Premier League Match 5 Manchester City 0 Southampton 0

 

All Friends At the End

Manchester City at the Etihad. Seriously, what’s the point? Similar to ourselves, they lost their best striker but whereas we replaced Danny Ings by signing a Championship striker who had one year left on his contract and then haggling the fee down a bit, they spent £100 million on a midfielder and found another striker within their squad who happens to be the starting striker for the Spanish national team. I’m talking of course about Jack Grealish and Ferran Torres. These are the levels at which these two clubs are operating. Like with Manchester United a few weeks back, the game starts with both teams having 11 players on the pitch and there the similarity ends.  It wasn’t always this way of course and in the build up to the game, Saints social media team have been finding highlights from many victories against Manchester City from down the years because up until the Sheikh turned up, Manchester City were basically the same sort of level that we were.  The Sheikh has obviously transformed the way Manchester City are but this won’t be happening again for any other middle of the road side any time soon because all of the current big boys are keen to ringfence what they have and make sure it stays that way. Like with Manchester United a few weeks ago, us fans of the “Other 14” can’t forget that and we all know that the Super League is going to re-emerge in another guise at some point in the future. I wonder how long it took the Sheikh to find the £3 million fine that City had to pay, for their dalliance with the Super League. He probably earned that much whilst he was having his breakfast this morning.

When we played Aston Villa last year the rule of thumb was that if you stoped Jack Grealish, then you stopped Aston Villa and it was a fairly legitimate tactic to focus on him. Stop Jack Grealish today and we just have the other 9 players to worry about or 10 if you include the goalkeeper, who usually racks up more assists per season than all of our wingers combined.  It is hard not to be a fan of the way City play but on the other end, it’s like they’ve got a machine gun and everyone else has a pea-shooter.  The last two teams that have been to the Etihad are Norwich and Arsenal and though you expect relegation candidates like those two to struggle, it was absolutely no surprise that they came away with 5-0 beatings.. There’s no real point in talking about Manchester City’s threats. Whatever combination of De Bruyne, Sterling, Mahrez, Torres, Jesus, Grealish, Barnardo and Gundogan they choose to play, they’re going to have to have an almighty off day for us to get anything out of this game. For what it’s worth, I would go with the same formation that we played last week, with some pace on the wings and up front.

The weekly game of ‘Guess the Team’ has no winner again as it looks like we’re back to 4-2-2-2.  I can’t get my head around Salisu getting dropped for Bednarek and Redmond has been preferred to Djenepo, which seems odd given the defensive discipline or Moussa last week.  KWP is in for Perraud and Che Adams returns.  City’s team has quite a few expensive players in it and the bench includes de Bruyne, Foden and Mahrez.  Insane.  After Pep’s midweek whine about empty seats, the ground is full.  You’ve only come to see Southampton (get thumped 5-0).

Here we go… can we get to 10 minutes without conceding.  Actually, we look decent and have the first goalmouth incident as JWP swings over a free kick from the left and everyone misses it forcing Ederson to take off and push it wide.  We don’t get a corner though because the whistle has gone for some arbitrary foul as everyone ran in.

City;s first threat is not long in coming as City fire it in low from the right and Gungogan is lurking but Livramento has read it in the exact way that Cedric never did and gets his body between player and ball and the danger passes.  Another near opening as Walker crosses from the right and it drifts over Stephens in trademark fashion and thankfully, Gundogan is not six foot tall and can only head high and wide.

Oh shit… Stephens has gone down with no one near him – that’s not good.  It’s ne of those ones where you know he’s done for the day and off he hobbles to be replaced by Salisu, with Bednarek swapping to his more natural right hand side.  In amongst all this we’ve got to 40 minutes and it’s been good.  We’ve won the ball high quite a few times, mainly off of Fernandinho and have looked a threat.  We always seem to choose the wrong ball though when we have half an opening.  Mind you, City are the same and their team cost billions. 

No doubt Pep will have been whinging about something at half time and he won’t have been cheered up when the ball goes to Gabriel Jesus-Christ-That-Was-Shit on the edge of the box and he launches it into the stands.  They look a little bit rattled at our refusal to lose 5-0 and Cancelo bursts into the box and produces a dive that is so bad he can barely bring himself to appeal for a penalty.  He does look longingly at Fat Jon Moss though so he should be booked but he isn’t of course.  I’ll just settle for no penalty being given.

Bloody hell, we’re actually the better side as Romeu combines with KWP and Armstrong to free Redmond who predictably picks out a big empty space in the penalty area.  N oworries though because we in it back a couple of times as City try and play out with Romeu sending Adams running at the penalty area but he drags his shot across and wide of the far post.

