City 3 - 0 Arsenal

A semi final. Nothing else matters. On a side note it was our best
performance in months, and Wright-Phillips' best performance in his
second spell in blue. But all that matters is our first semi final
since 1981.

More tomorrow.

Onuoha's frustration

An interesting interview with Ian Herbert in The Independent today. He says that recent transfers have limited opportunities for Academy graduates.

"Three or four years ago at this point he [Weiss] might have played 50 games for the club already," Onuoha says. "In training you see he's a really good player and in my opinion has much more technical ability than any of the [first team] academy [graduates] - certainly more than Micah [Richards] and me. But he has not been able to break into the side because of the people ahead of him and the pressure that comes with the shirt these days."

For all Hughes' talk that City want to build around the Academy players, I'm not sure that many other clubs would have responded to the impeccable form of a 22 year old Academy graduate centre half over the second half of a season by buying two new centre backs at a combined cost of almost £40million. To say nothing of Vincent Kompany. I wrote here about why I think an Academy system is probably incompatible with our transfer policy. It's a shame but I can't see Onuoha ever making it as a first team player at City. And I'm starting to worry about others too.

Arsenal preview

For all the frustration with our run of draws, it's easy to think that our league campaign is over. It isn't. We're three points off fourth place. Everyone can calm down in the knowledge that we have twenty five Premier League games remaining to re-assert ourselves. Tonight, though, is quite different: a few hours from now we will either be in our first semi-final since 1981, or will have lost our fourth quarter final in five seasons.

It's a fairly important game. The more so, because with our run of seven consecutive league draws, the judgement made on Mark Hughes by the fans, the press and the board has been in suspense for some time. While a win tonight would win him a quite significant amount of credit, a defeat would have a serious and destabilising impact. We are not yet near a tipping-point (these things always take longer than people envisage), but defeats this evening and on Saturday - with difficult trips to the Reebok and White Hart Lane to come - could lead to a festive period as uncomfortable as last year's was.

Regarding the game itself, there's no doubting who should win. We've already comfortably beaten Arsenal's first team at home this season - putting a total of seven goals past them the last two times they've come to Eastlands. And tonight is not Arsenal's first team. Of those that started the 4-2, only Alex Song has travelled. Of those that came on in that game, Tomáš Rosický and Emmanuel Eboué are also in the squad tonight. But then it's Carlos Vela and Mikaël Silvestre at the well known end, with Kyle Bartley, Craig Eastmond and Emmanuel Frimpong at the other extreme.

I don't know exactly what the City side will be tonight. There are rumours of a place for Sylvinho, an injury to Gareth Barry and even a rare start for Nedum Onuoha. But I am sure that it will be better on paper than Arsenal. Whether we can convert that difference on the pitch, I'm not so sure. People say that Arsenal have a bad record in knock-out competitions recently, and, by their standards, they do. But if there's one thing lodged in City's DNA it is the ability to freeze in what ought to be negotiable quarter-final ties. And if the last two months have taught us anything, it is that Mark Hughes and Garry Cook still have some way to go before they can be said to have slain 'typical City.'

TLDORC November awards

If you thought that October was frustrating, then how did you enjoy this? Another four consecutive league draws, each one less satisfying than the last. In three of them we were ahead in the second half, in two we were ahead with ten minutes left, and in two we were at home. And they weren't exactly against the Premier League's form teams: Birmingham City, Burnley, Liverpool and Hull City. We finish the month in seventh place. Had we taken another four points from this month (from holding out against Burnley and Hull) we would be fourth. Throw in a win against Birmingham or Liverpool and we would now be third. Turn all four draws into wins and we're one point behind United with a game in hand. Bollocks.

Birmingham City (a) 0-0 (thoughts, ratings, reax)
Burnley (h) 3-3 (thoughts, ratings, reax, more reax)
Liverpool (a) 2-2 (thoughts, ratings, reax, more reax)
Hull City (h) 1-1 (thoughts, bumper reax)

Player of the Month

Like last month, I'm not particularly eager to bestow this honour on anyone. I'm tempted to declare it void this month, or even to award it to Uwe Rösler to coincide with his induction to the MCFC Hall of Fame. But what's the point? Player of the Month is still fun even if it does feel better when rewarding real excellence - such as Gareth Barry in August or Craig Bellamy in September. (Both of those players had woeful Novembers, for what it's worth.)

