Middlesbrough
2 Manchester City 1 More Away day Blues
Wednesday 29th October 2008 :
Terry Petters for GYKO at the Riverside
Middlesbrough,
it is safe to say, does not rank among Manchester City's
favourite destinations. Sven-Goran Eriksson's final Premier
League game was an ignominious rout at the Riverside. While,
five months after that 8-1 demolition, City's defence was only
breached once last night, Mark Hughes had no more cause for
satisfaction. Afonso Alves converted the decisive penalty to
upstage a rather more feted Brazilian - Robinho - and provide
Hughes with an unwanted reminder that City remain very much a
work in progress.
Expectations have been raised at the City of Manchester Stadium
and Robinho has not been slow to challenge himself. The
Brazilian has declared his ambition to score 30 goals this
season and, with six in as many Premier League games, he has
begun his time in England with the required strike rate. If he
does not reach his target, it will not be for a lack of
attempts; long-range shooting is a feature of his game. His
initial effort sailed over, while a second drew the opening save
when he drifted infield to meet Stephen Ireland's pass with a
crisp strike.
Behind City's record signing, Mark Hughes had delivered a vote
of no confidence in City's specialist left-backs and selected
Micah Richards. Unfamiliar as the position is to him, the
England international appeared undeterred. Overlapping
enthusiastically to combine with Robinho, he tested Turnbull
with a sharp shot.
Richards' principal task, however, was to subdue Jeremie
Aliadière. The Frenchman's most promising run was halted by
Richard Dunne, with a well-judged block, as defenders on both
sides started to gain the upper hand. The Manchester City
captain, dismissed on his last visit to the Riverside, risked a
premature exit again, albeit for different reasons, when he
collided with Joe Hart. The centre-back, by heading the ball
away as Afonso Alves chased Aliadière's long pass, at least
averted another form of danger.
Daniel Sturridge had been promoted from the bench for just his
fourth Premier League start, a bout of tonsillitis restricting
Jo to a place on the bench. Yet the evening posed problems for
the teenager as he discovered the difficulties of operating as a
lone striker. The focal points of the attack were Robinho and
Shaun Wright-Phillips on the flanks and, while Ireland
threatened to thread a ball through the Boro defence, his
targets were invariably the runners from deeper positions.
Indeed, Sturridge's first notable contribution came when he
drifted wider to meet Robinho's pass and back-heel the ball into
Wright-Phillips' path. Sturridge's second significant
involvement, however, was less impressive. He chased David
Wheater and tripped the Boro defender inside the penalty area.
Afonso Alves retained his composure to score Boro's first goal
in three games at the Riverside.
Sturridge did, however, have a shot at redemption. Sadly for the
teenager, it was blazed high and wide after Turnbull parried
Vincent Kompany's curling effort and City were condemned to a
fourth defeat in seven Premier League games.
Middlesbrough sealed the win in the fourth minute of injury time
when Gary O'Neil scored from close range
Middlesbrough: Turnbull,
Wheater, Riggott, Pogatetz, Taylor, Aliadiere, O'Neil, Digard (Arca
75), Downing (Adam Johnson 83), Sanli, Alves.
Subs Not Used: Jones, Emnes, John Johnson, Grounds, Walker.
Booked: O'Neil.
Goals: Alves 53 pen,
O'Neil 90.
Man City: Hart, Ben-Haim,
Richards, Dunne, Onuoha, Kompany, Wright-Phillips, Ireland,
Elano (Fernandes 67), Robinho, Sturridge (Evans 77).
Subs Not Used: Schmeichel, Jo, Garrido, Hamann, Berti.
Booked: Kompany, Ireland,
Robinho.
Att: 25,731
Ref: Lee Mason
(Lancashire).
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Manchester
City 3 Stoke City 0 Robinho Lifts Off
Sunday 26th October 2008 :
Robin McCarthy for GYKO at the COMSTAD
On the day
that the clocks went back to mark the end of British summer
time, Robinho scored his first hat-trick in English football to
dispel any doubts that he has the stomach to be Manchester
City's man for all seasons.
Having taken just one point from their previous three league
games prior to this emphatic victory over an outclassed Stoke
City, Mark Hughes's team were certainly in need of the win as
they attempt to live up to the growing hopes surrounding the
club following the recent takeover by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour.
And Robinho, the embodiment of the 'new' City, led the victory
charge on a day when the club's much heralded young stars also
came to the fore to supplement the Brazilian forward.
Robinho's doubters, unconvinced by the substance beneath the
obvious style, have suggested that the time to judge the him
will be 'on a cold February afternoon at Stoke or Hull' when his
talent and desire will be put to the sternest of tests.
