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Lucky To Get Nil: City v Norwich Pre-Match Post-Match Review
- Wednesday, 30 November 2011
- Written by pwheatcroft
Forget Shakespeare. Forget Picasso. Forget Armani. Forget Marco Pierre White. Forget Aston Martin. A thing of outstanding beauty was created on the pitch at Arsenal the other night. Sergio’s goal.
Here’s the link from the club’s website to the highlights of the game (the goal itself is 30 seconds in):
Here.
Watch it. Then watch it again.
The Wardrobe has perfected a really useful skill recently: of loitering by the left touchline, deep in his own half, ready to pick up a quick pass or clearance. He nearly created a goal with a similar move against Liverpool. This time, he’s eagle-eyed at a corner, racing to pick up the loose ball before any of their players. Then he stays on the move. Watch as he picks it up, changes gear, then hares up the touchline and moves inside. His touch is exquisite and no-one can get near him.
But what happens next is even better. He plays a precision 40-yard pass, on the run, bisecting the retreating defenders and straight into the stride of AJ. Like Rudolph Nureyev without the codpiece, the Boro-born winger caresses it, then swivels on a sixpence in a classic pirouette à la seconde (look it up) and without any interruption to his movement, touches it with the outside of his left foot into the path of the onrushing Sergio.
The diminutive striker is so poised, so confident that he will score; he too does not break his stride as he strokes it into the bottom corner.
I nearly jumped into the telly.
A goal of such sublime precision, such clinical efficiency, such speed (the whole move took eleven seconds from the point The Wardrobe picked it up until the moment it nestled in the Arsenal net) such sublime beauty. I was reminded of Barcelona with Messi in his pomp or even the classic United team at the turn of the millennium, when they seemed to break with such pace that the opposition simply couldn’t contain them. And this from – the reserves???
So why do we spend at least 67 minutes of each game passing the ball sideways along the back line, or giving it away in tight midfield areas - when we can do THIS???!!!
I’m so proud of the team. They’ve reacted brilliantly to the Napoli defeat and my worries in the last couple of articles. A second-string team played with composed aggression and considerable poise. On a night like that you really believe.
So to Norwich. A team made up of hod-carrying forwards, Leeds United rejects, various Scots and Irish, and a couple of Spurs and United loanees. We’ll moiderise them, won’t we?
They’re certainly not a dirty team – the stats show that their most-fouling player is the bovine Holt. He’ll certainly try the bully-boy tactics. I think he’s a clever player, not averse to a dive or two. Their defenders however have conceded almost no yellow cards – although they have had a couple of unlucky reds – this suggests that some clever forward play might trick them into another – they certainly won’t be looking to kick us up in the air.
In terms of shooting prowess, give the ball to Johnson. He has loads of shots but has missed more than he’s hit the target with. The defender Whitbread has had only one attempt in all competitions – and that was off target. Pilkington looks the one to watch – an attacking midfielder - and the Welsh international Morison.
That’s it.
Yet they are top 10, comfortably mid-table with a better goal difference than everyone below them, and only one less than Villa and Everton who are above. Get anything out of us and they’d go EIGHTH.
I think they’ll come and play football and try and have a go. What have they got to lose? That’s why I’d rather see some of the team that played Arsenal get a game. Goals like the one described above are possible against this team. Another sleepy performance from Yaya; a complacent one from Mario; a nervous one from Vinny, Richards or Lescott will probably see them running at us and trying to close us down.
What have Pants, Zaba, Wardobe, Sergio, AJ, Nasri done wrong? Even bloody Robbie Savage had a good game. OK: Hargreaves will be crocked, natch, but Abdul looks strong and solid to me, in the Essien mould. He can do a job.
Bobby keeps going on about fixture congestion and how tired the first team are. So let Tuesday’s team have another go. He could do a lot worse…
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