And there are a handful of credible candidates. Even some of our more maligned players - Joleon Lescott and Carlos Tévez in particular - strung a few decent performances together. Shaun Wright-Phillips was better than he was in October; not a high pass mark admittedly but two goals and two assists (from a possible six) implies a hint of form returning. But they're not going to win. Neither is Nigel de Jong, although he does win the silver medal off the back of some battering ram tackles against Birmingham City and Liverpool. I'm going to give it to Shay Given instead. He is always excellent, but two saves in particular stand out. First from James McFadden's penalty at St. Andrew's: diving far to his left, keeping us in the game, silencing the locals. The match finished goalless but imagine how bad November would have been had it started with a loss. The other was at Anfield, reacting like a Jedi to palm Daniel Agger's header past the far post. Our first half performance that day was nowhere, and had we gone 1-0 down that early we may have never recovered.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that Shay Given is not only our best player, but the Premier League's best goalkeeper and the closest thing we've had to a world class player at MCFC since the 1970s. If I made awards for the calendar year (and I'm not ruling it out) Shay Given would win the 2009 prize with much more comfort than that with which his compatriot Stephen Ireland would have won 2008.

Performance of the Month

Tempted by ironic joint award to Lescott and Bridge against Burnley. But it's got to be Given against Birmingham.

Goal of the Month

Ireland against Liverpool. Patrick Barclay wrote a nice article about this but I can't find it (tell me if you do.) But it was a lovely move.

NdJ: 'We have to work harder'

Our unofficial vice-captain demands more from the other players in future:

"I would love to give you a reason - if I could give you the reason, we would win all of our games," he said.

"Maybe there is a lack of confidence in some situations. We try to keep our confidence high, especially when we play at home. We are frustrated but have to continue to build for the future, and these kinds of games are always hard to play.

"There are a few factors, but we have to give more in every line of our game - midfield, defence and attack. It's a team thing and we have to work harder and harder to get where we want to be."

Martin Samuel on Tévez

It's too easy to blame our current malaise on bad defending. It's certainly a factor, but the responsibility does not lie with the defenders alone. Martin Samuel writes today that Carlos Tévez is as much to blame as anyone:

This profligacy — and Tevez is not alone — is now having a serious impact on Manchester City’s season. Failing to win a league game in two months cannot be airily dismissed, even if all matches in that time have been drawn.

City have taken seven points from the last 21. The purchase of a £32m striker — indeed of a strike force costing substantially more than £100m by the time Robinho, Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Roque Santa Cruz are included — is supposed to insure against such streaks.

City believed they were buying efficiency, forwards capable of deciding matches against inferior opposition, the way Fernando Torres does for Liverpool or Didier Drogba for Chelsea.

This recent run has largely pitted City against mediocrity, but Tevez is the greatest disappointment. He has failed to score in 90 minutes against Fulham, Birmingham City and Hull, 83 minutes against Wigan Athletic and 73 minutes against Burnley.

It's always pleasing to see writers as good as Martin Samuel expressing thoughts that you already held. Because this is something that troubles me more and more. If you think that the Lescott-Touré partnership is overpriced, underperforming and generally dysfunctional, then what can you possibly make of the Tévez-Adebayor partnership? Of the seven draws the two most frustrating have been Burnley and Hull City. And while defensive errors were responsible for the equalisers we conceded both times, that does not make the defenders the sole blame-bearers.

Given our possession and chances we should never have been 1-0 up against Hull after 82 minutes, just as we should never have been 3-2 up against Burnley on 88 minutes. In both matches we ought to have been far off in the distance, disappearing over the horizon. I do not want to excuse the mistakes of the defence, but our taking all three points should not have been at the mercy of such occurences. And the guilty parties are clearly our two big money centre forwards. It is immensely disheartening how far we have regressed in this field this season. Last year at home we beat Hull City 5-1, Stoke City 3-0, Portsmouth 6-0, Blackburn 3-1 and West Brom 4-2. We were abject on the road but at least we could be confident of giving bad teams a good beating when they came to Eastlands. But this year we can't even do that! Felipe Caicedo was never going to be Marco van Basten but at least he could score tap-ins in easy games. Tévez missed two dream chances against Burnley when the score was 3-2.

The sooner Roque Santa Cruz gets fit the better. At least then there will be some pressure on the current incumbents.

Richards linked with move...

... to Manchester United. No kidding:

And if City decide to offload the versatile defender, then United are ready to bid for him.

Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson is a huge admirer of Richards and tried to sign him when he first broke on the scene.

Ferguson is considering his options at right-back with growing concerns about Gary Neville’s fitness and Rafael Da Silva’s ability.

Bumper Hull reax

Jamie Jackson, The Guardian

While a glance at the table confirms his team are only three points from the fourth place which is the Holy Grail of the owner, Sheikh Mansour, there must surely be concern over the current run, and a performance against Hull that was insipid, despite the presence of Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Robinho.

