Everton result is a bad set back

Last nights result was a big blow to us, I should think we would have to win close to every remaining game to claim fourth place.

After last nights game the stats made good reading for City, bags more possession, more goal attempts, better passing percentage and so on.

So why did we lose? Maybe it was because the referee was rubbish or maybe you could just say it was one of those nights. Last night I would have used both of those excuses when I was fuming but after thinking about it when I had calmed down today, we lost because Everton had our number.

Every time an opposition team has us sussed we can't cope, we don't seem to be able to counter act the other teams game plan and to be honest it is getting annoying. I don't know why we can't because the quality we have in our squad suggests we should be able too, they need to sort it out though because otherwise we will slip further down the table never mind getting fourth.

It's not that we shied away from a quite frankly unclassy dirty Everton team last night because we got stuck in back, I just think we concentrated on that side of the game too much at times because when we did play football we were ripping them apart.

It also could have been a slightly different game last night if we didn't start with one up front again, Tevez on his own against two big strong centre backs is certainly not the way I would go. We should be playing two up top and especially at home because it changes the way the opposition think about playing if they have one more attacker to worry about.

I don't understand what Mancini is thinking with his tactics sometimes, one week he gets it spot on and then he changes it for whatever reason. Why would you change a formation that won the week before away from home to bring an out of form Ireland in as support for your striker, I don't know that's for sure.

I am really on the fence now as to what will happen as far as fourth place is concerned, I think we can do it if we want it bad enough but the question is do we want it bad enough?

Fulham 1 - 2 Man City - ( Santa Cruz 7', Tevez 36', Murphy pen 75')*Video*

They certainly know how to make us sweat, the game against Fulham wasn't much of a spectacle but I don't suppose that matters, as long as we get three points that will do for me.

Our goals came from Roque Santa Cruz and Carlos Tevez, Roque was in the right place at the right time to tap home our first before Carlos doubled our lead after a bit of smart play in the box. GOALS AND HIGHLIGHTS BELOW.

We should have had this game wrapped up well before Fulham managed to give us a scare by getting a penalty, although we were only more or less going through the motions we were still a lot better than Fulham. Fulham were certainly not at full pace either if they were the game would have been tougher, but having just played Juve and with a Cup game coming up their minds were obviously elsewhere and we should have made them pay.

I don't want to be overly critical of our team because at the end of the day we won without busting a gut, however I still would have liked to see us really stick it to Fulham. I think it all comes back to us not be very good at finishing teams off, perhaps the players were happy with the way things were going and that's fine but if they would have got that third goal which was there to be had it would have saved us all a lot stress!

Although we were not really tested yesterday I still think that we had some good individual displays, Toure for one I think proved a lot of his doubters wrong. He was very steady yesterday and made a couple of important interceptions, Kompany again was also very good at the back and I can certainly see him as a permanent fixture there for some time to come.

Mancini also got it right yesterday, I have to say I was surprised when I saw that he was playing a 4-4-2 but maybe he is realising that packing the midfield and playing one up front is not always the way to go.

Overall it was a good performance, it is going to be a different ball game in midweek against Everton though so I hope that the players don't become complacent and make sure they step it up for that game.

Goals and highlights.

Fulham vs Man City - Sun 21st Mar 15:00 pm

Villa drew today but Spurs won which makes this game a must, must, must win, it will not be easy against a Juve conquering Fulham team but still we must win!

I am not looking forward to this game if I am honest because if we don't win then that could be the end of that, no fourth place and another mediocre season to look back on. I think we would probably have to win this to stay in the race unless the teams around us decide to totally lose form, something that I can't see.

I am not more worried about Fulham because they beat Juventus because they have shown their quality throughout the season, I have had this game down as a tough one for us for a while now because we are hopeless at exploiting hard working teams.

Roy Hodgson has said he is prioritising the cup competitions so with them playing in the FA Cup in midweek we might see a weaker team put out against us tomorrow, not that I necessarily think that will make a big difference.

Hodgson is doing a brilliant job at Fulham and has his team working very hard, so no matter what team he puts out I think they will still play the same way. If they do approach the game in a workman like fashion then we could be stuffed because we never seem to know how to unlock those kind of teams.

Don't get me wrong though Fulham work very hard but they can also play football, players like Clint Dempsey are more than capable of taking advantage of our defence and if we are not working hard ourselves that's exactly what will happen.

It is down to our players now, it is time they backed up what they have been saying about being the strongest team and knowing how important it is to qualify for the CL, prove it to us!

Fulham are sure to be a good test of our players commitment to the cause, with no disrespect to Fulham if our players are putting their all in, we should be beating these kind of teams.

Man City Team News:
Wayne Bridge is out for up to a month after having a hernia operation, Martin Petrov is out with a knee injury and Emmanuel Adebayor is suspended.

Fulham Team News:
Andy Johnson and John Pantsil are both out with knee injuries, David Elm could miss out after suffering from illness. Danny Murphy and Jonathan Greening missed out against Juventus but are both expected to be back in the squad for this game.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Garrido, Johnson, Zabaleta, de Jong, Barry, Bellamy, Tevez.

Possible Fulham Line Up: Schwarzer, Kelly, Hangeland, Hughes, Shorey, Davies, Murphy, Baird, Dempsey, Gera, Zamora.

My Prediction: Fulham 0 - 1 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Nigel de Jong scores in a 1- 0 City win.

Help a fellow City fan win a comp!

Just a quick favour to ask of you, one of my followers and regular readers Col Bury is currently involved in a short story competition.

On top of being a big blue Col is a top fella and an extremely talented writer and deserves to win this competition as much as anyone else, so if you could please go to http://joehuntersfixers.blogspot.com/2010/03/short-story-7-gallance.html and vote it would be much appreciated guys.

After you have clicked the link and are on the page you can find the voting poll on the right hand side, be sure to vote for number 7!

Thanks.

In it for the long run

Well for a long time now I have been getting told by other teams supporters that our owners will leave eventually, sorry guys but they have just proved again that they are here to stay.

As you have now probably heard (sorry been at work) our owners are set to spend a further one Billion Pounds on developing the area around Eastlands. I did write about this happening in Feb 2009 here, I wasn't sure if it was all to be believed back then but thankfully it was (roughly).

The money is expected to be spent on many things including a fan zone which is expected to be ready by next season, possible stadium expansion, a world class training complex and many other things that have not properly been disclosed yet.

This is great news for us, firstly it assures us that our owners are in Manchester for the long run and on top of that not only will the club benefit but the people of Manchester too.

This development process is sure to lead us to the top of the table when it comes to football clubs, it is still going to take time but I imagine that we will get there.

The best players in the world are surely going to want to come to the most outstanding set up in World football, will this dream ever end? I hope not!

Are you a video star?

So earlier on I was watching a video on City's official site of the players doing tricks and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed.

I know loads of people who could pull those tricks off with ease including younger lads, so it got me thinking and I want people who are daring enough to record themselves doing tricks and send them into me.

If you think you are up to it then send me your video, you can email it to me at wevegotrobinho@live.co.uk.

I only want fresh original videos and to make sure of that I would like you to say 'me against City' into the camera at the beginning of your video.

Here is the video of the city players so that you can see what you are up against. http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Video/Features/Etihad-skills-school.