da bet7： There are some things in life that we know for certain. The smelly guy with the greasy hair and whiskey bottle inside a brown paper bag will always be the one that chooses to sit next to you on the bus. It’s always during that important meeting with your boss that you mother calls your mobile to find out if she can visit for the weekend. And it’s always the weekend that you’re going to an away game that she invites herself.
da aviator aposta： Of course, if you’re a City fan, you’ll have gone into Monday night’s game with that feeling of inevitability in the pit of your stomach. Everton, struggling this season and hovering just above the relegation zone, coming to the City of Manchester Stadium to play City who, with a win, could go top of the league for Christmas day – it’s odds on for a home win, surely…? City’s defence don’t let much through easily and, on their day, they can score some pretty decent goals.
Even if they managed a draw, they’d spend Christmas day in second place.
So now it’s Christmas Eve and, with no more fixtures to be played before tomorrow, City sit in third. Can any of us actually say we’re surprised at this? It’s one of those inevitabilities of life as a City fan; if there’s an easy way to do something or a way to reward the fans with something nice every now and then, you can sure as hell bet City will do it the hard way. If they do it at all.
It must be hard-wired into the club’s DNA. We have a phrase for it that has been doing the rounds since well before I started going to watch them: Typical City. City beat the top of the league by three goals, then lose to the bottom team the week after – Typical City. City are the subject of a takeover and become the richest club in football, only to subsequently spend that Christmas in the relegation zone – Typical City. City go joint top of the league after a great performance without one of their most important players and, that evening, said important player hands in a written transfer request – Typical City.
And, would you know it, it was Typical City FC and not Manchester City FC that turned up on Monday evening. I’m not saying that the game was an easy one, far from it. What I am saying is that, with most of the league games last weekend falling victim to the weather, City knew before kick-off that a victory would leave them top of the league. So, naturally, they didn’t start playing until they’d given Everton a two goal head start.
For the record, I feel ‘given’ is the correct work since Everton didn’t exactly have to work hard to get those two opening goals. My Sunday league team could have scored those two opening goals with the state of City’s defending, though, in fairness, to Everton, my Sunday league team wouldn’t have been able to see out and win the game from that position. They’ve got me in goal, for starters.
In fact, Everton’s defending is something that we should praise the visitors for, too. City piled on the pressure for about 70 minutes and the only way they could score was a deflected cross from Yaya Touré. The story of the game is summed up in City’s shooting statistics: 32 shots, 4 on target. Nearly all of City’s shots were from range or blocked (suspiciously with arms on several occasions – Phil Neville played a blinder in goal for Everton), while Everton scored all of their shots on target.
True, they spent most of the game time wasting or in their own box, but it’s not against the rules to park the bus as they did. It wasn’t pretty to watch, but I daresay their fans don’t care seeing as they won the game. And it’s down to City to score the goals necessary to go on to win the game (which would be helped without such an atrocious start to the match).
It would also be quite hypocritical of me to criticise their style of play, given that it’s exactly what City had to do whilst strapped for cash under Stuart Pearce in order to stay in the Premier League. It’s always far too holier than thou to say how football should be played and many teams have been successful in many different ways.
The bonus for me, though, was that Leighton Baines was in my Fantasy League team. And with such a disastrous weekend for everybody because of the fixtures called off, I benefited quite nicely, while everybody else in my league scored roughly 1-3 points. Which moved me up to 347th position, so every cloud, eh?
I’ve no doubt that City will win something and soon. In fact, if they don’t, then questions need to be asked, starting with what the hell did everyone at City do in a past life to upset the footballing Gods and how bad was it? It must have been something quite bad if they conspire to stop City winning something despite such an investment as the one they have received.
Certainly, though, the concept of ‘Typical City’ is an interesting one. It’s been around the club for decades, yet managers, chairmen, boards, squads of players, shirt sponsors, kit colours, divisions, tactics and even stadiums have changed since it was first introduced into your average Citizen’s lexicon. How is it possible for City to have a poor record against one team that stretches back for ten or more years? The only constant in City in that period is the fans.
Can the ‘Typical City’ attitude be the entire problem? Could it be, no matter how much money is thrown at the team and no matter what improvements are made to the stadium, pitch and training facilities, that City will continue to struggle on the big occasions (Everton, Tottenham, Manchester United in the Carling Cup) because of the ‘Typical City’ sword that dangles over them? Could it really be that City will win something when we as fans stop thinking that the worst will happen because ‘that’s what City do’?
I’m no believer in all that positive energy crap that some people on telly spout out and don’t think that positive thoughts cause positive outcomes, but I do think that negativity is catching. If the fans are nervous, for example, then that tension is felt by the players on the pitch. In most games for the last couple of seasons, City have been playing well and winning most home games, but at the crucial times, it’s impossible to deny that the fans have been on edge and the players have been playing like they can’t wait to get off the pitch before something bad happens (Everton, Tottenham, Manchester United in both league games of 2010).
We know the atmosphere at Eastlands isn’t brilliant, but a collective groan after the first misplaced pass or a wholesome sigh when someone miscontrols the ball doesn’t help anyone. Oh, and if the lady who sits behind me who always seems to be very angry happens to be reading this, it’s very annoying when you shout things like “Look at him [Yaya Touré] with that f—–g snood on! He’s on all that money and he wears that!”
Because, traditionally, people who earn a lot of money don’t feel the cold.
2010 is nearly gone, so let’s leave ‘Typical City’ behind with it. It’s Christmas Eve and City aren’t top of the league. Bah Humbug, eh? What an awful season it’s turning out to be. It’s not as if, on this day two years ago, we were sitting in eighteenth place, having just lost to West Brom, playing a quality of football that would disappoint my Sunday league team.
Christmas in third place.
It’s not all bad.
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