Christ, it was cold. Absolutely freezing. At one point, I thought the weather had decided the fate of the match. We didn't start well, nor did we play particularly well until Mancini changed the system, but the points are in the bag and it's shaping up as a straight fight between ourselves and United for the title now. Chelsea are slacking, seven points is a difficult to gap to close at any stage of the season. Eight points isn't too much though. Eight's alright.
On paper, our starting eleven looked alright I suppose. A team capable of getting the job done, possibly with a few extra goals to boot. However, this wasn't case. The team lined up as I had expected on seeing the team apart from two players. Balotelli and Aguero.
Aguero lined up on the left of a 4-2-3-1, ahead of Zabaleta, left-back for the night. A bizarre decision in my opinion as Aguero doesn't offer any natural width, he's a centre-forward, he should play in the middle, Mancini knows this. Balotelli will also become a true centre-forward in a couple of years, but in recent times, particularly last season and the year before that, Mancini has opted to play him on the left-hand side, cutting in. I'd have started Sinclair, there were spaces between Wigan's centre-halves and wing-backs that needed to be exposed by direct running.
Kompany and Nastasic were yet again very good apart from affording Wigan a couple of chances, which I suppose is acceptable, only one goal conceded in six league games now with those two at the heart of the defence.
The first half was an even but relatively dour affair, consisting of few chances but for those of both sides' Ivorians, Yaya and Koné. City, as stated above would have benefited from some width on the left equal to what was being offered by the increasingly impressive and affable Maicon on the right. The Brazilian is starting to build a telepathy that Silva has developed with both Pablo and Micah.
Garcia and Yaya, however, were largely unimpressive, particularly the Spaniard who was slower to react to danger than the player I had seen previously in the Portuguese league was. He was weak on the ball and consistently gave the ball away. He'll be given plenty of time to adjust from me but his descent down the tunnel on being substituted won't build any bridges with his doubters.
Onto the second half and the change in system. Milner on for Garcia and Kolarov for Aguero. A three-at-the-back system which provided the width we were crying out for, and put Balotelli up front with Yaya and Silva just off of him. It gave Maicon the freedom to gallop forward even more than he had already been doing so, and allowed Yaya to expose the spaces in the channels that I said Sinclair would have been oh so useful for.
Within minutes came the opening goal, Maicon's running down the right hand side dragged the centre-backs out of position, leaving more space int he middle of the park for the likes of Silva and Barry, who incidentally carried the midfield last night. Certainly, Al-Habsi made a bad mistake for the first goal, he hsouldn't have spilled what was an ordinary shot, but take nothing away from Balotelli who worked hard to not only make the rebound but stab home at the second attempt.
Not long after, Milner larruped one into the top corner. No chance for the keeper. Again, it came from the space created in the middle by the wing-backs dragging the defence wide.
Special mention to both Barry and Zabaleta. Gareth was outstanding in midfield last night and as said above, pretty much carried Garcia until he was hooked and Yaya until the system change, while Pablo excelled in the three positions he played in although Stam got the better of him a couple of times. I hope he stays for a long, long time. Dare I compare him to Zanetti? Or is that too bold of me. Fuck it, he's our Zanetti, he'll be fit to play ninety minutes at the age of thirty-nine will Zabaleta. Barry was the man of the night though, both for me and Sky I believe, it's about time he got the recognition he deserves, people would do well to actually watch what he brings to this City side rather than constantly referring to that day in Bloemfontein.
All in all, a good win for City. Patient and persistent. Credit to Bobby for the changes that...changed things. A lot of people in the stands expected it to be Mario who would make way, not Aguero, but Bob got that one right, as he does so many things. Just don't play Aguero on the wing ever again, Don Roberto. Please.
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