Every club of our size wants to have a decent FA
Cup run at the start of the season. You win a couple of matches and once you
get to the 5th Round the excitement begins to grow and you begin to
think that maybe it’s your year.
Then you win in the 5th Round are you into the quarter-finals and then the draw
gets made. Warmed up balls allegedly
mean the big clubs are kept apart and some ex-footballer trying to make it in
the media pulls out your number…. and you get fucking Manchester City.
Tremendous. You wanted another mid-table
Premier League club or a Championship club in the quarter-finals but no, you
get fucking Manchester City. Balloon punctured, optimism gone, expectations
zero.
That’s how it is these days sadly, with the big boys getting ever bigger. Of
course there is always a chance in a one off game and we have got draws in both
league games against them this season but it’s still a massive task ahead for
us to get through. Expectations have
been lowered further by the fact that our league form since the draw was made has been shit, with 3 defeats in a row.
So how do we win this? Stay in the game as long as possible and take our
chances. Staying in the game is easier
said than done because they are capable of scoring unpreventable goals and if
they do that, fair enough. What we can’t
afford to do is ‘give’ them something for free.
We all know what Manchester City are these days and with the situation going on
at Chelsea at the moment, people are suddenly taken a lot more interest in how
these mega rich clubs are financed. Manchester City are living proof that FFP is
in fact FFB, Financial Fair Bollocks. At a time when everyone suffered big
losses due to the pandemic, City somehow increased their income. Strange that.
However, no investigation into their finances is it going to help us today
today but it’s another reminder that the game starts with 11 against 11 and beyond that, the sporting integrity ends. I actually
saw the City line-up first. They’ve
managed to pick a world-class 11 and leave out Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and
Riyad Mahrez who are probably their best three players this season. Actually in the team are Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish. It’s all relative
and you look for the weak links. To me, Jesus and Sterling playing instead of Foden
and Mahrez is a definite plus point. Both
Kyle Walker and John Stones have got a mistake in them if you can put them
under any pressure as both can be a little casual at times. Goalkeeper Ederson
has been left out in preference of Zach Steffen – Team America Fuck Yeah!
Ralph’s FA Cup tombola has not been too bad. It’s a relief when Fraser Forster‘s name is read
out first, followed by the first choice back four aside from Stephens in for
Bednarek. The first choice midfield is
next up and then the surprise up front, where it is Shane Long and Adam
Armstrong. To be honest I can see the
game plan straight away, which is for those two to press and chase and harry
like mad for as long as they can and then for us to bring on Adams and Broja to
try and nick something late on in the game.
Playing the two quickest players to put them under pressure is not a bad
shout on the face of it.
Off we go and the first team to show are unsurprisingly, the men from Manchester
with a move that started with Cancelo at left back and went through Rodri, De
Bruyne and Grealish and eventually sent Sterling away with a shooting
opportunity from the left hand side but in typical Sterling fashion he lashed
it with his left foot and it went well wide. This is the kind of thing that I
mean when I say I don’t mind if they score a brilliant goal because if that
ended up in the net there would’ve been absolutely nothing that we could’ve
done about it.
Livramento has started well and breaks through a couple of challenges on the
right hand side and the ball ends up with Romeu driving through in the centre
of the pitch. He cleverly slips the ball through to Adam Armstrong, who swings his
right foot at it and scuffs it past Team America Fuck Yeah! and time seems to
stand still as it rolls towards the goal before hitting the post and bouncing
out. Fucks sake. The fact he didn’t hit it properly meant that it gave the
goalkeeper no chance and to be honest I thought it was rolling well wide until
it hit the post.
So we missed a decent chance and then guess what? Straight up the other end and De Bruyne is
breaking through there right-hand channel when he tries to cross it but he scuffs
it, but not as badly as Jack Stephens who comes across and virtually falls over
the ball instead of hitting row Z with it and it drops to Grealish, who rolls
across and even Sterling can’t miss that one. Fucks sake - an absolute gift.