Kyle Walker is casually strolling forward with the ball and he appears to be buffering as he stands still for a few seconds and then tries to pass it, allowing Redmond to get a foot in.  On it goes to Armstrong who fakes to shoot and cuts inside Dias and as he’s about to shoot, Walker gets back and bundles him over.  Fat Boy Moss has given it.  Come on!!!  JWP grabs the ball and Moss then waves a red card at Walker with City surrounding the referee.  Off we go to Stockley Park and apparently, it’s Martin Atkinson.

Clearly Not a Foul... My Arse.

“Mossy, Mossy, It’s Martin Atkinson here….  Mossy, MOSSY!!!”
“What’s up Martin?”
“What the actual fuck are you doing man?”
“Penalty and a red card Martin, obviously”
“For starters Mossy, the new Double Jeopardy Rule….”
“What’s that?”
“Oh you won’t know Mossy.. and why is that exactly…?”
“Doh – was I asleep I the ‘new rules’ briefing.  I’d had a big dinner…”
“Yeah, we all heard you snoring on the Zoom call you fat pillock”
“What should I do Martin?”
“It’s not just that is it Mossy – you’ve given a penalty for Southampton at the Etihad, in the second half, at 0-0, for fucks sake man”
“Big Mikey Dean’s gonna be angry with me isn’t he?”
“What does Mike say – Soft Southern Bastards.  Repeat after me”
“Soft Southern Bastards Martin…. So, no red card then?”
“Course not… now, I’m not taking responsibility for your shit.  I’m sending you to the monitor”
“OK… it’s still a penalty though yeah?”
“Of course it fucking isn’t”
“But won’t it get reviewed later and I’ll get demoted.”
“No chance. It’s Southampton – no one gives a fuck”

Overturned, fuck off.  Penalty and a red card given on the pitch and we end up with fuck all.

Broja is on for Adams and over the course of a few minutes, City send on de Bruyne, Foden and Mahrez.  Has there ever been three subs that good brought on in the Premier League?  I doubt it.  In amongst all the subs being made, Saints are still playing good football and a move instigated by Romeu ends up with a snapshot from Armstrong which he doesn’t really get hold of but it forces Ederson to make a save.

As we reach 85, we beginning to get penned back as the increase in quality from their bench begins to take hold.  The commitment to keeping City out is remarkable though with Livramento blocking a piledriver from Mahrez but if it hadn’t hit Tino, JWP and Romeu were right behind it as well.

Sterling then manages to wriggles past both JWP and Romeu as he cuts in from the left but there is the imposing Salisu to block to ensure that McCarthy has still not had a save to make,   Tino gets away with a ropey tackle on Sterling which he would undoubtably have been sent off for last season and Ralph gets him off, bringing KWP to the right and sending on Perraud.

5 minutes to be added, mainly for the farcical VAR interlude and two minutes into it, de Bruyne crosses from our left, Redmond has dozed off and lost Foden who thumps a header goalwards and though McCarthy saves superbly, it pops up for Sterling to knock it in…. fuck… offside flag up…. Ahhhhhh! Take nothing for granted though… off to Stockley Park.

“Hello Martin it’s Mossy – I gave the goal but the lino has his flag up”
“OK Mossy, it’s gonna take me a while to prove it’s a goal”
“But I’m hungry Martin and it’s 45 minutes since I last had dinner”
“Hang on, I’ve got to draw the new thick lines on the etch-a-sketch”
“I’m hungry”
“FODEN IS ONSIDE… give the goal Mossy”
“Ward-Prowse has just said to me that Sterling was offside”
“He can fuck off… oh ok I’ll check it…”
“Any news Martin?  I’m getting stomach cramps”
“SHIT!!..Sterling’s offside – even I can’t give that one”
“But the keeper saved it so it’s a new phase, isn’t it?”
“No Mossy, you were clearly asleep in that briefing as well – just add five minutes on the end”
“I’ll do 3 as a compromise as I’m hungry. Thanks Martin, over and out”

94, 95… right that’s it, 96, 97.. blow the whistle Moss you fat twat…. Finally… Full time, great performance, great and thoroughly deserved point.  Where shall we start…?

So what are the rules now with VAR? As far as I understand it, if VAR shows the decision given on pitch to be completely wrong then you overturn the decision, otherwise you go with the on-field decision. There is no way you can categorically say that that wasn’t a foul by Kyle Walker and it’s absolutely fucking ridiculous that it got overturned.

