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Powerful City held at West Brom

Comment: 0 December 27th, 2011 by: admin

Defiant hosts West Brom rallied to successfully keep Premier League leaders Manchester City at a surprising 0-0 draw last Monday.

The result showed the first time that City were left scoreless in a domestic match since the beginning of the season.

The match, although, was not without serious attempts from the visitors, specifically those by Jerome Thomas, Mario Balotelli.  Easy misses were also seen from David Silva and Shane Long.

The draw give each team one point each in the Premier League standings, placing City within striking distance of runners-up Manchester United, who after a 5-0 win at Wigan now trail only on goal difference.

Mid-table West Brom are elevated to 9^th place.

As one would imagine, the result came as a massive disappointment to City manager Roberto Mancini.

‘It’s impossible to win, we tried,’ said Mancini.  ‘It was difficult because West Brom played with everyone behind the ball, we couldn’t find a solution and we needed to score quickly in the second half.’

According to the coach, a more aggressive City during the uneventful first half would have made the difference after the final whistle.

‘For this we need to improve in this situation, for when they get men behind the ball we need to improve,’ he said.  ‘Maybe the first-half we were too slow, but we had a chance and if we had scored the game would have changed. ‘

Other opportunities for City to maybe regain a lead against United come in the form of an away match with Sunderland on January 1, and then followed by a home fixture against Liverpool two days after.

This came as an issue to Mancini, who complained that compared to other clubs, their schedule was more challenging.

‘I’m disappointed because we play 1^st January then 3^rd of January but Liverpool play 29^th of December and then 3^rd January against us,’ he said.  ‘I think that this moment is not right, not good.’

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