Mark Holmes asks whether Vincent Kompany has
got off easily, suggests Arsene Wenger got lucky, and dismisses some
Cristiano Ronaldo jealousy.
Kompany performance goes unnoticed?
Football, as they say, is a game of opinions.
Neil Ashton, for example, has spent much of his time since the
end of Sunday's game at the Etihad Stadium defending his decision to
rate the game's outstanding performer, Santi Cazorla, 7/10.
Barney Ronay, meanwhile, as part of the Guardian's weekly
'10 talking points' column, chose to focus on Manchester City's failure to score at home for the first time in August.
The need for another striker, namely Wilfried Bony, is clear,
Ronay attests, arguing that Manuel Pellegrini's side have relied too
heavily on Sergio Aguero, despite them racking up a 12-game unbeaten run
in his absence.
He does have a point, in fairness, that Bony can provide a
different dimension to City's attack, but it is strange that anyone
would come away from Sunday's game without asking serious questions of
the hosts' defence, in particular Vincent Kompany.
Opinions were split on whether his block on Nacho Monreal
warranted a penalty - there was some brilliant juxtaposition in the
Daily Mail with Graham Poll's 'Dean was spot on for penalty award'
column appearing next to Ashton in which he accused Monreal of
simulation - but even Pellegrini accepted afterwards he had made a
mistake in moving his body towards Monreal rather than attempting to
jockey him away from the goal.
A lack of match sharpness was offered as a fair excuse for
Kompany's performance on his return from injury, but mistakes have been
creeping into his game for a while now.
Even Arsenal's second goal, easily headed home by Olivier Giroud
after he was left by Fernando, threw up questions about Kompany's
organisation and leadership.
Even if you do not agree with that, it is hard to dispute it was an extremely poor goal to concede from City's point of view.
It
is an irrelevant statistic, particularly when taking David De Gea's
form into consideration, but City have now conceded more Premier League
goals than Manchester United this season.
It would be wrong to overreact, of course, certainly on the back
of such an outstanding run of performances for City through December,
but with Eliaquim Mangala still some way off justifying his transfer
fee, any criticism of the Blues must surely be aimed at their backline
rather than the forwards that were simply kept out by a brilliant
Arsenal display.
Wenger gets lucky with Coquelin
While Ronay could be accused of missing the major talking point
of City's defeat, his assertion that Arsene Wenger may have got lucky
with Francis Coquelin is hard to disagree with.
Journalists have been falling over themselves to praise Wenger's
tactics at the Etihad, but Ronay is spot on that Coquelin, who was a key
performer in a holding midfield role, 'would most likely not have
played' had Wenger had a full-choice squad to choose from.
Indeed, rather than praise Wenger for his use of the Frenchman,
or his tactics in general, the frustration for Arsenal fans must be that
the manager has not understood the benefits of using a genuine
defensive midfield player.
Even after Sunday it is hard to shake
the feeling Coquelin might find himself out of the team if Mikel Arteta
and Jack Wilshere are both available the next time Arsenal play such an
important game.
Furthermore, as Ronay points out, 'it would be wrong to suggest Coquelin is the missing piece in the jigsaw for Arsenal.'
He is exactly what they need in that he is a defensive
midfielder, but a player that struggled to make a big impact at Charlton
has not suddenly become good enough, despite a couple of performances
to suggest otherwise, to start regularly for a side with ambitions of
winning trophies. He is a stop-gap, albeit a square peg in a square hole
for once.
Wenger deserves praise for his approach at the Etihad, but the
challenge for the Frenchman now is to prove it was not simply a fluke.
Poorly-timed columns of the week
Only a handful of people know what the relationship between
Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo is like at Real Madrid, and it is not
too much of a stretch to suggest the Sunday People's Neil Moxley is not
among them.
It has not stopped him, however, like many others, from making
waves about Ronaldo's angry reaction at not receiving a pass from his
Welsh team-mate during Real's win over Espanyol last weekend.
