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Manchester City v Tottenham – The Opposite View
Mancini in a Mankini by Matt Craig Green (@Mattcg)
We all know us Spurs fans love a grumble, and why would I be any different. Although the target of my moaning of the sheer poorness of some officiating decisions which have come our way recently. More specifically of course yet another goal wrongly ruled out for offside. That is 3 in our previous 8 league games.
In total those disallowed goals have potentially cost us an additional 5 points (1 v Stoke, 2 v Wolves & Chelsea) which at the time of writing would actually put us bang level on points with Manchester City ahead of our match together.
Speaking of which it is time to welcome back my resident City fan, who goes by the name of @The_Paris_Angel on Twitter. I know his real name, but he would rather not give it.
WAFR: Welcome back to What A Fantastic Run, 21 games in, 3 points clear at the top of the league; you must be pretty happy with that?
Delighted. The start we had was beyond all expectation and the fact the odd League defeat and draw has been reported in some quarters, without a hint of irony, as a ‘Crisis’ shows just how well we’ve been doing. Of late it has been a little bit more about grinding out results but that’s what we were told by the ‘experts’ that we would have to do at some stage when we were knocking 5 (sorry) and 6 (ha ha) past teams.
WAFR: I guess the only downside to your season is the cup competitions. Out of the Champions League at the group stages, out of the FA Cup and currently 1-0 down in your League Cup semi-final. Was winning the league always the priority above all else?
I think if you’d asked any Blue at the start of the season they’d have said winning the Title was the next step and would accept that above all else. I don’t speak for every City fan but I never felt comfortable with the Champions League campaign this season for some reason. I struggled to get excited for the games and it wasn’t helped with some very frustrating performances from us.
It’s wrong to get ahead of ourselves but being on top of the league has given me a bit of tunnel vision and that’s the only thing I can concentrate on at present. Notwithstanding that, it would be very nice to secure an early Wembley spot at Anfield next week.
WAFR: Spurs treated the Europa League like an unwanted step-child. How do you think Manchester City will approach the competition?
I think the club will express publicly their desire to do well in the competition but this will not be reflected in the starting XI. I’m personally not that concerned, although that won’t stop me going, 5pm kick off or not!
WAFR: Dzeko is a player who interests me. Had a difficult season last year, started the season well and getting some positive reviews from the press who have now started seeing him in a similar light as they did last year.
There isn’t a bigger ‘confidence player’ than Edin. He obviously has ability, as his display at your place showed, but when he has a shocker, he has a real shocker. The problem he will always have at City is that he’ll rarely get a run of games and he’s the type of player that needs a run of games and goals to keep his confidence and sharpness up. In terms of his qualities, he’s good with both feet and in the air but it’s his lack of pace which means I would always favour Mario over him as he gives the team an extra option over the top and Mario also has the edge over him with his creative spark and bit of real magic from nowhere. Although as Dzeko’s 4th at your place showed, he isn’t completely devoid of this.
He scores goals though, and as long as he’s happy to be at City playing the role he is I’m happy to have him.
WAFR: I think we have talked about this before, but it is more in the public eye now with Mancini coming out to criticise certain players like Wayne Bridge for seemingly being happy to sit out his contract. Is this going to be an ongoing problem when you are paying over and above the average Premier League wage?
When you actually got into what Mancini said about Bridge it was nothing really and it was highly amusing that Wayne Bridge, a man that has been more than happy to sit on his back side at his last two clubs and collect a huge salary, was painted as some kind of victim by the Press. The same Press that labeled Winston Bogarde ‘The Enemy of Football’ for doing exactly the same thing at Chelsea. The only reason Bridge went to the Press was that he sees another lucrative contract on the horizon.
Anyway, I digress. Bellamy, Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and Wayne Bridge have one thing in common; they were Mark Hughes’s buys, and they didn’t fit into Mancini’s plans for differing reasons relating to ability, attitude, injury and personality clashes. They were also bought at a time in the club’s ‘development’ (sorry, bit Garry Cook that) where we didn’t have Champions League football, we hadn’t won anything for 35 years and weren’t realistic Title contenders. Whilst you can’t predict what will happen in the future, I think it will all die down soon and we should be a left with a group of players at the club for the right reasons, i.e. to win silverware and play football. They won’t be on a pittance though!
WAFR: A lot of Spurs fans would like to see Adam Johnson at White Hart Lane, he signed a new contract reasonably recently yet is regularly used as a late substitute. Why do you think he has only started 6 Premier League games this season?
Ah yes, Adam Johnson; the non-City fans favourite City player. To be frank, he’s only started 6 games because he’s rarely effective from the start but has been more useful from the bench. There seems to be some kind of ground swell of national opinion that he never gets a chance and should leave to further his career. The truth is he gets a decent amount of time on the pitch but has yet to really take his chance this season, bar some flashes of brilliance.
In summary, when he proves he can do it for 90 minutes he will start more games.
WAFR: What is the latest in the Tevez saga? The last I heard was is a bid from Inter for £20.7m which it is rumoured the club has or will reject. How much do you think City are holding out for and how long do you think this will go on for?
I’ll be honest, I have no idea anymore. My worry is that this will get to a point where Joorabchin tells Tevez to come back and make himself available for selection solely with the aim of running his contract down. The latest is that PSG have offered around £30m which, if true, I’d snap their hands off. I just want rid.
WAFR: What are you thoughts on Spurs this year?
I’ve been very impressed. I don’t know how profound this is anymore but your squad is ahead of United’s in terms of quality and different options that are available to you. However, as long as Ferguson is at the helm they will always be up there. I Tweeted at Christmas that if you and them swapped managers you’d be neck and neck with us and they’d be scrapping for a Europa place. One particular Spurs fan got very irate and thought this was some terrible slight on Redknapp. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be, more of a comment on the different qualities of the two squads and Ferguson’s undeniable, albeit annoying, ability to get the best out of his players. Seriously, how did that group of players win the league last season? Staggering.
I’m going to show some uncharacteristic confidence and back us for the Title but you should finish 2nd. Problem is, United shouldn’t have won the league last season, so who knows.
WAFR: And finally, lets have a score prediction
Kompany’s a big loss for us but we’re lucky that, without Adebayor, you haven’t got a physical presence up front because if Savic plays, he can be bullied a bit. I’m looking forward to this game more than I’ve looked forward to a game in a very long time, including derbies, and I’m sure it will be the same for Spurs fans as well. We see it as an opportunity to show the 5-1 wasn’t a fluke and we can get the gap between us to 8 points, whilst you will have revenge on the mind and a desire to show you are real Title contenders. It’s set up perfectly.
3-1 City
