Premier League discussion Sat 18/Sun 19/Mon 20 December 2010

Lucky c**ts with a big deflected own goal. If they get anything from this Abu Dhabi should be sending a very large Xmas present to Peter Walton.

Citeh get an even bigger present than the red, Tony Hibbert is on.

Timmy Tourettes did well there.

Distin

King Kolo sent off with two yellow cards in as many minutes.

FT: Man City 1-2 Everton

Everton's celebration's at the end were reminiscent of ours on the same ground 7 months ago.

Well done Everton. Fully deserved

Classic City to fail even when everything in their favour. Newcastle can beat them on Boxing Day to send them into Christmas crisis.

Goater won't be so goater with this result. Man Utd's incredibly average squad are starting to build quite a healthy lead.

Cracking game. Distin

Can't believe I was watching the same game as TS and debaser = all 4 yellows for the sendings off were spot on.

Great resilience from Everton.

Benitez will be Man City manager by the end of January.

Floss is boss

The first red was pretty harsh [I'd expect it in a Champions League game, not the Premiership], but a loss is really tough on City anyway. Did everton get no corners? I won't pretend I wasn't cheering for Everton, but even before the sending off City had most of the play. The handball shouts were solid, although almost impossible for the ref to have spotted [Neville's intent looks clear in slo-mo, not in real-time].

It would be a tad silly to have a side like this topping the table now. But this season everyone's shakey. Silva and Zabaleta are terrific to watch, as is Tevez. And I see nobody here's mentioning that for once Mancini played a football-minded formation, with attacking players in the midfield, and no forwards there solely for Kuyt-ing. He even gave A.Johnson a decent amount of time to play in. Guess Moyes packed the midfield though.

de-turkey-baster wrote:Well done Everton. Fully deserved

Classic City to fail even when everything in their favour. Newcastle can beat them on Boxing Day to send them into Christmas crisis.

We've been waiting for this one for a while, i hope we fuck them up, in more ways than one.

NeoChap wrote:The first red was pretty harsh [I'd expect it in a Champions League game, not the Premiership].

Even Moyes, who spent 5 minutes querying the non-award of a corner, seemed exasperated with Anichebe but showed no anger towards the ref.

Pierre Littbarski wrote:

NeoChap wrote:The first red was pretty harsh [I'd expect it in a Champions League game, not the Premiership].

Even Moyes, who spent 5 minutes querying the non-award of a corner, seemed exasperated with Anichebe but showed no anger towards the ref.

I won't deny Anichebe was foolish to put in the challenge that cost him the 2nd, as it gave the ref the option to send him off, but I really didn't think either fouls were worthy of yellows. The first one was just momentum from chasing the ball and he turned his back to the keeper. Impossible to avoid collision there and I didn't see it as dangerous. The second was a nondescript mistimed challenge - not dangerous or cynical - I know they are often given as yellows but don't believe they should be.

Toure's fouls were deliberate trips to stop Everton breaking and deserved yellows (though the 2nd one, Bily definitely made most of)

Agree with Baser.

Anichebe didn't lead with his foot on the 1st, was clumsy on the 2nd.

Toure's were both cynical attempts to stop Everton progressing into a dangerous attacking position.

we had 25 shots to 4, 11 corners to 0 and we had 67% possesion...yet people still say an Everton win was well deserved....jesus fucking christ.

These aren't stats that count mate, if Arsenal fans were to cite the same argument for some of the muggings we've received over the years we'd be crucified.

Agree with Pierre on the yellows.

Sgoater1 wrote:

we had 25 shots to 4, 11 corners to 0 and we had 67% possesion...yet people still say an Everton win was well deserved....jesus fucking christ.

Everton took a very early lead, which meant they could then let you have the ball and play counter-attacking football, even moreso when they went 2-0. The fact City couldn't do anything with the ball beyond an OG and conceded 2 from so few attacks proves Everton were the better side both defensively and in attack

Sgoater1 wrote:

we had 25 shots to 4, 11 corners to 0 and we had 67% possesion...yet people still say an Everton win was well deserved....jesus fucking christ.

TBF I think they deserved to win.

They took the lead due the alertness of Coleman whilst City went to sleep and the last 2 touches of the 2nd goal were brilliant and simple.

They had earned the right to concede posession and made a couplel of great blocks.

Superb play from Distin and Bilyaletdinov to take pressure of defence and get Toure off.

I don't wish to sound like Puro but Milner and Barry are the weak links in this team.

Whilst a couple of his passes were underhit, Y.Toure is superb, Silva and Balotelli have great quality and Tevez is class.

Micah Richards would be a + as he is a lot more athletic than Zabaleta so more overlaps - Kolarov is an average athlete and poor defender but offers loads with his left foot.

De Jong for either Barry/Milner and a new signing for the other.

SWP, Jo, Adebayor and Jinky gives you great options from the bench so still good times for City.

Milner was very poor and has yet to fit in there, but I thought Barry was one of City's best players yesterday. He looked bad earlier in the season but been much better when I've seen City lately.

SWP, Jo, Adebayor and Jinky is not exactly amazing options - SWP and Jinky offer similar things so SWP is kinda superflous (though Jinky looked off-form), Jo's only attribute is height and Adebayor won't be there much longer.

Their main problem remains lack of goals from anyone but Tevez, but they're most likely signing Dzeko in Jan, and Balotelli is still in very early days, so they should improve there.