Ballack – Blues will bounce back
Michael Ballack insists Premier League leaders Chelsea will bounce back from their weekend defeat to Manchester City.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side lost 2-1 at the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday evening thanks to Carlos Tevez’s winner.
Frank Lampard had a chance to secure a draw, but saw his second-half penalty saved by Shay Given.
The defeat was Chelsea’s third in the league this season and Ballack believes his team-mates will respond positively, as they did following the losses to Wigan and Aston Villa.
The Germany international thinks the result signals City’s intent to mount a serious challenge for the title following a string of disappointing draws.
Bounce back
“We bounced back after defeats to Wigan and Aston Villa and we must do it again,” said Ballack
“We could have got a draw if we’d scored from the penalty spot and that would have been a good away result.
“Even after that we had a good chance to equalise, so we have to take some positives from the game.
“We’re disappointed to lose but we have to remember the good things – the way we fought back and the fact we deserved a draw.
“We respect every team behind us and we’ve lost against a strong team. It looks like City are ready to fight for the title.
“I don’t know what their target is but they showed against us that they have a good team and with a bit of luck they can beat sides like us.
“They’ve spent a lot of money, and they have a lot of good players, so it’s not a surprise. But even if you spend a lot of money you have to go step-by-step.”
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Aston Villa, Carlo Ancelotti, Carlos Tevez, City 13, City Of Manchester, City Of Manchester Stadium, Draws, Frank Lampard, Good Chance, League Leaders, Losses, Manchester City, Michael Ballack, Premier League, Saturday Evening, Second Half, Shay, Target, Team Mates, Wigan
City do United a favour
Manchester City did local rivals Manchester United a huge favour in the Premier League title race as a Carlos Tevez free-kick earned a 2-1 turnaround win over Chelsea at Eastlands.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Premier League leaders had gone in front in fortuitous circumstances through an Emmanuel Adebayor own goal, but the Togo international then scored at the correct end before Tevez sealed the victory in the second half.
Adebayor’s eighth minute mistake broke the deadlock in an engaging encounter as City failed to properly clear a generously awarded corner and their 25million striker deflected into his own net after Shay Given had parried a Nicolas Anleka drive.
But Mark Hughes’ home side had a deserved goal eight minutes before half-time as Adebayor stabbed an equaliser from close range, with Chelsea complaining about a reasonable appeal for handball against Micah Richards in the build-up.
Restoring parity shortly before the break gave City additional motivation and Tevez, formerly a United player, struck a 56th minute set-piece that proved enough to earn a first league victory in eight games.
The defeat could have been avoided had Frank Lampard not had a late penalty saved by Given, but the England international’s spot-kick failure cut Chelsea’s lead over defending champions United, who hammered West Ham earlier on Saturday, to two points.
However, that hardly told the story as bad tempered Chelsea went down in a hail of yellow cards – six in all – and skipper John Terry went off with a leg injury in the latter stages.
The two first-half goals were certainly not in keeping with a pulsating opening in which City more than matched their opponents without ever looking completely secure at the back.
Hughes’ troops had already been given one warning when Given turned away Didier Drogba’s angled drive.
Yet, when he looks at the replay, Hughes will probably conclude the main factor in Chelsea’s opener was complete bad luck.
Scramble
Drogba and Branislav Ivanovic could both have been more closely marked at the start of the scramble but the Blues survived that lapse when Given made his first save.
The ball bounced back to Anelka but Given got behind his shot too. However, the Republic of Ireland star could not legislate for the ball shooting upwards, striking Adebayor on the back and bobbling in.
As Chelsea should not have been awarded the corner which started the whole melee off in the first place, City could have been forgiven for believing it was not to be their day.
Far from it. They poured forward and if their delivery from set-pieces had been less persistent in picking out Petr Cech, the equaliser might have come long before it did.
Cech’s only mistake had been to come for a Shaun Wright-Phillips’ cross and get nowhere near as Richards rose. Ricardo Carvalho read the situation perfectly though and made a splendidly acrobatic clearance.
City kept up their offensive and when Wright-Phillips drove another shot into the Chelsea box it ultimately brought their equaliser.
Terry, who was linked so heavily with a move to Eastlands last summer, was still complaining to referee Howard Webb at half-time that Richards handled Wright-Phillips’ shot.
It was difficult to see what the England Under 21 full-back could have done to get out of the way though.
The ball deflected into Adebayor’s path and did so again when it bounced back off the England skipper. At the second time of asking Adebayor did not fail to make up for his earlier misfortune.
