Player ratings: City v West Ham
Given – Needed to be alert in the second half as West Ham pressed. His finest moment was turning over a stinging shot from Diamanti. 7
Zabaleta – Justified his selection ahead of Richards. The Argentine tackled well, and linked up with the forwards intelligently. 7
Toure – The interceptions and tackling was excellent. The one time Cole looked to have turned and got away, he raced back for a perfectly timed tackle. 7
Lescott – Survived a mistake in letting Cole beat him to a through ball thanks to the referee. Otherwise he was ok again and showed good strength in the battle against Cole. 6
Bridge – A bit of a mixed bag, and that was just his distribution. He got forward well at times, but could then be caught out of position. Never a good idea to rely on Petrov dropping back to cover.
Wright-Phillips – Another frustrating night that featured some good balls to the strikers, but not enough. Where once he used to get bundled over by defenders, he now looks to happy to go down and hope for a decision from the referee. 6
De Jong – Utterly reliable at the moment, and arguably our most important outfield player. The tackling and discipline is second to none, and must surely keep his place against Villa. 8
Barry – Maybe he wasn’t fully over the stomach bug, as he didn’t look his usual self. The passing was unusually sloppy, though one dipping strike from the edge of the area nearly redeemed the former Villa man. 6
Petrov – He’s back! 8
Bellamy – Didn’t manage the predicted goal against his former club, but proved a handful all night. His movement across the whole of the final third was to much for an inexperienced Hammers defence. 8
Tevez – Two important goals, but it could have been more. The match sharpness is coming and this was his best performance so far, even if he was out on his feet for the final minutes once again. 7
Subs:
Santa Cruz – Received a big ovataion as he finally made his debut (with taped up knees). Did ok as he eased himself into the team. 6
Johnson – The return of the Invisible Man! And he rounded off a happy evening by showing some neat touches in the couple of minutes he was on. 7
Man of the match: It could easily have been de Jong, and Bellamy was excellent again. If he’d have scored with the chance near the end there would have been no argument, but I’ll give it him anyway… Martin Petrov.
Andy Arry
29 September 2009 - 3:43 pm
“Bulldog” De Jong was MoTM for most people and his score was a definite 9! Petrov, Bellers and Tevez close behind, but the way things are at the moment I’d be happy for anyone in a blue shirt to get the award.
Wonderful stuff from a real top-4 outfit and as soon as Ade and Kompany are back in the fold, watch-out – someone is going to get a real tonking soon! Notice I haven’t mentioned Robbie here, ‘cos quite frankly I can’t see how he is going to fit in at the moment, at least not until he ups his workrate and his committment by 100%!
Blue Days
29 September 2009 - 3:53 pm
Point taken on de Jong! Guess I swayed towards Petrov as I was happy to see him get a full 90 minutes and put a decent shift in.
Robinho looks like being out for a few weeks yet. In the meantime it will be interesting to see who makes way for Adebayor, if he’s available against Villa. Hughes’ options up front are looking great!
jensuicat
29 September 2009 - 4:41 pm
For me Bellers must go on the right instead of SWP, keep Petrov in and bring in Mannu.
Bellers can do the defending role as well as Shaun and with De Jong in his current form we should be ok with a 4-1-1-Bellers–3. Manu and Teves are both good at tracking back which leaves Petrov as a speedy front runner if mainly on the left and no tracking back hardly.
How would the bench look:
Taylor : Richards : Sylvinho :SWP : Johnson: Weiss : RSC. With Nedum/Vincent injured it shows the need for more central defensive cover imho. Perhaps another January target!
See if my predictions come true next monday night, and January maybe.