SENDING OFF HELPS CITY TO SLEEPWALK
TO VICTORY
MANCHESTER CITY 3
WEST BROM 0
Etihad Stadium, Manchester 21st March 2015
(BONY 27 mins)
(FERNANDO 40 mins)
(SILVA 77 mins)
West Brom were always going to be up against it and they got
off to the worst possible start with them being reduced to 10 men after just 2
minutes in the strangest of circumstances . It was to be another case of the
referee, in this case Neil Swarbrick, sending off the wrong man. Wilfried Bony got through between the West
Brom centre halfs and seemed to be knocked off the ball illegally by the
struggling Craig Dawson. Bony, however, stayed on his feet but was then pulled down
by another desperate tackle this time by Gareth McAuley and it was he who was
sent off. Straight forward so far right? But wait, Dawson’s tackle was outside
the box and McAuley’s was inside the box but the referee awards a free kick for
the first offense and off went McAuley despite his and his teammates
protestations.
Many would have expected West Brom to capitulate after that
but this is a team managed by Tony Pulis and defensive organization is
something he drills into his teams. For a long spell after the sending off West
Brom contained City to one long range effort from David Silva on 24 minutes
which was well palmed away by Boaz Myhill in the West Brom goal. That gave encouragement
to City and within three minutes they were ahead, somewhat luckily for them. A
weak shot by Fernando was deflected off the misfortunate Dawson wrong footing
the rest of the West Brom defence and allowing Bony to bring the ball down and
find his spot beyond Myhill for his first goal for the Sky Blues. City were
enjoying over 90% possession but West Brom were holding firm and looked to be
on their way to getting to the interval only one goal behind but it was not to
be. Again West Brom were left feeling aggrieved by the officials. Mangala
seemed to have his foot very high in flicking a corner on but what followed was
just poor defending from the Baggies. When the ball dropped Olsson and Myhill
contrived to get in each others way to allow Fernando to gratefully mop up the
spilled ball.
 |
| Referee Neil Swarbrick sent off McAuley in error |
In the second half, City again dominated possession and
peppered the West Brom goal with shots on average one every two minutes but for
all their time on the ball and all their shots City seemed very lethargic, just
going through the motions and honestly you can’t really blame them for that
because as an attacking force, with just ten men, West Brom were non-existent.
Until that is the the 72nd minute, when out of the blue West Brom
should have scored. A corner was flicked on well by Olsson and Berahino from 2
yards out could only hit the post. In his defence, the ball came at him very
quickly but he will still be disappointed. Unfortunately, for West Brom that
only served to awaken City momentarily from their slumber. Gael Clichy cut back
a ball for substitute Steven Jovetic to shoot through a crowd of players in
which David Silva stuck out a leg to guide the ball into the West Brom net.
This was an important
victory for City and one they badly needed to help them lay some ground work
for what they will need to be a strong finish to the season. Some will say that
even if City win every game from now until the end of the season, If Chelsea
are crowned champions then Pellegrini will be shown the door. West Brom , for
their part, will point to what they will perceive as poor refereeing as a main
reason for their down fall in this game but they will not dwell too much on it.
With 33 points and 8 games to go they will be confident of insuring another
season in the Premier League and a lot of their players will be thinking about
making plans for their summer holidays.
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