CITY 4, Wolves 3

Those of us used to following Manchester City will not be unfamiliar with the following phrase: “City didn’t make things easy for themselves”. On Saturday the Citizens hosted Wolves at the City Of Manchester stadium knowing that a win would push them back to the top of the English Premier League ahead of Salford United…at least for a day.
Mick McCarthy, an ex City player himself, always has teams who do not read scripts and so it was to be the visitors to take the lead with Milijas scrambling the ball over the line. City came back through striking sensation Kolo Toure, and was as scrambled as the first. That is how the first half would end at one scrambled goal a piece.
Then cometh the second half cometh the Carlos Tevez Show, and with the first attack of the half he waltzed his way into the box before sliding the ball in. His celebration was different this time, no message penned on his shin guard this time as his family were actually in the stadium. Moments later it was 3-1 and a beautiful counter attack from City saw Tevez pass to Dzeko and he in turn slid a pass right into the path of Yaya Toure who finished off the move for 3-1. Wolves were stunned and City were cruising when Tevez scored his second and Citys fourth with his head after fellow countryman Zabaletta dinked in a cross.
City were home and dry and City were heading, comfortably, to the top of the league…again Wolves tore up the script. Doyle converted a penalty with time left to set up a stellar finish. Their third didn’t come until close to full time though with Zubars header ruled to have crossed the line despite DeJongs best efforts.
City were rocked and it was clear to see, and when five minutes added time was announced it was McCarthy who punched the air while Mancini held his breath but it was to be our day and having the game end 4-3 saw us regain top spot…..if only for a day.
On the plus side, we finished the game winners, and are top of the league. Edin Dzeko, although not getting on the score sheet, showed exactly what he could do for us (Don’t forget he hadn’t played for a while due to Germany’s winter break) and when we found our gear and flow we looked very dangerous. On the down side we still have mental lapses which will hurt us. Lescott jumping all over the Wolves player to concede the penalty was not needed. Not clearing our line as seen with the opening goal.
End on a positive though and I am glad that Mancini is a ’defensive’ minded coach. He can see these errors and knows what needs to be done to make them rare or eliminate them altogether.