With just 12 minutes gone, Saints carry on with the same game plan with Shane Long
linking up well with Stuart Armstrong but namesake Adam shows it’s probably just
not going to be his day as the spoons the shot horribly over the bar. Though we
are still behind I’m encouraged by the fact that we are still creating.
However, it’s nearly 2-0 from the next attack as Cancelo beats Livramento on
the outside before firing a low cross in which is met by Gundogan at point blank range, who as usual had arrived untracked and it pings off the post. We got a
bit lucky there.
As we approach half time it’s quite a relief that we are going to be going in, in
all likelihood, only one goal behind. Just
before the break, City try to play out and Cancelo plays a crappy ball forward which just
gives it away to Salisu. JWP turns in
midfield and finds Stuart Armstrong and he picks out Elyounoussi’s run across
from the left behind the defence. Team America
(Fuck Yeah!) comes out to meet him but stop and Moi turns, passes it across and
it deflects into the net off Laporte. Fucking hilarious. Can’t decide if he’s
French or Spanish and can’t decide which way he’s kicking either. Get in.
Everyone seems to assume that Elyounoussi is offside, not least the Manchester
City players and the resulting VAR check obviously doesn’t give them with the
result that they wanted, so Kyle Walker spits his dummy out in spectacular
fashion as when the half time whistle blows from Mike Dean, he picks up the
ball and wellies it over the Itchen Stand. What a prick. He’s joined in that
regard by Jack Grealish who has rolled around and generally feigned injury,
whilst not contributing a great deal to Manchester City's attacking effort,
which is a bit of a problem when you are deployed as a false nine.
What a bonus that is just before half-time. Overall, we’ve done really well
with our harrying are closing down forcing mistakes with some regularity by the
likes of John Stones who has developed a liking for just passing the ball
straight out of play. Shame about the
shit goal we conceded but at least we’re back level.
So, we start the second-half well again, nicking the ball in the City half,
when JWP and Romeu combine to give Adam Armstrong another shooting opportunity
from about 25 yards but again he doesn’t catch it cleanly and it goes well
wide.
On about 55 minutes it turns into the Alamo around our goal as De Bruyne,
Sterling and Rodri all have efforts blocked by flying defenders and City end up
with a corner. We survive that and from
the next attack Raheem Sterling proves why he’s shit by getting past Tino and
then with about four players to pick out he just keeps on running with the ball
until he loses it and we break up field with Elyounoussi breaking away at the
right hand side. Shane Long is streaking through the middle ahead of him and
trying desperately to stay onside but perhaps surprised by this, Elyounoussi does a Sterling and fails
to deliver the ball and eventually gets tackled. Opportunity butchered. If you get it to Shane anywhere within 40
yards, it’s a goal innit!
Again we are punished for missing an opportunity - straight from that, City bring
it forward and Grealish plays a simple ball forward to Jesus, who is about a
foot inside the right hand edge of the penalty area and Salisu dangles a leg in
there and over he goes and my stomach feels like it about to fall out of my
arse. Sinking feeling – that’s a penalty
all day. Mike Dean pauses for dramatic
affect and then points the spot. Can’t
argue really. If your first instinct is
that it’s a penalty against your own side, it probably is. Don’t worry, it’s only Kevin De Bruyne on the
spot kicks. Up he steps, keepers right
low down, Fraser gets a touch but can’t keep it out. Fuck. Another
gift of a goal.
"Miss It Ya Twat..."
Adams on for Adam Armstrong and Broja on for Long as we try and get back into it. Saints play out from the back with Stephens finding Livramento, on to Stuart Armstrong and back to JWP who switches it first time to Elyounoussi on the left hand side. A great touch and pass inside to Adams, who smashes it straight at Team America Fuck Yeah! KWP then picks it up in curls an effort wide of the far post. Shit!!!
