A Kun and a Nasri
In the build up to the Manchester City game, the question I
was pondering was “have I got over that fucking defeat by Aston Villa yet?”. For me the answer was a massive No but I
guess the more important question was whether Saints had got over it. Not only was it a defeat but it had come at a
cost with Big Vic and Nathaniel Clyne injured and out for today along with the
longer term casualties of King Artur and Morgan Schneiderlin. Other fall out from the Villa game was Adam
Lallana saying they were a bunch of mouthy twats who will get in when they play
us next time. He didn’t actually say
this – not out loud anyway.
City arrive at St.Mary’s with an alleged dodgy away record,
having won their last away game at West Brom where they were 3-0 before
knocking off early and letting in two late goals to make it look closer than it
was. They are of course the complete
opposite of us in that they don’t put any homegrown players in their first team
and just throw £25 million around to buy whatever player they fancy. Since last year they’ve brought in
Fernandinho in midfield, Jesus Navas on the wing and Alvaro Negredo up front,
as well as di Michelis in defence who I don’t think cost as much. They do make noises about developing players
through the club but as yet none of these words have translated to players
being in the first team with any young English talent they do have being bought
from other clubs (Scott Sinclair from Swansea and Jack Rodwell from Everton) before
said players suffer career death and if they’re lucky, get loaned out or sold. I do admire their away following though which
is always large in number and they’re here again as the Sold Out signs went up
for the first time this season.
Other news has seen the World Cup draw take place and
England ended up in a group with Italy and Uruguay which means that any out of
our English contingent could be up against Dani Osvaldo and watched from the
bench by Gaston Ramirez. So England will
have to break the habit of a lifetime and actually win against a decent side in
a tournament which we haven’t done since beating Argentina in 2002 if my memory
serves me correctly. So, zero
expectation from me.
The World Cup is for another day and the team news today is
that Mauricio has decided that Dani Osvaldo’s goal and improved performance
against Villa gets him in the team ahead of Sir Rickie who is benched. Jack Cork and Calum Chambers come in for the
injured Big Vic and Nathaniel Clyne and Jose Fonte Baby returns in place of
Maya Yoshida who may have to wait for a while for his next chance. Our team looks very light but it’s not too
far removed from what played at beat City last year. I’m not massively confident of a result but
you never know – Pellegrini has done us a favour by leaving out Navas and
picking Milner who is the only player in the England squad who makes Tom Cleverley
look like a footballer. Talking of
England, we have 6 starters and Sir Rickie and Harrison Reed on the bench
whereas City have Milner, with Hart on the bench. Good luck to the FA Commission trying to
change that.
After a minutes applause to mark the death of Nelson Mandela
which was immaculately observed with no one being quiet, the game starts with
Saints looking decent but the quality of the opposition being obvious in the
way they knocked it around. Saints
created the first chance as a Shaw cross was half cleared and it bounced to
Davis whose shot rolled down his shin and off his boot and wide.
City’s first attack produces a different result though as Fonte
produces a poor clearing header and just plops it down into the midfield where
City pick it up and feed Kolarov who has time and space to fizz over a low
cross dissecting five Saints players and Aguero finishes easily to make it one
nil – fuck it! It looked to me that Jose
should have headed it back to Gazzaniga but maybe wasn’t confident enough in
the keeper. Whatever the reason for the
mistake though, it’s in our net and bollocks to it.
City put us under a bit more pressure and Gazza look nervous
and is not coming for anything. He’s not
as nervous as I am as it’s brown trousers time whenever City get near our
goal. Our man attacking threat is
through Shaw which is quite ironic as no doubt Milner, who can only be in the
side for what he does when he hasn’t got the ball, is nowhere near him. First he crosses in and The Pirate plays an
airshot under loads of pressure and then he feeds Corky who surprises everyone
and hits the first on target shot of his Saints career and all those who put a
spot bet on Row Z, Seat 435 lost their money and Pantillimon swallowed it up.