Well, on a cold and wet October afternoon against Stoke at
Eastlands, the former Real Madrid striker gave ample evidence
that he will not disappear anywhere when faced with the less
welcoming features of English football.
City manager Hughes said: "Robinho is enjoying himself, but I
think he will get even stronger and more influential for us as a
consequence of playing in this league. I don't think he will
have a problem maintaining his high standards right through to
the end of the season.
"He was excellent for us today, not just with his goals, but
with his appreciation of his team-mates and how he contributed
in an attacking sense. It was 3-0, but it could've been many
more on another day."
Despite the grim Mancunian weather, Robinho was still
short-sleeved and without the gloves that have become de rigeur
amongst the Premier League's foreign legion as he tormented
Stoke with a performance laced with the vision and trickery that
ought to come unconditionally with a £32.5m price tag.
Aided by the two youngsters in whom City have such high hopes,
Ched Evans and Daniel Sturridge, Robinho helped himself to his
fourth, fifth and sixth goals for the club since his headlining
arrival from Madrid.
With £19m striker Jo absent with flu, Evans and Sturridge - both
just 19 - showcased their potential by showing great awareness
to create all three of Robinho's goals.
Robinho's first, following an unselfish pass from Evans on
fourteen minutes, was followed by a brief Stoke fightback that
saw Joe Hart, fresh from signing a five-year contract prior to
this game, produce two fine saves from Ricardo Fulller and Ryan
Shawcross.
But with Sturridge replacing the injured Evans shortly before
half-time, City retained their attacking threat and Sturridge
twice released Robinho with two sublime passes in the
second-half from which the Brazilian scored.
Subs Not Used:
Simonsen, Cort, Amdy Faye, Wilkinson.
Att:
44,624
Ref:
Steve Tanner (Somerset).
Newcastle
United 2 Manchester City 2 City Scrape Home
The call by
Sir Bobby Robson, who watched this remarkable fightback from the
stands, was for a hero, a Shearer, to salvage this great,
beautiful and horribly self-destructive club.
To enormous cheers Alan Shearer did step on to the pitch at St
James’ Park last night but only to celebrate his cycle ride from
London to Newcastle that raised £400,000 for Sport Relief.
However, given the qualities of this display, Newcastle may yet
save themselves under the stewardship of the old, almost
forgotten and relatively uncharismatic figure of Joe Kinnear.
Perhaps Newcastle do not need heroic leadership. In the words of
the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “When the best leader’s work is
done, his people say: ‘we did it ourselves’. First at Everton,
where they recovered from a two-goal deficit, and now here,
where they lost a man and a goal after 13 minutes, Newcastle are
beginning to do it themselves.
However, the fight and commitment that were so pivotal to
Kinnear’s success at Wimbledon are beginning to translate to a
club which lately has not been associated with either.
Last night, as Newcastle first recovered and then improbably
took the lead after Rob Styles’ decision to dismiss Habib Beye
and award a penalty for what appeared a clean tackle on Robinho,
the St James’ Park crowd was as passionate and emotional as it
had been sullen and resentful on Kinnear‘s arrival.
He remarked that the Newcastle public produced the kind of noise
he was never used to when in charge of Wimbledon. When Kinnear
enters the Stadium of Light for Saturday’s Tyne-Wear derby that
volume will have increased by several decibels.
“But the game hasn’t changed that much since I was last in
football,” he said. “Players are still players; you have got to
keep it simple. I have never been one to complicate things. In
football simplicity is key.”
Styles’ decision was far from simple. Although Kinnear asked the
referee to reconsider his red card, he admitted that from behind
it might have appeared a penalty. “He didn’t give the impression
he thought he had made a mistake,” Kinnear said. But a mistake
it was, if not quite on the level of Styles’ award of a penalty
at Old Trafford against Bolton last month when no Manchester
United player appealed for one.
As Robinho raced on to a through-ball from Shaun
Wright-Phillips, Beye came charging in with what appeared wanton
recklessness. From where Styles was standing, the decisions must
have appeared straightforward - Beye had to go, the penalty was
obvious and the Newcastle protests, led by Nicky Butt, so very
predictable. It was only when the television replays were
studied that it was clear Beye had actually won the ball.
Since the 6-0 destruction of Portsmouth that supposedly heralded
the new era at Eastlands, Manchester City’s form, especially
away from home, has been strangely erratic. What perplexed Mark
Hughes was how his players could have been so lacking in
aggression after taking the lead. Only towards the end, when
Hughes threw on an array of strikers, did Manchester City truly
attack a by-now exhausted Newcastle.
First Shay Given made a brilliant, one-handed save from Stephen
Ireland but, four minutes from a desperately-anticipated
full-time whistle, Robinho who had emphatically put away City’s
penalty, slipped Ireland through again. This time, there was to
be no reprieve.
