No Cushion, No Comfort

I’m not naïve enough to think we’d go to the home of the champions, tweak their noses and toss the gauntlet at their feet, shouting ‘tally-ho, it’s high time you were given a darn good thrashing, you cacophonous, high-spending knaves,’ or some similar swashbuckling platitude. But we need to recognise that our strengths lie in the attacking third and ensure more of our game is based around those strengths. Indeed, it looked for a long time after Caulker’s header crept past England’s cocksure (but currently clanger-dropping) custodian that we’d be notching up our second Manchester smash-and-grab of the season, but we didn’t have enough to see it out this time. The pressure was just too great.

But I still can’t help thinking that we missed an opportunity yesterday. City looked frustrated, vulnerable in defence (on those rare occasions we actually got near it) and for the first hour, largely ponderous in attack. There was a chance for us to come away with a bonus three points to go some way to making up for all the stupid points we’ve lost at home, but we weren’t quite good enough to capitalise.

It wasn’t the set pieces that did for us this time but the high line, and Andre’s curious tactic of finishing the game with four centre backs on the pitch – none of whom are endowed with the most pace you’ve ever seen. Even poor Vertonghen, who’s been an early-season powerhouse in an inconsistent side, was totally overrun and outnumbered on that troublesome left-hand side. That’s not to mention Naughton coming on for Lennon (holding out for a draw, anyone?) Maybe you can hold out against Southampton (okay, and even Man Utd) with the cushion of a two-goal lead and a bit of luck, but you can’t hold out every week. When you sit back to defend a slender lead and you don’t have the ability to retain possession, you’re relying not only on gutsy defending but on the opposition missing all their chances. You take the result out of your hands and leave it in the lap of the gods. Try giving Aguero a string of one-on-ones and seeing if he doesn’t score one.

There’s no doubt that we’re much better away from home than we were in years gone by, when City were one of the few teams we could actually beat on our travels. Yet for all the improvement, agonising defeats at Man City are now becoming almost as commonplace as wins used to be. Then again, they’re not the real noisy neighbours. The real noisy neighbours are coming up next week, and they’re extra dangerous when they’re down and we come to visit – as we found out last season. If we hold a high line against their pace – with our lack of pace – then chances are we won’t be waiting as long as we did yesterday for the goals to come.