If Drogba’s free-kick in the final minute of the half had been one inch inside Given’s left-hand post rather than just outside it, City might have had problems responding.
Bad temper
As it was, they were the ones with the impetus when the sides returned and got their noses in front.
In keeping with the others, there was an element of controversy about the goal.
Ricardo Carvalho did have a point when he claimed he had been looking at the ball as he went for an aerial challenge with Tevez, but he also kept a leg in the air long enough to plant it into the Argentinean’s back.
Tevez added insult to the resulting yellow card though, curling a crisp free-kick into the bottom corner, with Terry berating Cech for allowing the ball to pass on his side.
The loss of Richards and Wayne Bridge to injury hardly assisted City in their efforts to cling on for a win, but Juliano Belletti’s studs-first challenge that led to Bridge being carried off could easily have left Chelsea with 10 men.
That bad-tempered tackle led to a few more. At one point Ashley Cole and Deco were booked for offences in the same passage of play.
Prior to that though, Given had emerged the hero when he turned away an admittedly poor Lampard penalty after Onuoha had upended Drogba.
There was still time for Terry to limp off and Drogba to waste a glorious chance to level at the death although City, and Given, deserved their success.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Branislav Ivanovic, Carlo Ancelotti, Carlos Tevez, Drogba, Eastlands, Eight Games, Emmanuel Adebayor, England International, Equaliser, Fortuitous Circumstances, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Latter Stages, League Leaders, League Victory, Leg Injury, Manchester United, Mark Hughes, Micah Richards, Yellow Cards
Hughes: Wenger is a bad loser
• Arsenal manager refused to shake City counterpart’s hand
• ‘He should be more gracious,’ said Hughes
Mark Hughes branded Arsène Wenger an ungracious loser last night as Manchester City cruised into the semi-finals of the Carling Cup with a 3–0 victory which secured another derby meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson’s United.
Wenger disappeared down the tunnel as soon as the final whistle sounded on City’s convincing triumph, without offering a handshake to an affronted Hughes. Arsenal’s manager would later dismiss the Carling Cup as insignificant as he launched a familiar defence of fielding youngsters in the competition.
Relations between the two managers appeared to sour over an innocuous first-half incident when Hughes entered Arsenal’s technical area to retrieve a loose ball from Wenger. There appeared no other reason for Wenger’s behaviour than his side’s comprehensive defeat to goals by Carlos Tevez, the excellent Shaun Wright-Phillips and the substitute Vladimir Weiss.
“There is a certain protocol and I am disappointed because I have huge respect for Arsène and I think he should be a little more gracious,” said Hughes, whose side were drawn to face their local rivals within 20 minutes of a win which brought City a first domestic semi-final since 1981.
“It is unnecessary. At one point he questioned why I was over on his side of the technical area and he was aggrieved at that, or maybe he was aggrieved at losing. I have been beaten 6-2 at the Emirates and I offered my hand. You always hurt when you lose. There is nobody more upset than me when we lose but I always offer my hand.”
Wenger was dismissive of the incident as well as the Carling Cup and offered no remorse. The Arsenal manager said: “That has nothing to do with the game. I am free to shake hands with whoever I want to after the game. There is nothing more to say about it.”
When asked if it was professional courtesy to shake a counterpart’s hand, Wenger added: “Yes it is. I had no professional courtesy.” The managerial spat took some attention from City’s return to form and their semi-final date with United, although Wenger was adamant success in the Carling Cup would not satisfy a club that is without a trophy since 2005.
“We have not won a trophy since 2005 but I don’t concede that, if we win the Carling Cup, we can then have a parade with the trophy. It is a competition for our young players. To play the quarter-final of the Champions League, or the semi-final or final, is 10 times more difficult than to win the Carling Cup.”
Wenger did admit City, who had drawn their previous seven games against Premier League opponents to place added pressure on Hughes, deserved to win. “They carried more threat than us in the final third and their quality offensively paid off,” he said.
The City manager was pleased with the prospect of January’s semi-final derby against United. “It is a fantastic draw,” he said. “Everyone in Manchester will be excited by it and the wider world, too. We showed that we are a match for anyone.”
City’s first semi-final for 28 years was proof, said Hughes, that the riches from Abu Dhabi were paying dividends. “This was more important for us as a club because we need to be in domestic semi-finals and we want to win the competition,” the City manager said. “I picked a strong team because we felt it was important to treat the competition with respect and we deserve to be in the semi-final. We are reasonably pleased with where we are and you cannot deny we are making progress.”