To me, it’s only obviously wrong, if having reviewed the pictures, you see that Kyle Walker touched the ball which he clearly did not. The argument that Armstrong was on his way down before Walker challenged him is absolute bollocks - he’s on his way down because the first contact is Walkers arm hitting Armstrong shoulders.  Everyone seemed to be focussing on the feet but for me, that’s not where the first contact was.  I was initially going to say that you can’t really blame Jon Moss too much for it because he gave the penalty in the first place but then again, he reviewed the footage pitch side and changed his mind, so he is a useless fat wheezing old twat after all. Maybe he was intimidated by all the City players crowding round him whilst the Martin Atkinson tried to make his fucking mind up.  Atkinson should never have called him over.  Atkinson should have been saying to himself “is it definitely a wrong decision?.... No it isn’t”.  End of story.

Mossy Shites His Pants as City Complain About How Disadvantaged They Are

In the media, I see that Michael Owen said that Armstrong initiated the contact which is a neat trick when you are in front of a player facing away from him.  Fucking idiot.  As for those in the media saying it evened itself out because the goal was disallowed at the end – fuck off.  That was clearly fucking offside and that has got nothing to do with evening things out. Offsides are a yes or no thing whereas a foul for a penalty is down to interpretation by two shite referees.  Other than on that incident, I actually thought Moss refereed the game quite well apart from failing to book Cancelo and Sterling for very obvious dives around our penalty area.  John Moss is like Kryptonite for Saints – horrific last year either on the pitch or when he was on VAR and he’s started this season the same way.

None of this should detract away from what was a superb performance by us to leave the Etihad with a point that we completely deserved. If anything, we were the better side and if we only had slightly more quality service coming into the box, we would’ve won this game. I’m not having Guardiola complaining about having a Champions League game midweek for fuck‘s sake. They could’ve named a completely different 11 players to those who played in midweek and they should still have beaten us. Bringing on De Bruyne, Foden and Mahrez off the bench for fuck‘s sake. How can you pretend in any way the City were disadvantaged in any way.  Just fuck off.  It’s interesting with Manchester City. Even they have some players who are not as good as some of the others. Personally, I was delighted to see Bernardo Silva, Nathan Ake and Gabriel Jesus starting and to a lesser extent, Raheem Sterling.  Of course, if we had a space £300 million or so I’d have them all at Saints (well, except maybe Gabriel Jesus).

It looks like we are all bowing down to Ralph again as his tactics were spot-on despite me/us having another head scratching moment when the team was announced. There were no shirkers out there today with everyone put in a shift in including the subs that came on. We overcame the early loss of Stephens and the other two substitutes were introduced at the right time. We carried a threat at all times, which made City have to think instead of doing what are usually do which is to play keep ball around the edge of the opposition box with all 10 of their outfield players in the final 35 yards.

I was doing what are usually do when watching games against City and just taking it in 10 minute instalments. When we got to about 30 minutes without having conceded, it was obviously still a long shot but we had a chance and City were getting visibly frustrated. Half-time came and went and the first 15 minutes of the second-half went past without incident at our end of the pitch.  The game plan would’ve been executed to perfection if we had taken the lead at that point and of course we had the overturned penalty but defensively, it wasn’t until the 90th minute that City had an attempt on goal and that was a fantastic save by McCarthy because if he doesn’t save that, the offside doesn’t get given and we lose 1-0.

It’s hard to pick out individual players today but Oriol Romeu, having been a bit off the pace last week was absolutely outstanding, doing as usual winning of tackles and breaking up play but also using the ball really intelligently and never giving it away.  No wonder Pep rates him so highly.  JWP also shone in midfield and I have to say that I was impressed once again with Elyounoussi.  The midfield pressing was one factor in us getting a result today. It was amazing how few times City managed to pass their way through the midfield and get at the defence.  Fernandinho is getting on a bit and it looked like it yesterday as he was swamped every time he got the ball. I remember Gundogan heading up a difficult chance over the bar in the first few minutes but apart from that I don’t think I saw him. Livramento had a tough game against Grealish but in the main stood up well and all three central defenders kept concentration throughout, helped by the fact that you can always rely on Sterling and Gabriel Jesus have a shit touch when you most need them to.  KWP was tremendous at left back as well which makes Ralph’s selections even more difficult, with Perraud and Thierry Small also looking for regular game time.

I tuned into Match of the Day to watch the highlights, which where strange.  If you hadn’t watched the 90 minutes then you definitely didn’t get an accurate summary.  The highlights just showed Manchester City getting anywhere near our goal and the penalty shout and that was basically it. Then, when Jermaine Jenas was doing his analysis, it was all about Saints attacking play and how are the little bit more quality we could and should have won.

It’s a busy week next week with the Carabao Cup tie at Sheffield United and Wolves at home next Sunday.  The Blades game should see Lyanco make a debut, which should be fun in a mental kind of way and the Wolves game is one that will shape the perception of the start of the season we’ve had.  Win that and 7 points so far will look like a pretty good start bearing in mind our fixtures.  Up the fucking Saints.