Hughes was correct in arguing that Newcastle’s goals were
fortunate and both involved the Manchester City captain, Richard
Dunne. Just before the interval, his clearance ricocheted around
his own penalty area like a pinball before arriving at the feet
of Shola Ameobi, whose inclusion as a replacement for the
injured Michael Owen had been greeted with sighs of despair from
the Gallowgate End - mainly because he had not actually scored a
goal for Newcastle in two years.
However, he took the ball down beautifully on his chest and
drove it coolly home. It was no more than Newcastle deserved.
Before he scored, Ameobi’s pass should have provided an opening
goal but although Damien Duff’s run suggested the player who had
dazzled at Blackburn, his finish was reminiscent of the shadowy
figure who ghosted through dressing rooms at Stamford Bridge and
St James’ Park.
As for the move that took Newcastle into the lead, which saw
Dunne volleying a corner by Geremi into his own net, it was said
Hughes, “a freak goal, the kind of thing you will not see before
and will not see again.” But at St James’ Park what other clubs
might appear extraordinary is now almost routine.
Man City: Hart, Richards (Onuoha
58), Ben-Haim, Dunne, Garrido (Sturridge 83), Wright-Phillips,
Kompany, Hamann (Evans 64), Ireland, Jo, Robinho.
Subs Not Used: Schmeichel, Elano, Fernandes, Berti.
Booked: Garrido, Kompany.
Goals: Robinho 14 pen,
Ireland 86.
Att: 45,908
Ref: Rob Styles
(Hampshire).
QUICK NAVIGATION
Manchester
City 2 Liverpool 3 Scouse Comeback
Sunday, 5th October 2008 :
Steve Tongue for GYKO at the COMSTAD
Manchester City's plans for world domination will have to be put
on hold a little longer after a third defeat in four League
matches, suffered in archetypal fashion. Newly enriched they may
be – and the chief executive wrote in the programme that "I am
truly hopeful this may be the beginning of our time" – but the
capacity for self-mutilation by shooting in the foot remains
intact. Never a truer word spoken.
Shooting was excellent in the first half. They were 2-0 ahead at
half-time with well-struck goals by Stephen Ireland and Javier
Garrido, but from then on they were utterly outplayed. Fernando
Torres scored twice on either side of Pablo Zabaleta's deserved
sending off and at the start of added time, with Liverpool also
down to 10 men – Martin Skrtel had gone off injured – Dirk Kuyt
slid in the winning goal.
So City slip into the bottom half of the table, while Liverpool
continue their best start to a season for 12 years to keep pace
with Chelsea at the top. Having dropped Robbie Keane for Javier
Mascherano as an extra midfield man, the visitors were ragged
before half-time, with Steven Gerrard's passing often wayward
and Torres experiencing little joy with insufficient support in
attack. He came alive thereafter as the home side crumpled,
managing barely a shot on goal in the whole of the second half.
Rafa Benitez's delight was diluted only by what he fears is a
bad injury to Skrtel, who twisted a knee halting a rare City
attack near the end. "It seems serious," Benitez said. "The
positive thing is the reaction and character we saw in the
second half, which was fantastic. In the first half we were
making mistakes against a team that has pace and ability."
The pace was provided by Shaun Wright-Phillips, who was lively
again down the right, and the trickery by City's three
Brazilians, but Robinho was hardly seen once the pattern of the
game changed and he was substituted 10 minutes from the end.
Rather like Tottenham Hotspur when they first signed Osvaldo
Ardiles and Ricky Villa, City are learning that even 30 years on
there is more to football in England than South American flair.
Mark Hughes, the sanest of figures amid the insanity of
Eastlands, was as down-to-earth as ever. "The disappointing
thing was that we spoke about Liverpool's likely response and
needed to be ready for it," he said. "We let them back into it
so early and after the sending-off we were just trying to get
through the game. We're a young team in terms of development and
experience. What we need is that resoluteness to see games
through."
In the opening 10 minutes of a fascinating game, City had hardly
had a touch, with Robinho, stuck out on the far left, more of an
onlooker than anyone. He then fired a first warning shot at Pepe
Reina from 20 yards and decided the central area was more to his
liking. For a while Jamie Carragher, unable to shake him with
even the most thunderous of tackles, and Skrtel, had their hands
full. In the 19th minute Wright-Phillips made for the byline
and, receiving a lucky bounce off Xabi Alonso in an offside
position, was able to screw the ball into the six-yard area. For
a second time the bounce favoured City, sitting up off Alvaro
Arbeloa for Ireland to volley in with venom.