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Bad Loser, Carling Cup, Carlos Tevez, Counterpart, Emirates, Handshake, Loose Ball, Manchester City, Mark Hughes, Protocol, Remorse, Rivals, Semi Finals, Shaun Wright Phillips, Sir Alex Ferguson, Vladimir, Whistle, Youngsters
Hughes defends City’s spending on agents
• City paid £12,874,283 to agents in past 12 months
• ‘You would expect a figure like that,’ says Hughes
Mark Hughes has defended Manchester City’s spending on agents over the past 12 months. Figures released by the Premier League yesterday showed that City had paid £12,874,283 to agents – a significant portion of the overall £70m outlay by England’s top flight clubs.
“If you do a lot of deals – and overall something like 35 were included – given the expenditure and the turnover of players involved, you would expect a figure like that,” said Hughes. “There is a role that has to be met and, at the moment, agents fill it.
“Do they provide value for money? You have to base every deal on its merits. Sometimes you feel the agent has really done his job, on others you feel he is getting money for nothing. At times they can muddy the waters. Some deals can seem quite straightforward and then they become complicated at the end. On other occasions the deal goes through very quickly.”
Agents have tended to be viewed as a necessary evil, especially with players like Carlos Tevez, whose third-party ownership by Kia Joorabchian caused so much controversy following his arrival in England. It is still not exactly clear how much City paid Joorabchian to gain the player’s registration but there is no doubt the deal would not have been possible without Joorabchian’s involvement.
Hughes is taking action to ensure City do not rely on the use of agents quite as much. Part of his root-and-branch reform of the club included a complete revamp of the scouting department which, eventually, he expects to pay significant dividends.
“Agents want to work with us – I wonder why,” he pondered. “We do a lot of the work that in the past agents have been able to bring to a club in terms of recommending players. Some agents will tell you they have the best player in the world. Now we can make that judgment ourselves because we have seen him 10 times. That has not always been the case.
“Without doubt I would say we are in a better place than we were 12 months ago.”
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: 12 Months, Best Player, Carlos Tevez, Controversy, Dividends, Getting Money, Judgment, Kia, Kia Joorabchian, Manchester City, Mark Hughes, Merits, Muddy The Waters, Necessary Evil, No Doubt, Occasions, Outlay, Premier League, Top Flight, Turnover
Liverpool v Manchester City
This is a fixture with the potential to reinforce the impression that there are changes afoot in the make-up of the elite, with Manchester City intent on breaking into the top four. There is, however, a lot of work still to be done by a team that has drawn five Premier League games in a row after winning five of their first six. Conversely, Liverpool have players like Steven Gerrard and Alberto Aquilani nearing full fitness and the side is just three points short of fourth place despite their unconvincing recent run of form. Kevin McCarra
Venue Anfield
Tickets Sold out
Last season Liverpool 1 Manchester City 1
Referee P Dowd
This season’s matches 10 Y36, R4, 4.00 cards per game
sportingbet odds Liverpool 9-10 Man City 13-5 Draw 12-5
Liverpool
Subs from Cavalieri, Aquilani, Kyrgiakos, Babel, Skrtel, Voronin, Spearing, Plessis, Riera, Dossena, Ayala, El Zhar
Doubtful Agger (back), Benayoun (hamstring), Gerrard (groin), Johnson (calf), Riera (hamstring)
Injured Aurélio (calf, 29 Nov), Kelly (ankle, 29 Nov), Torres (hernia, 29 Nov)
Suspended Degen (second of three)
Form guide DLWLLW
Disciplinary record Y14 R1
Leading scorer Torres 10
Manchester City
Subs from Taylor, Richards, Onuoha, Johnson, Robinho, Santa Cruz, Garrido, Sylvinho, Benjani, Tevez, Kompany, Weiss
Doubtful Barry (groin), Bellamy (knee), Robinho (ankle)
Injured Petrov (knee, Dec)
Suspended None
Form guide DDDDDW
Disciplinary record Y14 R1
Leading scorer Bellamy 5
Match pointers
• Manchester City have won just four of 25 Premier League away games with Mark Hughes as manager
• Liverpool have won six of their last eight home encounters with City – all by a one-goal margin
• If this match finishes level City will be only one short of equalling the Premier League record of seven consecutive draws
• Liverpool have not failed to score in a home match with City since August 1986
• Carlos Tevez will make his 100th Premier League appearance if selected
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Agger, Alberto Aquilani, Anfield, Benjani, Carlos Tevez, City 13, Disciplinary Record, Dossena, Home Match, Kompany, Man City, Manchester City, Mark Hughes, Onuoha, Premier League Games, Riera, Robinho, Steven Gerrard, Sylvinho, Voronin