When we made our substitutions, City made a couple as well, bringing on Foden and Mahrez for the underperforming Jesus and Grealish. From City’s next attack you see the difference as to Mahrez and De Bruyne combine, de Bruyne’s chip is headed out by Salisu and Foden takes a touch before absolutely creaming it on the half-volley and it fizzed into the net from 20 yards giving Fraser not an earthly. 3-1 game over.
We know it’s done now with 15 to go and we are notably not getting as close to them any more - Cancelo pings in a ridiculous ball into the box on the outside of his left foot which is chested down by Gundogan and played out wide to Mahrez, who shapes to shoot across the goal with his left foot but instead cuts it inside the near post and once more, no one has hope in hell of doing anything about it. Bollocks.
The final few minutes is played out with City missing a few more chances and Make-a-Wish Moussa coming on for the last 5 because what we needed at that stage was someone to fall over the ball and dribble it out of play.
Firstly, perspective. We are playing a ridiculously talented ridiculously expensively assembled side, who have a ridiculous work ethic, instilled in them by possibly the best manager of all time - and we matched them for over an hour as we have matched them in two league games over 180 minutes this season. Unfortunately, our weaknesses came to bite us when we gave away two bad goals. I have no problem with the third and fourth goal that they scored because they’re both brilliant in their execution, but the first two goals were preventable. For the first goal, Jack Stephens had an absolute mare with his clearance just popping straight to Jack Grealish and one pass later it was in the net.
The second goal of course is a needless challenge by Salisu on the edge of the box against Gabriel Jesus who was going absolutely nowhere. Even though the contact was slight and he made a meal of it, the chance was given to Mike Dean to give the penalty and you can’t really argue with it. Apparently it is Mike’s last FA Cup tie as he’s retiring at the end of the season. In that case it was nice for him to have a game where he wasn’t a twat.
Going 1-0 down early means that you carry on playing the same game and hope to get back into it which is what we did but going behind in the second-half means that there is more urgency to chase the game and that left us open for goals three and four. You could sense that as soon as we went behind, we kind of knew the game was up and the intensity went out of our play for about 10 minutes, in which time the game was buried.
We at least today looked like we were back at it, having not been great in the last three league games. The midfield for I thought were largely excellent and Tino looked to be back to something approaching his best at right back. KWP again gave ammunition to throw at Gareth Southgate and really the only two players who don’t usually get a sniff of the league side were Adam Armstrong and Shane Long who both worked ridiculously hard with Armstrong in particular unlucky not to score with that bobbler that hit the post when it was still 0-0. It is frustrating though that he had three decent chances and spooned every single one. Elsewhere, Jack Stephens had a mare. He does seem to struggle whenever he’s pitched into these one off games and only seems to play well if he has a run of games in the side. Apart from the mistake on the first goal, there were three or four other big errors that he got away with though he must be applauded for getting on Mike Dean’s tits so much that JWP was clearly told by the ref to tell him to shut up.
As I said, I think Ralph‘s team selection was pretty sound and it’s unfortunate that the second City goal went in around the time we were looking to bring Adams and Broja on. The second goal of course was the one that killed us.
Though they are what they are regarding the fact that they are controlled by a State, City are an incredible football team. Kevin De Bruyne was absolutely ridiculous today, as were Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden who luckily, only played about 20 minutes each. Different level. Jack Grealish was pretty average and it was no surprise when he was substituted and Kyle Walker is a massive bell end. Why he felt the need to book the ball out of the stadium just because they let it a goal just before half time is beyond me really. It was nice that it was Walker who played us onside and also nice that the own goal was scored by Laporte, who is a bit of a dickhead as well.
As I was getting home from the game, I heard that Manchester City have been drawn against Liverpool or Nottingham Forest in the next round. Barring some sort of Forest miracle, it’s going to be Liverpool so that’s a consolation for getting beaten today that we don’t have to play them.
More important for us is to get back on the horse and start picking up some points in the league starting with a trip to Leeds next week, where we got absolutely battered last year. Performance wise if not result wise, there was a bit to be positive about today. It was certainly a better performance than the last three league games.
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