City unsurprisingly (as they’ve spent the budget of a small
country on their players) look the likeliest to score again and we all fear the
worst as Toure picks out Zabaleta who has powered into the box bedind a dozing
J-Rod and laid it back to Aguero. Time
stands still as one of the dealiest players in the league takes aim…. And
smashes it over the bar in shite fashion.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Alvaro Negredo is the City centre forward and he revels in
the nickname of ‘The Beast’. When he
scores at The Etihad, even the stadium announcer gets in on the act and gives
it the big one… “goal by The Be-eeeeeeeeeast” etc. To earn a nickname like “The Beast” I assumed
that he must be a bit of a tough guy, a bit fierce, a little bit animal in his
approach. So it was with great surprise
and hilarity that he got hit with a man and ball tackle by Dejan Lovren and
made a noise like a 5 year old girl makes if you take her favourite toy away
and slap her round the head with it. It
was highlighted by the fact that the crowd was quiet at that moment. The Beast got his free kick, Dejan and all
the fans in the Chapel / Kingsland corner laughed at him and his nickname is
now officially “The Pussy”.
We survive the free kick and are back on the attack with Chambers
on the right who beaks past a powder-puff challenge from Nasri and crosses to
Lallana who looks miles offside but he’s allowed to go on and wins a corner as
he attempts to juggle it over the last defender. The corner is cleared and
finds its way out to Lovren on the right who demonstrates ability that a centre
half really shouldn’t have by skinning di Michelis and Kolarov on the outside
before sending over a superb cross which is once again cleared for a corner.
Despite our attacking play looking decent, there is always
the fear that City can score at will but we have a significant moment when
Aguero shanks a cross shot and Gazza gets down to save. This is significant because even though he
hasn’t hit it well and every goalkeeper at every level should save it, it’s the
first save Gazza has managed since the moment King Artur broke his hand so
hopefully he should now start playing with some confidence.
We are definitely the team in the ascendency now and Lallana
sets off towards goal and feeds Shaw who sends over a great low cross which
everyone leaves except Chambo at the far post but he can only head wide as
Kolarov put him off. It’s unsurprising
but he didn’t look like he had much belief he could score. Another break forward by Steve Davis sees the
ball fed to JWP about 25 yards out but his shot is on target but not fierce
enough to trouble the BFG (Big Fucking Goalkeeper) in the City goal.
We are certainly at our best when City are attacking and we
nick the ball because superb though Toure and Fernandinho are going forward,
they’re not so great when they turn the ball over and not particularly quick in
reacting to the transition. I like using
words like transition as it makes me sound like I know what I’m talking about.
Anyhow, the transition takes place in our penalty area as
Jose slides in to win the ball and bin Aguero with a ‘win the ball or penalty’
tackle. Shaw plays the ball to Davis who
set off and feeds Our Argie-Italian Rock ‘n’ Roll Pirate and in the time it
takes to say ‘why the fuck isn’t Lambert playing’, he twists and turns, leaves
Vincent Kompany on his arse before curling a glorious equalizer over the BFG
and into the far top corner with the added touch of skimming it off the bottom
of the crossbar. It’s a stunning goal –
I didn’t think anyone would come close to Adam Lallana’s goal against Hull but
I think this beats it. Quite
sensational.
As half time approaches and we’re all still in an Osvaldo
wonderland, we have a go at going behind again allowing Milner of all people to
get in a decent cross which Nasri controls well before lashing it hopelessly
over the bar. It couldn’t happen to a
nicer horrible little shit and time for the half time oranges.
We seem hell bent on letting City in front again at the
start of the second half as we allow Aguero a free shot from the right which he
gets on target but Gazza gets down well to palm it away. We then fanny around when we should have been
clearing it 70 yards and give the ball to Toure on the edge of the box who bulldozes
forward before curling a powerful effort just wide. It’s one of those where it leaves his foot
and you’re just waiting for the net to bulge and it’s a huge relief when it
doesn’t.
We have a golden chance ourselves to take the lead as we
approach the hour mark as J-Rod bursts through Kompany and Di Michelis but the
last touch takes him too close to the BFG who saves at his feet. The rebound goes straight to The Pirate in
roughly the same position where he scored from but his sidefooted effort is
woeful and just keeps going up.
There’s a definite tactical switch by Saints to get it
forward quicker and after Corky (usually) has won it, it gets pinged over
Zabaleta towards J-Rod. It almost bears
fruit a Shaw’s ball is controlled by J-Rod into the path of The Pirate but he
drags his shot across the BFG and wide.
There’s another chance as Steve Davis bursts past Toure and
optimistically shoots but straight at the BFG.
