While allyuh arguing about this game, anybody check the destruction of Portmouth by Man City?
Robinho, Jo and SWP looking like they might be a deadly combination. Of course, this is just one game, Next week they might look like crap. But I doubt that. Robinho to Man City might be one of the most exciting moves of the Summer. Right now the rest of the big names injured or underperforming.
A Tale Of Two CitysMonday 22 Sep 2008
http://www.4thegame.com/features/feature/223624/weekend_eye_a_tale_of_two_cities.htmlWould the real Manchester City please stand up. Just a few short weeks ago they were teetering on the edge of a financial black hole with talk of fire sales, bankruptcy and corrupt owners swirling around their heads. In the league, they'd been handsomely beaten by Aston Villa and in Europe they'd only just seen off a pair of minnows in the UEFA Cup. Now, they're the richest club in the world, boasting a record-breaking forward they snatched from under the noses of Chelsea and hitting six past the England number 1. Undoubtedly they've been the story of the season so far, but what kind of ending will the fairy tale have?
Of course, yesterday's match bodes extremely well for them. While Portsmouth may have been unusually poor, City were undeniably astonishing. They set their stall up early, with Jo neatly feeding Robinho after just two minutes for a long distance shot that was desperately clawed away by David James. From there, they looked sharp, fluid and utterly clinical, the stats painting a very rosy picture for the home faithful: six goals, six different scorers, thirteen shots and eight corners. Mark Hughes, underplaying things at full-time but evidently overjoyed by his team's display, said simply that his team had set the standard. They've done so much more..
By utterly humiliating one of the more reliable defences in the country, the new-look City have sent out a message that they really are becoming one of the new power teams in the Premier League. It was apt then that two of the players whose acquisitions have really underlined the new sense of style and ambition put in man of the match performances yesterday. Linking up with ease and displaying their Brazilian trickery with wild abandon, Robinho and Jo tore Pompey to pieces, playing influential roles in the first, third and fifth goals. Abu Dhabi chairman designate Khaldoon Al Mubarek was calm watching on from the stands, but inside he must have been jumping for joy - the fans certainly were.
Yet, the money men would do well to calm the Samba beat that will undoubtedly resonate through Eastlands this year, and focus more on the long-serving veterans, exciting youngsters and returning heroes who contributed just as much to the thrashing as Robinho and Jo. Richard Dunne, celebrating his birthday by scoring the second goal, provided City with a steel and sense of experience their otherwise youthful squad would lack. Stephen Ireland, whose glorious passes were vital to the third and fourth goals, is growing every game and looking every bit the midfield lynchpin City have lacked for years. And Shaun Wright-Phillips, another key creative talent yesterday, continued his ascent after his return to City.
Indeed, the former Chelsea man could prove to be the most astute signing any club have made this summer. While he may have made just forty-eight starts and scored only a misery ten goals during his three years at Stamford Bridge, his experiences in London are proving invaluable for City. Against Sunderland two weeks ago and Portsmouth yesterday, he looked, for the first time in years, a complete footballer, a player performing at the peaks he showed during his first spell at City, but with the confidence, maturity and awareness of someone who has played under one of the top managers in Europe and on the biggest stages in Europe. His backheel in the build-up to fifth was sublime, almost arrogant, and his finish for the fourth was world class, and it's testament to his character that he hasn't allowed the recent takeover and signings overshadow what has been a triumphant return to his spiritual home.
Yet there remain concerns for City, and big ones at that. Robinho may be performing well at the moment, but as Cristiano Ronaldo has found out in recent years, the Premier League's bruisers will only suffer humiliation for so long before they star crunching in the tackles, and once teams have sussed the Brazilian out, he may not have the opportunity to perform all those dazzling step-overs and dummies. Question marks also hover over his temperament. He showed his petulance during the long-running transfer saga between Real and Chelsea during the summer, and should City fail to impress this year, he could well be looking over to Stamford Bridge wondering what might have been.
On a more general level, City's troubles in gelling consistently have already been underlined by their performances against Chelsea and in the UEFA Cup. They scraped past EB Streymuir and FC Middjeland in the early preliminary rounds of the latter competition, and only just grabbed a slender advantage against Cypriot minnows Omonia Nicosia in the tournament proper last week. The Chelsea result is perhaps more understandable, but the manner of it not so, City overrun and comfortably beaten by a team their owners are hoping to emulate in the not too distant future.
Should many more performances like that follow and City not be on their way to being the new Chelsea by the end of this campaign, we could be heading for yet another new City, one managed by a bigger name than Hughes and ultimately controlled by those more used to dealing with oil than oles. But for the here and now, Brazil shirts will continue to sell out in the club shop, and tea towels in kitchens across Manchester will stay wrapped around more heads than dirty dishes. A blue moon is indeed rising, and the City faithful are understandably basking in its bright glow.
