Fair play to Villa, they did what we did against Arsenal except they snatched a goal early on. Until we learn to beat teams who park the bus, we'll win no title as now that's Everton, Brum, and Villa who have set up big defenses, in two cases to hold on to leads, and we have failed to break them down enough. Joe Hart has to come into question, he has cost us two matches now. I don't rate Given as highly as some have but the one thing that irks me about Given - never coming off the line to take control - is something Hart has been suffering from more lately. Think his confidence may have dropped so dropping him could worsen that, so it's a hard decision to make. Our MotM for me was Kolarov, finally finding his feet and looking very good. Should have had at least two goals from his excellent crosses but the hunger in the box wasn't good enough. Tevez had a nightmare, Silva likewise, and Dzeko was OK but not at his best yet. Johnson was more dangerous after he came on but we still couldn't score... when De Jong's shot deflected and hit the post, I knew with 100% certainty we would lose. Think we can rule out any dream of winning the league now, but we should still try for the Champions League instant qualification (2nd or 3rd) at least. Because knowing our club culture, we'd lose the banana skin CL qualifying match if we finished 4th.
Darren Bent you legend! Good game, City fans. You're still in the top four, and the Champions League spot was ultimately the main goal for your team. I still wouldn't rule you lot out of the title race, though.
I've updated my blog with the reaction from Saturday's game. http://iwasonceajuniorblue.blogspot.com/
i thought we played well. our corners have gotten better thanks to kolorav. this match can me summarized with a simple "sometimes you eat the hamburger and sometimes the hamburger eats you"... hows that for analysis