Roberto Mancini and Manchester City travelled to the Hawthorns to take on West Brom on Boxing Day knowing that a win against a difficult side would ensure top spot through to the New Year.
Mancini started with a very attacking lineup as he looked to round of this very successful year in style opting for Aguero, Balotelli, Silva and Nasri in the starting eleven. An interesting point for City fans was that in the Championship winning side of 1968 also played West Brom away on Boxing Day and that was hot on the heels of a convincing win against Stoke. The only downside to this statistic was that City lost that game 3-2.
It was certainly the visitors that had the better of the play, away from home and having almost 73% possession certainly is almost unheard of. Almost double the amount of corner kicks, and four times as many shots on target than the hosts certainly would have implied a comfortable day at the office.
However when it came to converting that possession and shot dominance into goals City were lacking. Nasri had a soft shot saved from Foster within the first 15 minutes and when Silva skied a shot over from just inside the box after 24 minutes it was a sign of how the game would play out. Pressure from City but no killer ball and West Brom defending deep, all men behind the ball and breaking when it was safe to do so.
Sharner looked brightest for the hosts as he forced Hart to tip his long range effort around the post in what was a rare foray up the field. In truth it was a poor first half for City and a million miles away from what we know they can do.
Second half saw Barry come on for Nasri in an effort to secure the middle of the park which was, when they ventured forward, being penetrated by West Brom with ease. Some City fans have said that Yaya Toure is no good for two games in less than a week and possibly having DeJong on from the start may have closed that gap up and given a good base in which to initiate the attacks.
Even when the usually inspiring Adam Johnson came on for Aguero for the last fifteen minutes he wasn't running at defenders as he usually does. This was not because he didn't want to but more so the fact that there was little space to run into as West Brom continued to play tight and compact at the back. When Dzeko came on for Milner it was clear that it was one last roll of the dice to get a goal and with it the 3 points. Just after the substitution Gareth Barry is called back from a promising run after he handled the ball according to the referee standing across and behind the English midfielder. This infuriated Barry and replays clearly showed it to be the wrong call. That could have lead to that important first goal but in truth although City were better in the second half they hadn't done enough to win the tie. A draw at the end of the day wasn't the best result for City but probably the fairest and certainly an improvement on what the Championship winning side managed 44 years ago.
Written By: PA Cityboy(www.facebook.com/pacityboy)
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