Defence of crown ends in madness
KEY issues learned after City’s Molineux madness surely hands the title to Liverpool...
MENDY’S MOMENT OF MADNESS
For most of this game Benjamin Mendy looked defensively sound against the dangerous Adama Traore. While it was the Wolves winger who had scored the goal to get them back in the game, it had come from a central position, and Mendy had defended intelligently and with conviction.
Yet the problem with Mendy is that a lapse in concentration is usually only just around the corner and all that hard work can be undone in an instant. That was the case on 82 minutes into a tetchy affair at Molineux. As City closed in on what would have been a gutsy win, Mendy’s aberration arrived.
His attempt to shield a ball out of play with Traore breathing down his neck was naive. The ball had barely enough momentum to cross the whitewash and Traore’s strength was always going to win the day.
Seconds later his cross had been turned home by Raul Jimenez and Wolves had the momentum that would eventually see them claim a winner.
It says everything about City’s conundrum in Mendy’s position that they had three left-backs in the matchday 18, but not one you felt confident in against Traore.
The harsh truth is neither Mendy, Angelino or Aleks Zinchenko are the answer. Mendy looks like he’ll never be the marauding, all-round leftback City thought they had signed in 2017, while the decision to bring Angelino back has been the very definition of short-termism.
Zinchenko deserves credit for the way he has reinvented himself and when he gets back to full fitness he will surely reclaim that spot, but he’s not the long-term solution either – and that is a major problem for City.
SALVAGING A SEASON
After Liverpool’s rampaging victory over Leicester City on Boxing Day this was a night for City to show their title-winning mettle.
At 2-0 up with 10-men it looked like being a night when the champions found that inner resolve, proving they won’t surrender their crown without a fight.
Instead they faded from the game. Forced back by Wolves’ relentless pressure and burning sense of injustice they began to creak and, eventually, they were broken. Title surrendered.
Let’s be honest, if City win the Premier League title from here it would be a miracle. To all intents and purposes the Blues’ defence of their crown is over before we’ve seen in 2020.
STERLING’S FORTUNE
Surely a footballer has never missed two penalties and still scored in the same incident before? The five minutes around the award of City’s penalty and the eventual goal for Raheem Sterling will surely go down as the maddest period of any Premier League game so far this season.
The decision to award the penalty was a fine example of what VAR is here for. Conor Coady stood on Riyad Mahrez’s foot, but you can understand why Martin Atkinson didn’t give the penalty. Quite why VAR official David Coote took so long to correct it will remain a mystery.
That drama was only the prawn cocktail to the Christmas turkey, however. Sterling’s penalty low to
Rui Patricio’s left was saved, only for VAR to award a retake for encroachment, at which point Sterling’s penalty low to Patricio’s left was then saved, only for the England man to score the rebound.
BACKING BRAVO
At least Claudio Bravo hasn’t been too short of match practice this season. His call off the bench to replace the dismissed Ederson was his eighth appearance this season and while there’s been the usual moments of calamity he has had some better games too.
There’s been just the one clean sheet, though, and you don’t have to wait long when he does play to find stats doing the rounds about how many goals he conceded to shots on target he faces.
Ederson’s one-game ban will mean another run of fixtures now for the 36-year-old, against Sheffield United, Everton and Port Vale.