Pellegrini didn’t get to where he is today by having shite
on the pitch and so The Pussy (who had been complete shite) was replaced with Garcia
and Milner is gone to be replaced with Jesus Navas. Note to the stadium announcer: I expect it’s
pronounced ‘Hey-Zuss’ and not ‘Jeee-zus’, even as we approach Christmas. Christmas or not, Jesus or not, he’s
powereless to prevent the next Saints attack as Lallana fashions an audacious
scoop over the defence for The Pirate who wins a corner trying to pull it back
when in my opinion he should have just lashed it goalwards. JWP’s corner picks out J-Rod who can’t get
his header on target.
Either team could win it and I’m still expecting it to be
them as Aguero gets a run down left and fires at the far post but once again
Gazza is not tested as it flies wide.
It’s substitution time as Sir Rickie comes on for a clearly tired
Osvaldo and Gaston Ramirez comes on for the magnificent Adam Lallana and adds
to Manchester City to the list of ‘teams I have played 4 minutes against’. City have brought on Dzeko and someone else
who cost millions but the main action for City is nasri trying to get himself
sent off. After hacking down Davis and
getting himself deservedly booked he then arrives about a day late for another
tackle and floors Chambers which was very cynical as he had no chance of
getting the ball. It’s a second yellow
all day long but the referee decides to bottle it and let the horrible little
shit stay on.
I mention this from time to time and I feel the need to
repeat it now. The game unfolding in
front of us is a classic end to end game and there is a very real chance that
we might win it and if we scored then the roof would be blown off and it would
be one of the moments that you always remembered when you looked back on all
the matches you’d watched. So, bearing
all that in mind, why the fuck would you get up and leave on 80 minutes. Is getting home 15 minutes earlier really
worth the chance of missing one of the great moments? I can’t understand it in any game really, let
alone one where the scores are level and it’s a great game. You really should have a word with yourselves
and there are a lot of you.
As we reach the 90th minute, Mauricio pulls a surprising one
and sends on Harrison Reed for Steve Davis who has had a superb game. Scholesy gets stuck in a plays a couple of
nice passes but there is sense that both teams have now settled for a
point. It doesn’t stop Aguero who has
clearly got frustrated with things and he throws the ball away in comedy
fashion and gets booked. Did you know that if you add a ‘T’ to Aguero’s
nickname of ‘Kun’ then you get ‘Nasri’?
It looks like we’re going to get a last minute chance to win
it as Reed gets hacked down about 25 yards out and central but the ref bottles
it again and decides to end the game instead, the git.
I certainly left the ground a lot happier than when I went
in. We had gone toe to toe with a club
with ridiculous resources and a fantastic set of players and got a point with 4
of our main players on the sidelines. Whereas
on Wednesday, the replacements had all been quite frankly poor, all the boys
who came in today were superb with Jack Cork and Calum Chambers competing with
Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana for man of the match. All 4 players mentioned there are English as
well and 3 came through the academy. It
gives me a warm feeling.
Aside from the missing players, another source of negativity for a lot of fans going into
the ground would have been the omission of Sir Rickie for Dani Osvaldo but
today you saw why that choice was made…and how. What a
fucking goal that was. I still say that
Sir Rickie would lead the line better and get more out of the players around
him but you can’t play both of them against the big guns so in future I think
I’ll stop moaning and trust the manager, even if he doesn’t speak English J As an aside, I’d like to see Sir Rickie do an interview
one day in his best Scouse accent with Mauricio’s interpreter stood next to him
just repeating what he says.
It’s only a point but the change of mood is palpable. The players and the manager didn’t need
reminding that Saints are a decent side but memory deficient fans did. From my own point of view it was nice to
leave the ground with a smile on my face after leaving on Wednesday with
Tourette’s syndrome and wanting to murder someone. Next up we have Newcastle away who have been on a decent run
at home in particular. I see no reason
why we can’t go up there and give it a right go. We know they’ll be quite driect about things
as Pardew’s teams always are but as long as we keep the back door shut, have a
bit of luck and we don’t have a shocker with the officials like we did last
year up there, we could get something.
As for the league table – well we’re 8th and
still above Manchester United. According
to one article I read, they need to sign about 4 of our players to save their
season. Then I noticed that it was
written in crayon by Robbie Savage so I ignored it. If it’s true and Robbie is In the Know then
they can have Lee Barnard, Aaron Martin, Tadanari Lee and Jonno Pace.
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