Carlo Ancelotti defended Bale's decision to shoot rather than
pass after the game, reasonably attributing it to the natural instinct
of a forward, adding that relations between him and Ronaldo are "very
good".
Ronaldo himself then did his best to calm the frenzy on the evening he won a third Ballon d'Or trophy.
"Madrid fans are always the same, they are very intense, they show what they feel, they aren't liars,"
he said.
"But I think the things with 'Gaz' are normal because they know that Gaz is a very important player for us, a key player.
"What happened on Saturday is in the past, sometimes I make
mistakes too so it's part of the business, part of football. I think the
people will be nice with him and they should be nice with him."
Bizarrely, though, Moxley managed to put a negative spin on
Ronaldo's comments, quoting only 'I think things with Gaz are normal',
and going on to suggest the Portuguese should have urged Real fans to
support Bale.
That is
exactly what he did, of course, but the
description of Ronaldo as 'the perfectly toned, perfectly presented
plasticine man' suggests a man that was not about to let the facts get
in the way of a good rant.
Unfortunately for Moxley, both Bale and Ronaldo scored in Real's
3-0 win at Getafe on Sunday, with the pair's obvious dislike of each
other brilliantly caught on camera.
Errm....
While Moxley may have been left to rue his column within a few
hours of it hitting the breakfast tables, it may have seemed pertinent
to some for a few hours at least.
Terry Gibson's column in the Daily Star Sunday, however, was out of date before it had even gone to print.
'To me, Radamel Falcao is the king of strikers,' it began, on
somewhat controversial ground given the Colombian's form for Manchester
United this season.
By the time Gibson had labelled it a 'crime' that Louis van Gaal
was not playing Falcao more, the day after he had played for the full 90
minutes at QPR, you couldn't help but feel this was a column that
should never have seen the light of day.
And that was before Gibson had even said that Falcao was 'on a par with Sergio Aguero'.
Falcao arrived at Old Trafford with a phenomenal goalscoring
record and may well yet prove himself in the Premier League if he can
get back to full fitness. In fact, despite drawing a blank in front of
goal, his performance at Loftus Road on Saturday was promising.
Still, coming off the back of what some are describing - perhaps
harshly given the slight touch of the ball Steven Caulker got on the way
through - as a contender for miss of the season, Gibson's glowing
recommendation could not have been more hilariously timed.
The perils of ghostwriting!
British number one Heather Watson probably just wants to flake out on the sofa after her first-round exit. The 22-year-old struggled physically and called for the doctor during her 6-3 6-0 defeat by Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova.But first she has met the media in a post-match news conference. "Yesterday I woke up not feeling that great, just kind of bloated and weak and not that good, and I feel like that today," she says."I just struggled on the court to have energy. Against any player it's tough enough when you're fit, let alone when you're not. It's a real shame and it sucks."
Oh dear. It's understandable after losing a set in which he led by a break and had a set point, but a forlorn looking Ward thumps a forehand long to give Verdasco the break at the start of the fourth.
The pressure is once again on James Ward. The British number two serves to force the tie-break but he comes through impressively with a hold to 15, firing a forehand down the line on game point. Fair to say this tie-break will be pretty crucial....
Here's one of the least surprising pieces of Australian Open news tonight. World number four Stan Wawrinka begins his men's singles title defence with a comprehensive 6-1 6-4 6-2 win over Turkey's Marsel Ilhan in the Rod Laver Arena.There's no way the Swiss wants to shift the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup off his mantelpiece. Next up on the show court? A chap called Novak Djokovic.
Great Britain's Kyle Edmund has just faced the press following his straight-sets defeat by world number 38 Steve Johnson."I really struggled to get on his serve today, especially towards the end of the second and the third sets," said the 20-year-old Yorkshireman."There wasn't a lot of rhythm due to the fact that he was serving really well. It's just something I have to take away and work on and use as a stepping stone to get better."To qualify, win three matches and play my first round is a good experience. Looking back on it, it's still been a good week."
“This
has been a masterclass from Arsenal, in terms of closing off those
central areas and pockets City like to operate in,” said Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville.
