With Craig Bellamy and Carlos Tevez, City will be looking to a pair of Hammers old boys for the goals against Gianfranco Zola’s side tonight. Like Fulham last week, West Ham are a well organised side who like to play good football, and it will be an interesting test for City.
With all the likely challengers for the Champions League places (except Chelsea) winning over the weekend, the pressure is on for City to immediately get back to winning ways after the derby defeat. It’s quickly becoming apparent how victories need to be consistently churned out if we’re to break into the top four.
It’s not clear how City will line up tonight following the news that Stevie Ireland is set to miss the match following a stomach bug. Gareth Barry has made a faster recovery from the same bug and is set to play.
Hughes could stick with a central midfield trio by bringing in Zabaleta and pushing Barry forward into Ireland’s role. Alternatively Wright-Phillips could be moved infield, with Weiss given a start on the right.
Personally, I’d like to see us start with Tevez and Bellamy up front, and Petrov on the left. Having only two central midfielders may appear to leave us a little light against the footballing Hammers, but Tevez and Bellamy are both excellent at ‘defending from the front’. In addition, De Jong has been in excellent tackling form since his return to the side.
If Hughes wants to spring a surprise, he could start with Santa Cruz. It would be good to see the Paraguyan make his debut at some point, not least because the attack has lacked a focal point in the last two matches when Tevez has been asked to play as a lone striker.
The other selection dilemma is right-back, where Richards and Zabaleta are battling for the starting spot. Despite his problems in the derby, the height and strength of Richards may be useful in defending set-pieces in an otherwise fairly short team. Added to that, Zabaleta looked a little rusty against Fulham, which was a shame given his excellent performance against Celtic in his previous start.
For West Ham, Carlton Cole is the obvious danger-man. Parker, Upson and Green provide the experience in a side that features some cheap Zola recruits (Jiminez and Diamante) and talented youngsters (Collison, Tomkins and Hines). There could be a debut for Guillermo Franco up front. Their recent form hasn’t been good, but this could be deceptive. They were unlucky to lose to Liverpool last week, while Zola and Steve Clarke are canny enough on the touchline to work out any weaknesses in our gameplan.
Inevitably, Bellamy has featured in a lot of the pre-match bluster from both sides.
Gianfranco Zola:
“I loved working with him because he tested me a lot. He has such a fire inside and it can be hard, but if you approach him in the right way he can give you a lot of satisfaction.
“He is honest and is not worried about telling somebody they are doing something wrong. Even to the manager.”
Mark Hughes:
“He loves to play against his former clubs – he had a great time at West Ham and has a lot of respect for Gianfranco Zola and everybody at the club.”
“I know Gianfranco very well, having played alongside him for three years. I count him as a friend. He’s done a fantastic job there in difficult circumstances.”
Hughes on Santa Cruz:
“Technically, he is good enough. I will always remember the first training session he had at Blackburn and the reaction the other players showed when they saw what he had produced. He has the ability that you sit up and take notice of. I blew all my budget on him when I was at Blackburn and that shows you what I thought of him.”
There’s a danger we’ll struggle to break them down if Tevez is played as a lone striker, but hopefully we’ll see the kind of dominant performance we’ve been waiting for this season.
Possible line-up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, de Jong, Barry, Wright-Phillips, Petrov, Bellamy, Tevez.
Prediction: 3-0 to City.
Man of the moment, Craig Bellamy, is getting some positive press in The Observer and Daily Mail this weekend. With a fixture against one of his many previous clubs tomorrow night, he’s likely to be the centre of attention once again.
I felt like I was one of the minority City fans who was happy when he signed back in January. We needed players who gave their all in the less glamorous fixtures, and Bellers could always be relied on for that. To prove the point, we’ve subsequently seen him getting booked for berating a linesman in our first pre-season fixture in South Africa. You had to laugh. It may not be to everybody’s liking, but to me, the on-pitch rages against officialdom and perceived injustice are all part of the entertainment.
As we’ve seen, Bellamy isn’t just about commitment and a lack of anger management. He’s always been a decent Premier League player, particularly under Hughes at Blackburn, and it was that relationship which convinced me he’d do ok for us. Hughes wouldn’t buy a player for sentimental reasons alone.
In that season with Rovers, Bellamy looked a top striker and one goal away to Portsmouth had always stuck in my memory. He picked the ball up in his own half, scampered away leaving defenders in his wake, but was heading slightly away from goal when he entered the penalty area. He then lashed the ball into the opposite top corner. It’s about two minutes in on this compilation (sadly the picture quality doesn’t do it justice).
