Manchester City produced a lackluster performance at home today as the hosted Fulham and of course, the return of ex manager Leslie Hughes. Mancini put out a very attacking lineup but still were missing defensive players Vincent Kompany and Nigel DeJong as well as the creative talent of David Silva. Despite this it was the home side that struck first with a superb right foot shot from Moody Mario outside the area. That however would be all she wrote for City. After the break Fulham came out and for a moment I thought I was watching a Six Nations game with the kind of tackling that was going on! Fulham though did equalize through Damien Duff, after a first time cross from Andrew Johnson.
Tevez and Kolorov went close afterwards but in truth City by that time had employed a kind of hit and hope mentality to their attacking play. When City did pass it around however we did seem to break them down somewhat but then right back into the golf swing clearance.
It was certainly frustrating to watch as a City fan because we are better than that and towards the end when we needed to keep clam and ensure our passes and shots met their targets we would fail. Yaya back heeling a ball on the edge of the area only to find the feet of an opposing player is not good when you are about to enter stoppage time. That, however is not nearly as frustrating as mis controlling a ball and having it run out of play (Kolorov) or even hoofing a shot very high and very wide from some distance out when it would be wiser to select any one of three passes and progress closer (Balotelli). That said we need to let this game go, the title is gone and possibly so has second place. For now we must turn our attention to the FA Cup date with Aston Villa on Wednesday and then hope we have enough to ensure we keep our Champions League credentials alive for next season.
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