Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.
Georgee Paris wrote:I know it is wrong to say but I literally don’t think it would matter what team we put out and in what formation - we would have lost that game.
Probably but surely you look at the best way to win however remote the odds may be and playing 2 centrally in the midfield against the City 3 is not the best way to maximise you chance of winning. Yes they have dominated us at home in the last 4 games but as last season at their place showed compete and stay in the game and you might get a result. We did neither first half but it is OK because we were playing City.
Gsbgsb wrote:I do not get this idea today was acceptable because we were playing City.
.
Indeed.
We had as many chances as City today, but we didn’t take ours. We also didn’t believe we could get a result and didn’t. Take your chances and battle against them and we won’t get tonked 4-0. Don’t need them out of the league or for them to spend less, we just need to improve.
Chaos again at Stratford International DLR station after the game.
Arrive straight after the match.
One train in platform saying departing in one minute so we all got on.
Train pulls into another platform.
Train Manager says we will be first to go.
Other train then goes out.
Train Manager on our train apologises saying she wasn’t aware.
Train Manager announces that our train will be first to leave, in 2 minutes.
Train Manager then announces that train will arrive on other platform and will be first to leave.
We all get off and board the other train.
This waits for a few minutes then there is an announcement that the other train (the one we’ve all just got out of) will go first.
About half the passengers change trains, the other half decide to stay, not knowing what to believe.
Other train goes out.
Police arrive and member of TFL station staff directs them to one carriage. Police come out of carriage and I speak to officer. He says he’s fully aware of what has happened and won’t be removing anyone from the train. (Agrees that things were far better at Upton Park).
Our train leaves, so we left on the third departure after we’d arrived at the station.
(And to add to that delays on C2C meant we missed the kick off and first C2C train back was too full to board).
Rough loss. I'd hoped we'd make them play a game, but it was their annual training match against the under 14s at the London Stadium.
I didn't expect us to win but I can't accept that level of performance from most of our team.
And why the f*** do we keep on with that ****ing short corner? When have we ever profited from it? But how often does it bite us in the arse as we lose the ball cheaply and turn an opportunity to get a ball into their box into a chance/goal for them. We are literally doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Amusingly when the call came out "welcome back the team for West Ham" some of the shouted comments from around me were "f*** off" (fornicate elsewhere for the non swear filter version) and "useless c****" (useless lady parts).
Diangana coming off was a sickener for me, he spent the whole game showing Delph to be the weakest player in their squad. Arnie getting injured too, he should have been the third sub, we were never getting back into that game, we need him for the next one's and he's been battling injury all season.
The Manager selected a pretty attacking line up, signalling his intent not to park the bus and hats off to him for that.
We carved out four half decent chances and took none of them, they created far better chances and took them, and that's what a £billion gets you - certainty rather than hope.
In truth there was only ever likely to be one winner today, City are a side stuffed with talent and bags of confidence. We on the other hand have gaps in our squad Stevie Wonder could see., and Guardiolas team exploited them to the full, yes I'm looking at you Arthur.
Overall I thought the four goal margin was harsh but a quick glimpse at each managers bench options tells the tale.We weren't terrible but nor were city playing at 100% either in terms of application or team selection - Stones, Kompany and Marhrez not in the starting XI, and De Bruyne missing completely.
Yes, it could have been worse, but had we converted at least one of our chances it could and should have been better.
The real test though comes next week at Newcastle, lose there and things may get difficult for MP, and that would be a terrible shame, as he is, at least trying to win football matches.
Men against boys today sadly in my view. Probably worth remembering as an example though that when we have needed a right back in the last few years, we have signed Zabba and Fredericks on freebies. When they needed one, they signed Kyle Walker for £50m+. Says it all really.
Better than our last three attempts at home to City - and we've marginally reduced their average goals per game against us at the Olympic Stadium too.
Good to see attacking intentions and if we hadn't hit two good chances straight at their keeper we might have made a game of it - although I suspect City would just have tried a bit harder second half and won anyway.
Might be controversial but I don’t care about this fixture anymore. What is the point in getting upset about losing to a club you can’t compete with? They have spent hundreds of millions of £’s collecting the best players in the world, paying them all ridiculous somes of money in wages. If anything the Premier League and FA should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen. The gulf in resources is the same as the gulf between us and Macclesfield, Man City should be thrashing us and all clubs comparable with our resources every time, so big shock we lost 4-0. Bring in a spending/wage cap and the PL may become a competitive league once again for all clubs in it.
This match highlighted the issues with our squad. We lacked strength in central midfield and any sense of defensive quality at left back, and we lacked clinical finishing in the final 3rd,
At times Anderson, Zabaleta, Diangana and Antonio really gave Ciry trouble down the wings and the fact we had 9 corners showed we put them under pressure in the final 3rd. We hit the post, forced Ederson into a good save, had walker block in the 6 yard box and missed two great headed opportunities. Zabaleta passed when he should have gone for goal and Perez was not on the right wavelength to get onto Creswell’s ball when in space on the edge of the 6 yard box. Those are 6 good chances. The last fine City gave up that many was last year in the Chamions league against Liverpool. The difference is Mane, Salah and Frirminho finished those opportunities.
Guardiola even admitted they were a bit lucky creating 4 or 5 chances and getting 4 goals and we created many chances and scored none.
The two big disappointments are our lack of a proper left back and the inability to address this, and the injury to Arnautovic,
Three minor disappointments are Lucas Perez being truly useless and a slightly poor match from Balbuena and Obiang, and our inability to score from double digit set piece opportunities where Anderson and Creswell put in quality deliveries.
Crouchend_Hammer wrote:
Just an opinion.
I think we are a relatively balanced and very well coached team.
I think we will come 9th or 10th. Maybe even 8th
I think we are too weak in defense and midfield to do as well as Wolves. Their weakness is more in attack, but they seem more solid.
Its an uneven playing field now man c are in a class of their own,and good luck to them.my big concern is that this domination is slowly killing the game I have loved for 67 years.They have a superior second string to the majority of the rest of us's first team squads I hope a europa league becomes a reality soon so that teams like ours can play in on a level playing against clubs that are our level then we might have a chance of winning something.