No doubt he’ll be on the receiving end of some stick tomorrow night from the West Ham fans, but that’s nothing new for Bellers and he has a decent record of scoring against his old clubs.
The only doubts I had concerned the state of his knees, and it didn’t take long last season for those questions to re-surface. Hughes seems to recognise that now, and with our roster of forwards, we shouldn’t have to push Bellamy and Santa Cruz to hard this season.
Consequently, it’s looking good for the Welshman and who knows, this late stage of his career could prove his most successful as we bid to get a few trophies. One thing’s for sure, his hat-trick last weekend of two goals and one United fan has certainly confirmed his terrace-hero status at Eastlands. Could a chant of “We’ve got Craig Bellamy” to the tune of “We’ve got Robinho” be heard soon?
The Observer article speaks a lot about his foundation in Sierra Leone, which is all very worthy stuff. The sums involved are pretty stunning, and just go to show the level of disposable income top footballers have. It’s a remarkable world where the money we hand over at a petrol station, ends up with Sheikh Mansour, who uses it to pay Bellers, who then spends it on trying to give a better chance to youngsters in one of the harshest parts of Africa.
New to me was reading that Bellamy is interested in management, and is already looking at the coaching side of the game. He’s renowned for his footballing knowledge, being a bit of an anorak apparently, so maybe it isn’t so surprising. It’s the thought of Bellamy in the dugout and technical area that really whets the appetite. Who’d want to be a fourth official then?
Video:
Blackburn goals
Hat-trick for Celtic
Telling it as it is in a post match interview for Wales
The former Celtic favourite declines to sign a Rangers shirt
Fans view of his second goal last week
United v City last week
City v Arsenal
Liverpool v City
City v Boro
City v Newcastle
Blue Days
27 September 2009
The Cup gods smiled on City this lunchtime, granting us a home tie against Championship side Scunthorpe in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. The game will take place on the week beginning 26th October.
City did well to avoid any of the 12 other Premier League sides left in the compeition, and Mark Hughes will doubtless be confident of progressing to the quarter finals.
The Iron are holding their own in the Championship after getting promoted via the play-offs last season. At Wembley, they beat a Millwall side managed by former City coach Kenny Jackett. It’s often been noted how Sven’s side went downhill after Jackett left, and it’s interesting to wonder what might have been had he not been tempted by the delights of the New Den.
Given their recent promotion and respectable start in the Championship, City will be facing a confident Iron team, and we’ll need to be mindful of that. The prospect of a trip to Eastlands should excite them and I’d expect a few more in the away end than the 91 from Fulham. With all due respect, it’s hardly a glamour tie for us, and hopefully City will price tickets accordingly.
With Mark Hughes rightly looking to win the Carling Cup this season, it’s interesting to look at how the draw panned out for our potential rivals. With the ‘big four’ all fielding weaker teams in this competition, it’s hard to say where the biggest threats lie.
Sunderland and Villa both fielded strong sides in the last round and are now playing each other, so one of them will be out of the way.
I was surprised to see Everton field a strong side last time, given they’re having to cope with the Europa League as well, and it will be good to see either them or Spurs go out at White Hart Lane.
Arsenal always use this competition for their conveyor belt of youngsters, so it will be interesting to see how they fare against a Liverpool side that scraped past Leeds.
United have landed themselves an easier tie against struggling Barnsley. If City are going to be doing better in cup competitions, then it’s likely we’ll start seeing more of United. At the moment I’m quite happy to avoid them.
Stat facts: City have only played Scunthorpe 4 times competitively but have won them all scoring 21 times! Last time, Robbie Fowler bagged a hat-trick in the FA Cup in 2006. The only League Cup tie finished 6-0 in the 1974/75 season.
Check out video of Scunthorpe’s latest exploits on their BBC page here if you wish. (At the time of writing it’s showing their victory in the previous round against Port Vale).
- Do you have any thoughts on the draw, or memories of previous encounters against the Irons? (I confess I barely remember the Fowler hat-trick though I’m sure I was there!)
According to the M.E.N. yesterday, the next step in the ADUG revolution could be to announce changes at Eastlands. Talks between City and the Council appear to have been ongoing for a while now, covering topics such as providing training facilities at Eastlands, expanding the ground capacity, and naming rights for the stadium.
The training facilities on the land around Eastlands are likely to be the first change, and it will fascinating to see what the plans are. There is talk of state-of-the-art facilities (aren’t they always?), but I don’t see that there is a sufficient amount of space even if we go right up to the gasometer by New Viaduct Street. Top level facilities take up a fair few acres, with Everton, for example, having 10 full size pitches at Finch Farm.
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