somervillain
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 25 Feb 2008
- Messages
- 474
It depends on whether you adjusted your expectations after a City side clearly suffering from an off night right from the start went behind early on against a Villa side playing 11 men in their own half and looking to counter.
The final ball was lacking all night. You'd run out of fingers counting all the times a Villa defender made a pretty easy last-ditch interception. Way, way too many sloppy final balls, letting Villa off the hook.
And again, City look completely vulnerable defending in the air. We've all seen Richard Dunne play enough to know that he's not exactly a major threat on corners, yet he scored once and easily could have had another. And this after those two Fletcher headers at United. Embarrassing, really.
Now we're stuck listening to inane talk of Villa being a threat to crack the top four just like City. One look at that roster tells you Villa will be lucky to finish ahead of Sunderland in seventh this season, let alone challenging for the top four. Not even Villa seem to think they're on City's level. Look at how they played at home against City: parking the bus in front of the goal and looking to catch City out on the counter.
Other than the consolation point, the only real positive takeaway from tonight is the fact that City are being treated like it's now a Big Five by opposing managers, and they can dominate possession away from home like a big club.
The final ball was lacking all night. You'd run out of fingers counting all the times a Villa defender made a pretty easy last-ditch interception. Way, way too many sloppy final balls, letting Villa off the hook.
And again, City look completely vulnerable defending in the air. We've all seen Richard Dunne play enough to know that he's not exactly a major threat on corners, yet he scored once and easily could have had another. And this after those two Fletcher headers at United. Embarrassing, really.
Now we're stuck listening to inane talk of Villa being a threat to crack the top four just like City. One look at that roster tells you Villa will be lucky to finish ahead of Sunderland in seventh this season, let alone challenging for the top four. Not even Villa seem to think they're on City's level. Look at how they played at home against City: parking the bus in front of the goal and looking to catch City out on the counter.
Other than the consolation point, the only real positive takeaway from tonight is the fact that City are being treated like it's now a Big Five by opposing managers, and they can dominate possession away from home like a big club.