City Glory, Reds Frustration

Manchester United’s awful start to the season continued on Sunday and became more of a full blown slump when they were beaten by their neighbours, a battling Manchester City, at Eastlands.

They win for City came courtesy of a 31 minutes strike by Geovanni which took a slight deflection of off Vidic. The win left Sven Goran Eriksson’s Man City top of the Premier League with a maximum of nine point from three games and just as importantly for the City fans, means they are looking down on the rivals Utd who are languishing just above the bottom three with just two points.

Geovanni celebrates his winning derby goal.

The Utd manager said after the game, “We really should have sewn the game up before they’d crossed the halfway line. We’ve only got ourselves to blame, let’s make no mistake about that.”

It was quite an untidy derby at Eastlands that was settled by Geovanni, one of numerous foreign signings that Eriksson has made since taking charge in the summer break. The Brazilian midfielder delivered a low swerving shot that took a decisive deflection off the defender before nestling just inside the post.

It was one of the few chances City had in a match the really Utd dominated but I can guarantee not one City fan will care less about that this morning. They will be lots of smiling faces on their way to work waiting for the bragging rights to begin. And let’s face it, they won’t have been able to exercise those too many times over the last few years!

Utd were of course missing Rooney through and Ronaldo from suspension. However they have got a big squad, and they did include their new signing from Bayern Munich, the England international midfielder Owen Hargreaves.

Utd missing numerous chances with Nani failing to beat the City keeper, the son of Peter Schmeichel, Kasper. Schmeichel senior, who of course played for both clubs but was probably Utd’s best ever keeper, was sat in the stands at Eastlands and was obviously supporting his son and City. Both Evra and new boy Tevez squandered chances and Vidic produced a fierce header from a corner that rattled the City crossbar. But it all counted for nothing.

It all means it is a dream start for Eriksson on his return to England and he praised his defenders for a resolute performance stating, “Today we defended very well, our back line and oalkeeper were fantastic. I am very happy, nine points and three clean sheets. We’ll enjoy the night but the season is very long. Today we had a bit of luck.

However, it is easily Utd’s worst start to a Premiership season since 1992 when the managed only one point from their first three matches. It is also the worst start by any defending champion.

I could say that the only good news for Man Utd it that their chief title contenders all dropped points. However it took an awful refereeing decision to deny Liverpool their deserved three points when Rob Styles somehow saw Finnan foul Malouda when no one else did. Frank Lampard cancelled out Fernando Torres’ 15th minute strike, his first real goal for Liverpool. Meanwhile Arsenal drew 1 - 1 at Ewood Park against Blackburn Rovers.

After watching his side being pegged back, Liverpool’s manager Rafael Benítez described the decision from Styles to award the penalty to Chelsea as “unbelievable”.

However, Torres showed Benítez why he splashed out the cash on the club’ record signing after just 16 minuted of his home debut when the former Atletico Madrid striker glided onto a a Steven Gerrard pass, outfoxed Tal Ben-Haim and guided a precise shot across Petr Cech.

Even though Liverpool dominated most of the game, like so many clashes between the two clubs, it was not one of the most memorable, although it did have that controversy. Just past the hour mark Malouda no more than stumbled into Steve Finnan and for Styles to award a penalty. I didn’t realise falling over was now a penalty offence!

Kuyt headed just over for Liverpool late on whilst Babel, also making his home debut, shot into the side netting. Then Styles provided more confusion when he appeared to show a yellow card to Chelsea midfielder Essien after he had already booked him in the first half but he stayed on he the pitch. Memories of Graham Poll from last year’s World Cup came flooding back.

Benítez was rightly upset stating, “It was an unbelievable decision….how can [Styles] change a game like this? You can’t expect decisions like this.”

Elsewhere at Ewood Park, Robin van Persie gave Arsenal an early lead against Blackburn Rovers however Rovers, who are made of stern stuff and ended the game with 10 men after Ryan Nelson was sent off, got a point when the Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann made his second mistake of the season when he fumbled David Dunn’s 25 yard shot into the net.

Not one to let other managers take all the limelight, Arsene Wenger claimed after the match the Rovers had used “violent” tactics. Well, he may have a point!

Anyway, all this leaves City sitting proudly at the top of he Premiership. How long that will last remains to be seen. Utd are nearly bottom and Liverpool (after 2 games) and Arsenal both have 4 points and Chelsea have 6.

The Soccer Blogger

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Many thanks
Rik