Mancini demands more as City slip up again
It is not even January, yet already it looks like advantage Manchester United.
While they, right on cue, have hit their stride for the crucial Christmas period after cruising to a 5-0 victory for the second successive match, City laboured to a stalemate at The Hawthorns as they failed to score in the top flight for the first time this season.
Roberto Mancini’s team now top the table by virtue of goal difference alone, having collected just two points from their previous three Premier League away trips, having drawn with Liverpool and lost to Chelsea.
They might have arrived yesterday having topped the table at Christmas for the first time since 1929, but the chances of them remaining there come January 1 look remote, with United in action at home to Blackburn on New Year’s Eve, 24 hours before they travel to Sunderland.
All of a sudden, that infamous 6-1 win at Old Trafford on October 23 looks a long time ago and, as so many of their Premier League counterparts previously in this situation will testify, no team is better at cranking up the pressure than their neighbours.
By their manager’s own admission, improvement is required fast.
“Sometimes you don’t win. We know that it’s impossible to stay top for all 38 games but I think generally we will be in there,” said Mancini, who also bemoaned the festive fixture schedule driven by TV which means his team have just two days to prepare for next Tuesday’s match with Liverpool, while the Reds have four.
“Clearly, every team has a plan but if we don’t score in the first half, it is difficult. Probably we will have another eight or nine games in the next 20 days like this.
“Against Stoke it was the same, here it was the same, we need to improve in this situation. In games when the opposing players all get around the ball, we need to improve.”
City might have hit the crossbar via Mario Balotelli, enjoyed 62% of the possession and registered 18 attempts as opposed to the Baggies’ seven, yet they could have no complaints with the outcome.
Hodgson’s team were everything you would expect from one of his teams: both disciplined and organised yet a threat going forward.
They began the more purposefully and a sweeping move just three minutes in almost concluded with an opener when Jerome Thomas fed Chris Brunt, who turned on the edge of the area before seeing his low drive veer inches past the left post.
Although City dominated the early possession, their play certainly lacked the cohesion and crispness the Premier League has come to expect and it took them 14 minutes to extend Baggies goalkeeper Ben Foster via Samir Nasri’s low strike.
Although the Baggies looked dangerous on the countr-attack, the best opportunity of the half belonged to City, who should have led in the 25th minute when Sergio Aguero squared to leave David Silva with a clear sight of goal but, for once, the Spaniard’s technique let him down.
Balotelli continued to look the City player most likely to make a breakthrough and he rattled the crossbar with a fiercely-struck shot from 30 yards shortly after the restart.
It could have been even worse for City. The Baggies could count themselves extremely unfortunate when Thomas saw his low strike ricochet off the foot of the post in the 71st minute.
“We don’t stop many sides scoring,” said Hodgson. “We are not a great clean sheet team so it was great to do it against a side of City’s calibre.
“The impressive thing about United is they had just put five past Fulham and now they have done it again. They are flying.”
And how Mancini knows it.
WEST BROM (4-4-2): Foster 7; Jones 7, McAuley 7, Olsson 8, Shorey 7; Thomas 8, Scharner 7, Mulumbu 7 (Dorrans 81), Brunt 7; Odemwingie 7 (Jara Reyes 89), Long 7.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-2-3-1): Hart 6; Zabaleta 6, K Toure 6, Kompany 6, Clichy 6; Y Toure 6, Milner 5 (Dzeko 83); Aguero 6 (Johnson 75), Silva 6, Nasri 5 (Barry 59); Balotelli 7
Ref: Lee Mason (Lancashire).
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