Is the inability to kill teams off – City took the lead through Shaun Wright-Phillips' deflected shot on half-time – beginning to affect his players?

J0e Lovejoy, The Observer

City, as has become their wont, had the initiative throughout, but were frustratingly unable to translate the lion's share of possession and chances into goals. Individually and collectively, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robinho, Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Craig Bellamy et al should be doing better against bottom-half opposition. Defensively, too, Hughes has problems. One clean sheet in the past 10 league matches points up the fact that Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge are all operating way below the level that brought them England recognition.

James Ducker, The Times

But Hughes must keep his end of the bargain, and whichever way you look at it, it is hard to sympathise when a team assembled at phenomenal cost have thrown away leads in the final 20 minutes or so of four of their past five league games.

A conservative estimate would say City should be at least six points better off than they are, which would have put them on the coat-tails of Chelsea, their next opponents in the league.

John Aizlewood, Sunday Times

Because he needed a win and with Robinho’s long-awaited return from injury — although he has still to complete 90 minutes this season — Hughes front-loaded his team with strikers. They were soon setting about both Hull and, when an early lackadaisical Robinho cross evaded Emmanuel Adebayor, each other. That disunity — Manchester Disunited, you might say — would bedevil their afternoon.

Graham Chase, Sunday Telegraph

Hull looked certain for relegation after getting off to a dreadful start, but since losing at Burnley they are unbeaten in four matches. Although City lacked spark, they took the lead through Shaun Wright-Phillips but never looked like killing Brown’s team off. There was a real defiance and confidence to the visitors’ display and they deserved to equalise after referee Lee Probert penalised Kolo Touré for a challenge on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

Chris Wheeler, Daily Mail

Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak was at Eastlands to witness the latest setback, and, while his manager is under no immediate threat, City need to show signs of improvement in Wednesday’s Carling Cup quarter-final against Arsenal and the visit of Chelsea at the weekend.

Playing at home — where they were once again booed off the pitch on Saturday — might not be such an advantage now, and Hughes admitted his team are starting to feel the strain.

Ian Herbert and Jon Culley, The Independent

It does not help that in four of the last five of City's seven straight draws, winning positions have been given away, which is what happened on Saturday, with the Blues surrendering their lead to a penalty eight minutes from full-time. City, resting Gareth Barry, had Robinho back, after three months missing, in a line-up driven by the dynamism of Carlos Tevez that did produce moments of sizzling attack. But Hughes could only be honest in his assessment. "At times we look accomplished and a threat, attacking-wise," he said. "At others we look what we are, a team that has been brought together quickly."

Jon Culley, Independent on Sunday

For all that Robinho's first match since August in a City shirt raised expectations again, the collective efforts of a team set up to banish a frustrating sequence with a vibrant and successful performance amounted to no more than a few flashes of promise. Robinho had not forgotten how to confuse an opponent and there were moments when Hull looked mightily tormented, not least when City's five key attackers – Robinho, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Steven Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips – combined in one glorious move after half an hour. The shot on the end of it, by Wright-Phillips, flashed wide.

City 1 - 1 Hull City

Are we serious about success or not? Does Mark Hughes want to manage
Manchester City in 2010/11 or not? Because this was the third
consecutive home game which we led but failed to win. Never mind how
rarely Chelsea, United and Arsenal blow leads at home - how often do
Spurs or Aston Villa? If we carry on like this we will finish in
seventh - and Hughes will be sacked.

More to follow...

Hull preview

If Burnley was a must-win, then what does that make this? A month or
so ago I was delighted that this fixture followed Liverpool away
(which I presumed we would lose.). With our strong start to the
season, coupled with Hull's implosion and the memories of last
season's 5-1 I could see no possible result beyond a big win.

But now I'm pretty nervous. Because in the last few weeks we've drawn
six straight. We've pissed away leads at home against Fulham and
Burnley - unthinkable for a club with pretensions of seriousness. And
Hull's implosion has been aborted: Phil Brown has stayed and they've
taken seven points from their last three games. Of course, with our
squad we should breeze past them. And we still might. But form and
confidence have a big causal role and they're both pointing against us
now.

There will be changes from the team that drew at Anfield. I imagine
Hughes will resort to his favoured 4-2-4. Tevez will partner Adebayor
through the middle, with Bellamy, Ireland, Robinho and SWP fighting
for the wide positions. I'd go for Ireland and SWP - unless he wants
Ireland in central midfield and a chance to rest Gareth Barry.

Whichever team we put out it will be much stronger than Hull's. Just
like we were better on paper than Fulham or Burnley. This is football,
not PES. So I'm predicting another score draw.