City give footballing lesson to Newcastle

City 1 Newcastle 0

Yesterday the nation had its opportunity to witness Keegan’s latest “tactical naivety” first hand as City took on Newcastle United in a lunchtime showdown in front of Sky’s cameras.

City made two changes to the side that had lost at Leeds the previous week, Schmeichel in for Nash and Huckerby replacing Kevin Horlock as Keegan returned to his favoured 3-5-2 formation. Newcastle, on the back of a 4-0 win at home to West Ham, showed City the utmost respect by changing their formation to 3-5-2 in an attempt to counter the pace of Huckerby and Anelka.

What Bobby Robson didn’t account for however, was the creative force of Bernabia and Berkovic in midfield, and their ability to get Anelka and Huckerby, in particular, in behind the Newcastle back three. With Foe solid as a rock in the central midfield holding role and Wright-Phillips running Bernard silly on the right flank, Robson’s change in tactics were quite simply a recipe for disaster.

City dominated from the off against the team that had started the day top of the division by virtue of having scored more goals than anyone else in the first round of matches.

Bernabia controlled the midfield sending Huckerby in on several occasions, only for the ex Newcastle man to find Shay Given in inspired form in the Newcastle goal. When Given was beaten he found an able deputy in Dabizas, the Greek clearing another Huckerby effort off the line.

As City fans began to wonder if this Saturday was going to mirror the previous week’s defeat at Leeds, Foe was given the opportunity to put the blues one up with a free header from 6 yards. Given was finally beaten, but so was the crossbar (by a long distance) as the Cameroon star contrived to miss the target when it would have been easier to score.

On 30 minutes Newcastle finally mustered an effort on target as Gary Speed shot straight into the hands of Peter Schmeichel.

6 minutes later the goal that City deserved finally arrived. An Anelka cross was met at the far corner of the penalty area by Jensen, Jensen connected with a half volley that Given was unable to hold, despite the quality of the save, the ball hit Jenas and looped back across the goal for Huckerby to head in.

City finally had the lead that their play had deserved but they could quite easily have found themselves level two minutes later. Lua Lua found himself one on one with Schmeichel only to see his shot stopped in true Schmeichel fashion, the ball fell to Dyer who managed to put the ball wide when presented with an open goal, a miss that eclipsed Foe’s only minute’s earlier.

City continued to push for a second, Anelka forcing another fine save out of Given after finding himself through on goal.

Newcastle were relieved to hear the half time whistle and must have been amazed to find themselves only behind by a single goal.

The second half saw Newcastle enter the game a little more but City still looked the more likely to add to their tally despite Newcastle creating a number of chances.

Dyer missed another golden opportunity when put clean through from a wayward Distin pass and was denied again later in the game by Schmeichel saving at full stretch. Shearer was restricted to a single opportunity, his long range shot deflected wide by Jensen.

City hung on in the last ten minutes but it was never the desperation witnessed in seasons gone by and for every Newcastle attack the blues managed to hit them on the break at pace and create chances of their own.

The final whistle was greeted by joyous cheering and chants of “City are back” as the players took the applause that their performance merited.

In conclusion this was a City performance that oozed class. The passing and movement game had Champions League qualifiers, Newcastle, chasing shadows.

Bernabia and Berkovic ran the show from midfield and proved that there is no substitute for class and creativity.

The back three of Distin, Howey and Sun Jihai were excellent, managing to keep a clean sheet against Newcastle is no mean feat, ask West Ham.

Foe was solid and won everything in the air. Huckerby and Anelka terrified the Newcastle defence with their pace, if not their finishing.

Wright-Phillips is a future England international who was born to perform at this level.

Schmeichel proved that he has more to offer than he gave to Villa last season.

Oh and City kept a clean sheet, Bernabia and Berkovic did play in the same team in the Premiership and KK’s top six prediction is anything but a pipe dream on this performance. Bring on the Villa.

Get your Premiership Predictions in for this week.