Man City 1 v 0 Swansea City

A Good Defeat ?
In this, of all Divisions, not every game is the same.

 

 After all, at yesterday's eventual 1-0 disappointment at the Etihad, the pre game odds of the Bookies (2-7 City, 5-1 the draw, 14-1 the Swans) would have told you that most of football punditry wouldn't have expected us to get anything.

However, in the real world, the game was a little different to that.

Ask yourself this - when you come away from a game and we've lost, is there ever a day when you feel a little more encouraged ?

I'd suggest that it is SOMETIMES the case that you feel better on some defeats rather than others. We all feel gutted, painful hurt when we lose, but just sometimes, the performance surely means that we ought to be more encouraged than despondent - and Saturday's 1-0 defeat to last year's Champions at the Etihad was just such an occasion.

In a game of contrasting, engaging variety, Swansea City can feel just a little aggrieved that the outcome wasn't a little better, but, I'd remind you, it shows you how far we've come.

Unsurprising lines-up from either side, as Swansea went with the same 11 that got the Wigan win, and Roberto Mancini continued to out-tinker the Tinkerman from within his fabulously cash-rich squad, in both application and realisation. Some newspapers had suggested that Ben Davies, our tyro rookie (thrown in at the deep end) earns £400 per week, Yaya Toure, their midfield general, is the recipient of some £240,000 for the same (or similar) commitment. Hey, this is the Premier League - so nothing (nothing) should surprise us!

Here are the teams..........

Manchester City

01 Hart, 02 Richards Booked (K Toure - 81' ), 04 Kompany, 13 Kolarov (Balotelli - 46' ), 22 Clichy, 33 Nastasic, 08 Nasri, 18 Barry, 42 Y Toure, 16 Aguero (Lescott - 90' ), 32 Tevez
Substitutes
30 Pantilimon, 06 Lescott, 28 K Toure, 11 Sinclair, 74 Evans, 10 Dzeko, 45 Balotelli

Swansea City

01 Vorm (Tremmel - 64' ), 04 Chico, 06 Williams, 22 Rangel (Booked), 33 Davies, 07 Britton (Graham - 72' ), 09 Michu, 11 Pablo (Dyer - 77' Booked ), 15 Routledge, 20 De Guzman, 24 Ki Sung-Yeung
Substitutes
25 Tremmel, 16 Monk, 21 Tiendalli, 12 Dyer, 26 Agustien, 10 Graham, 17 Shechter

Ref: Atkinson
Att: 46,801

My pre game feeling had been that we'd do well to come away without a humiliation, given that Citeh were by their own reckoning on an attempt to retrieve the embarassment of the Ajax CL defeat, so to see us start not only safely but confidently was a fabulous reassurance. We demonstrably showed that we had learned from last Season, albeit with a different Manager and an evolving team.

Swansea pressed high and fast, and Citeh found it hard to come to terms with this, despite a preponderance of possession. When they had the ball, they were loth to move it at anything above walking pace, and this suited our visitors just fine, since it encouraged raiding on the break.

Swansea did it well, and the highlights from ESPN/Yahoo  and suchlike will show you how........here's the MOTD2 version  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nqdhn/Match_of_the_Day_2_2012_13_28_10_2012/ ...and here's the Yahoo highs ...http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/premier-league/video/allvideos-22327918/30977698

It will show you that in the first half, Miguel Michu's brave header from a Hernandez cross was denied by only Micah Richard's equally brave defensive header, and his offside "goal" was remarkably close.

Equally, his sublime give and go with the fabulous Ki was only denied by England's no 1 goalkeeper, as Joe Hart raced from his line to keep the Spaniard out.

Swansea had given as good as they got, and went off to the City faithful booing their Blue Moon charges - bizzarre, to say the least.

The second half saw Mancini introduce Balotelli from the get go, for Kolarov, and Manchester's finest had a 20m spell that eventually won them the game.

Their ball retension began to bear fruit, as it condemned Swansea to chasing shadows, and it eventually fell to the contrite Carlos Tevez being the man who made the breakthough.

From a clumsy ball toward him, the Argentinian produced a sublime first touch that set up his second for a shot, from fully 25yds in the inside right channel.

Tevez's hit both dipped and arrowed to the far post, and despite Michel Vorm's full length dive, nestled into the net to trigger a wave of relief from the Etihad faithful, and a lead for the Champs. 1-0.

In diving to try and keep it out, our fantastic keeper was injured, and his ruptured groin will keep him out for at least 6, more likely 8/10 weeks. Tremmel came on as his replacement.

Having scored to take the lead, the rest of the game could only seriously be afforded to Swansea, who took the game to their opponents, and made a great deal of Swansea fans proud of their efforts.

Michu had a great header from a Hernandez cross parried away by Hart, and de Guzman had a fabulous shot drift a foot wide with Hart beaten. The most pleasant feature, for me, was seeing the Swans go at the Champions, and compete on an equal basis. This is how far we've come.

When the final whistle came I felt a little disappointed, but immensely proud.

As a second season (in this division) club, we can be, I would suggest, confidently proud of the way we competed. Please don't let me hear anymore nonsense of ML not having the support of the players. This performance put that foolishness to bed.

Let me tell you something - this morning, I went to the Chemist to collect some medication. My serving Pharmacist (who knows I'm a SCFC fan ) said to me "How'd you get on at Man City?". I answered her - although we lost 1-0 we played quite well. She then asked " Who've you got next?". My answer was " Chelsea".

Do you know what she said next ?  - "Wow. It must be some season ". "Yes", I replied, it certainly is.

Onward, Swansea City.