It was evident after about 5 minutes that Southampton were pacy and mobile, and intent on exploiting our lack of personnel down the flanks. Zabaleta in particular was completely exposed for the entire 90 minutes, with nobody covering in front of him, as Southampton doubled, and even trebled, up on him. Kompany kept getting dragged over to help, which then left Mr Wooden (Lescott) having to cope with the big lummox up front on his own, something he struggled at, getting backed into and bumped into scuffed half clearances galore. Seriously though, if we can't cope with a team of Premier League journeymen counterattacking, then the Chimps League promises to be a fucking nightmare of epic proportions. Whatever, it took Mancini 85 minutes to introduce Kolarov, and we never saw Milner at all.
Hart 6 - Fuck all to do, but his piss poor sliced clearances down the middle in the last 10 minutes allowed Southampton to run the ball back at us repeatedly.
Zaba 6 - Did his best, but had no fucking chance defensively.
Clichy 6 - See Zabaleta. Much better crossing than usual I'm pleased to say.
Kompany 6 - Mediocre at best.
Lescott 5 - See Kompany, only painfully slow.
Nasri 9 - Man of the Match by a country mile and even won a few tackles.
Silva 4 - Dreadful. Clearly not fit. The penalty was a joke. Anyone who takes an almost perpendicular run up to the ball, drastically reduces the chances of controlling its placement, and so it proved. If I was Mancini I would have fried his nuts in oil for that one incident alone. Give him two or three games to get that sharpness back and he'll be buzzin' again I'm sure.
Ya Ya 8 - Increasingly ran the game.
Rodwell 6 - Some nice touches initially, but grew progressively more crab-like as the game possessed. May have been acting under orders in that regard, or may have been feeling the pace, but either way unless he's prepared to unleash his attacking instincts now and again, then he'll be little more than a taller version of De Jong. There were enough flashes of skill to make me optimistic though and it's a shame his one bad pass proved so costly.
Tevez 7 - Typically bustling, scored and won a pen.
Dzeko 5 - A carthorse. Looks like he's put on a stone in weight, and clearly can't be relied on to convert even the simplest of chances. Unfortunately, at 120k a week and 25m quid, he ain't going anywhere. Moaning about being on the bench is fine (it demonstrates hunger if nothing else), but he was put clean through in the Charity Shield and lumbered after it like a Lada towing an anvil, and yesterday he adjusted his feet with all the dexterity of Arthur Mullard ballroom dancing to miss from 3 yards.
Mario 7 - Also joined the "missed an open goal" club, but touch and movement was light years ahead of Dzeko.
If we play like that on a regular basis, a top 3 finish will be the best we can hope for. There were positives - good going forward (apart from the dire finishing) and crossing much improved, but there were significant negatives as well. For the third competitive fixture in a row (QPR, Chelsea and Southampton) the opposition had 2 shots and scored 2 goals. We were a fucking shambles at the back, but much of the trouble there stemmed from the midfield failing to protect the defence, particularly down Zab's flank.
The injury to Aguero killed the mood for me, and I'll be absolutely gutted if he's out for the season. A pox on the cunts in the away end booing him and chanting "She fell over". Bottom line though? We were way below par and still won. The hallmark of champions
