wigan, and poor form isn't boding well for another trip into the elite of Europe (unless they win it that is). So a win will take us above Chelsea, 6 away from Spurs, and well within shouting distance of that illustrious Champions League spot.
Sunderland on the other hand need to start making moves to ensure they don't get dragged into a relegation battle. They sit 11th in the league and although it would usually seem a safe seat at this time of the season, they are only a couple of losses away from the relegation zone, a place that no team wants to be when entering the final furlongs of a long season.
Form
City's form has been a bit up and down since Christmas, especially away from home, and as Roberto Mancini says, it could be a lot to do with fatigue. Sunday's game is the 50th of the season, the joint highest in the Premier League only matched by Arsenal, a team who have been dumped out of 3 major trophies within a fortnight and now look incapable of putting a run together to stop those at the swamp going top of the all time top flight winners table (damn you Arsenal)! It is also the 22nd game since the busy Christmas schedule with us playing 2 games a week regularly for the last 2 months (that may have had something to do with eccentric draws at Notts County and Leicester, but at least we got there in the end and a chance to knock the Dwellers off their purch).
At home though, we really are the dogs danglies. We may have only gathered 8 points from the last 18 in all games, but we've also won 5 and drawn 1 in our last six at home. And although the games are not that impressive, the points tally is well worthy of praise. Combine that with only being beat by Arsenal when we were diffy a defender after 5 minutes, and the almost annual beating by bogey side Everton, you could say that CoMS is definitely becoming a bit of a fortress.
And this is what we've got to take into the game, the attitude that we are impregnable, we are the new Rags, we are the new Barca (a bit far fetched, but you know). Sunderland are on a terrible run and are bottom of the Form Guide (Interesting!) only managing to gain 1 solitary point from their last 6 games, and although they have been against decent opposition, it's been against teams in and around our position. Bruce will want them firing again though, and if they don't stop the rot, he'll be in real danger of losing his position as 'Head' coach; a position that his face does not support.
The Stats
The Stats are suggesting nothing more than a home win after City conquering in this fixture the last 6 times, the most recent being the last game under Mark Hughes when we went all out for the win and prevailed 4-3, only for Hughes to get the chop 2 hours later; not the greatest hour in the clubs history. On top of that, we've only conceded 11 at home all season with 6 of them coming in the Arsenal and Wolves games (only 5 goals coming from the other 13 games). Sunderland, although having/had an impressive strike force, have been unable to score in their last 3 games (33 goals all season), a worrying statistic for Bruce. But stats aren't the game and we all know what can happen when we take things for granted; don't we?
Tactics
Sunderland will be under serious pressure to get something out of this but remain in the knowledge that it is not a good stomping ground. Bruce will set them up not to concede and try to use the speed and trickiness of Richardson and Welbeck to aide the attacking assault of Gyan who showed Joleon Lescott, midweek, how a striker can turn you inside out and leave you wondering if you'd actually graduated from mini-kickers. Mancini however, will more than likely play 'Eeez normal' game of pass and pass, and pass and pass, until the opposition are so hypnotised that they'll let you just pop it into their net from 10 centimetres out; why change a winning formula? The only problem we may have is player availability and this may form the basis of our plans. With Micah and Jerome Boateng injured and Zab's by the bedside of his seriously ill father (Our thoughts go out to you and your family.), we may see a different set-up at the back with the likes of Dedryk being brought in to cover. This may affect our midfield attacking threat with Mancini opting for cover; we'll just have to wait and see.
And going forward, do we go back to the tried and trusted formation of Carlos running the roost or do we go with a target man such as Edin Dzeko with Mr Bullseye throwing the darts; only Mancini knows.
'Eez important to look like George Clooney, eez my man'.
Key Players
City
It's got to be Carlos. The little Argentinian has been sat on 50 goals for 2 months now and since the input of Edin and Mario, his game seems to have dried up. If he can get his 51st in our 50th game I think he will go on to net the Golden Boot come the end of the season. Maybe it's pressure, maybe it's tactics, but it's definitely not like Carlos to go so long without a goal. If he clicks, we click – Simple As – there's a good reason why we are in this current form.
'Let's see a few more of these Carlos'.
Sunderland
Darren Bent, sorry, Titus Bramble is the player of choice and has had a decent season. He has been ever-present for the BlackCats and if he can marshall the back four it will be very difficult for us to get through a team adament on parking the bus. However, he has been known to make the odd mistake and let's just hope this is one of those days.
'That's it Titus, keep him close, you'll need to (smug laugh)'.
Prediction
Not a difficult one this and I'm going for a well earned, hard-fought win for City. We have the players to cause havoc in Sunderland's back-line, and with Carlos in reach of the Golden Boot I can see him driving the team on to the win. Big Dave (Silva that is) will be influential and get back to his early season ways whilst Vince will boss the defence like a real trooper, covering the whole of the right-hand side of defence to help the deputising right-back.
Mighty Blues 2 – 0 BlackCats
Carlos Tevez
David Silva
If you want to follow all the talk, don't be shy and follow the blow-by-blow action here on our Match Thread:
[urlnp=http://www.mancityfans.net/mcfnet/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=37945]Manchester City v Sunderland AFC Match Thread[/urlnp].
It may get intense, but that's just the Match Day experience.
COME ON CITY!!!
The Future's Bright, The Future's Blue!
[/center]