In the previous seven meetings between the clubs, there had
never been more than a single goal – invariably scored by
Liverpool – but these are strange days here and before half-time
City had another. Albert Riera fouled Wright-Phillips and from
25 yards Garrido curled the free-kick into the very top corner
of the net beyond Reina's groping left hand.
The ultimate game of two halves then turned about-face. The
second period began as the first had done, except that this time
Liverpool received tangible reward for their dominance. Richard
Dunne's careless stumble into the back of Kuyt might have
conceded a penalty straightaway but in the 55th minute Gerrard
played the ball through Garrido's legs for Arbeloa on the
overlap to cross, Torres sliding it in.
Zabaleta, who had been enjoying a good duel with his former
Espanyol team-mate Riera, did City no favours with his wild
lunging tackle on Alonso, rightly punished with a red card. Five
minutes later the team suffered when Gerrard swung a corner to
the near post that Torres headed in without a challenge.
From that moment Liverpool had to be fancied to go on and win.
The chance seemed to have disappeared when Torres, slightly off
balance at the far post, skewed Andrea Dossena's cross over the
bar, but just as six minutes of added time were being indicated
the Spaniard's shot fell for Kuyt to knock in his first League
goal for almost a year.
Manchester
City 2 Omonia Nicosia 1 One more step
Thursday 2nd October 2008 : Gerrard Parker for GYKO at the
COMSTAD
England
manager Fabio Capello got a further indication of Shaun Wright
Phillips' growing confidence as the winger helped steer
Manchester City into the group stages of the UEFA Cup.
Wright-Phillips scored his fourth goal in his second spell for
the club following his £9million move from Chelsea in August. It
was just the lift City needed in the 55th minute after Elano had
made the breakthrough seven minutes earlier.
Manager Mark Hughes had called on his team to put this tie to
bed early but they took their time to settle against a team
unbeaten in their domestic league.
They could have taken the lead inside the second minute when
Elano picked out Micah Richards but his header went straight
into Antonis Georgallides' arms.
Twelve minutes later Robinho made space for himself after a
decent spell of possession by the ambitious Cypriot side.
However, the Brazil striker was left with a feeling of
frustration as his effort went across the face of the goal and
out of play. Then Robinho tried his luck from distance but his
shot failed to trouble the goalkeeper and went high over the
bar.
City were looking for the slightest thing to get them going and
won a free-kick in the 34th minute when Wright-Phillips was
bundled over by Marcello Pletsch. Elano's delivery to the back
post failed to test the Omonia defence but they had begun to
make strides and find some rhythm to their play.
Stephen Ireland cracked in a shot in the 37th minute that was
deflected to safety by Costas Kaiafas. Two minutes later,
Ireland again strode forward and got on the end of a pass from
Jo, only to see his effort blocked at the near post. Pablo
Zabaleta then swung in a cross from the right and Jo showed good
awareness to get a touch when everyone else had given up.
Jo tried to lay the ball off into the path of Robinho but the
ball went behind his fellow Brazilian and the move broke down.
Robinho almost gave City the lead a minute into the second half
when he cut inside and sent his effort narrowly wide of the
post. But they did not have long to wait with Robinho showing he
is a team player along with his other obvious assets.
The £32.5million buy laid the ball into the path of Elano two
minutes later and he drilled a shot beyond the goalkeeper and
into the corner. It was a fine finish by another one of the four
Brazilians in City's squad. Elano's goal extended their lead and
seven minutes later they were celebrating again.
Wright-Phillips danced away from two defenders in the 55th
minute before smashing a shot home to put City 4-1 ahead on
aggregate. It was another indication of the winger's love for
the club and why Hughes is touting him for an England recall.
With the game against Liverpool to follow on Sunday, Hughes took
off Kompany and Jo and replaced the pair with Dietmar Hamann and
Ched Evans in the 67th minute. Robinho's shot was then clawed to
safety at his post by the goalkeeper before he was given a
breather with Martin Petrov coming on for his first action
following a hamstring injury.
City, though,
took their foot off the pedal and paid the price in the 78th
minute when Omonia pulled a goal back. Substitute Rasheed Alabi
got on the end of a corner from Efstathios Aloneftis to send a
header beyond Joe Hart.
However, City completed the job they started in Nicosia to
continue their European adventure.
Teams
Man City: Hart, Zabaleta, Richards, Ben-Haim, Garrido,
Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Kompany (Hamann 66), Elano, Robinho (Petrov
70), Jo (Evans 67).
Subs Not Used: Schmeichel, Michael Ball, Fernandes, Sturridge.
satisfaction. Afonso Alves converted the decisive penalty to
upstage a rather more feted Brazilian - Robinho - and provide
Hughes with an unwanted reminder that City remain very much a
work in progress.
