Now where were we... same again please City.
By Dave Walker
As ‘Super Saturday’ Olympic euphoria
subsides, Manchester City supporters will be reliving ‘Sublime Sunday’ when they
return to the Etihad for the first time since that fateful afternoon in May.
The Champions flag will flutter proudly
over the stadium amid a plethora of gold Barclays badges proudly displayed on
thousands of replica shirts as City begin the defence of their title.
The campaign begins in similar vein as last
season – a home fixture against newly promoted opposition. A Sergio Aguero
double was the highlight of a 4-0 demolition of Swansea – a similar start
against Southampton on Sunday will do just fine.
Coming off the back of a highly convincing
Community Shield win against Chelsea, City are bristling with attacking intent
and ready to start up where they left off - continuing the six game winning
streak that catapulted them to the title.
Whether £12million new boy Jack Rodwell
will feature at any stage is debatable, but either way City will be a massive
odds on favourite to put Nigel Adkin’s team to the sword after the Saints’ seven
year absence from the top flight.
The newly emerging 3-5-2 formation proved
particularly effective against the Champions of Europe last Sunday - and that
was without Lescott to partner Kompany – so it should improve even more.
Milner was a revelation in the right wing
back role and, along with Richards and Zabaleta, City have real strength in
depth. With Clichy and Kolarov competing on the opposite flank, the meanest
defence in the Premier League is poised to become a whole lot stingier.
Whether this formation is Mancini’s Plan A
or B is not yet known, it may well be deployed against teams who come to park
the bus, so it could well get an airing.
Southampton’s scoring machine Rickie
Lambert and the prolific Billy Sharp have well over 300 career goals between
them but they’ll be hard pressed to breach a back line that conceded just 29
last season. New £7m man, Jay Rodriquez will be making his debut but the match
will come too soon for proposed record buy, Uruquayan playmaker Gaston Ramirez
at £11.8m from Bologna.
City are undefeated in the last 29 PL games
at home (27 of them wins) but one statistic out of leftfield is Southampton
have won 3 of their last 4 visits to City - but those were a long time ago.
Even with just the addition of Rodwell,
City’s squad is still acknowledged as the strongest in the PL and there is the
real prospect of the truly world class Daniele De Rossi arriving from Roma for £30m.
The City fans would massively prefer the
consonants DDR to those of RVP and it would add real steel and unsurpassed
quality to the Blues’ Premier League and Champions League campaigns.
So back to matters at hand as City’s fast fluent
attacking play with Nasri, Silva, Aguero and Tevez should prove too much for
the PL newcomers and a successful beginning to the quest for back-to-back
Premier League crowns is virtually assured.
Player Watch
Vincent Kompany vs Rickie Lambert
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| Photo 1: David Rogers/Getty Images Europe Photo 2: Harry Engels/Getty Images Europe |
Vincent Kompany is rightly acclaimed as the best centre back in the Premier
League, whereas tricky Rickie Lambert has a reputation for bagging goals
irrespective of the calibre of the opposition.
If Southampton are to get anything out of
this encounter Lambert is the man they will be looking to for that all
important goal. Captain Fantastic, Kompany, was his usual imperious self at
Villa Park last weekend and will be looking to keep Lambert shackled
throughout.
It’ll be a stern test for last season’s
Championship top scorer and one that few would back him to pass… but dafter
things have happened.
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