That was a bloody nerve racking game today. City never really came close to scoring, but I always had that feeling that all it would take was a mistake, or a lucky goal and we would blow a 2-0 lead and three points out of the window. This was a massive game, as I have feeling that one of the other three title contenders will slip up today and I didn't want us to slip up on a day we could gain an advantage on one of the other two. It was a game when we needed another big performance from Ade and he delivered.
We began the game very comfortably and was controlling the possession it was at one stage 71% in our favour and for an away team that is a huge amount. I watched both of City's previous home games against the big four and in both games they stuck nearly everyone behind the ball and didn't show enough going forward. I expected a similar performance today and bar a few odd moments it was as I expected. For all our possession we only had a weak shot from Diaby to show for it. We got our noses in front though after a lovely through ball from Hleb to Sagna who was making a typical surging run down the right hand side, he cut inside Michael Ball and played the ball across where Ade poked home via a deflection from Micah Richards. A deserved lead and I was hoping that would force City out and we could hit them on the counter attack.
The game continued very much in the same vein, with us dominating the play and all City could manage was a shot from distance from Elano that Lehmann comfortably dealt with. We needed a second and we got it after more good work from our full back on the other side in Gael Clichy. He provided a good ball in and Ade leapt highest to nod the ball back across for Eduardo to control on his chest and fire superbly home to put us 2-0 up. A wonderful finish from Eduardo, question marks over offside, but definitely not imo and we were in charge with a well deserved lead.
However, we let City back into the game with some very poor defending from Gael Clichy. It is something we've done too many times this season, over elaborating in clearing the ball from danger. Corluka stole the ball from Clichy and put the ball on a plate for Fernandes to put City back into the game, which they definitely didn't deserve. We came close to restoring our two goal lead with a header from Ade, but Joe Hart made a good save. We'd made things far more difficult than they needed to be by conceding a poor goal, but I was still confident we would come out and have enough to kill the game off.
We changed the formation at the start of the second half moving Diaby into the centre and Eddy onto the left of midfield. I don't like it when we do this, as we always end up seeing Ade isolated up front on his own. Diaby had an awful first half on the left hand side and didn't do much better in the centre. Cesc is given more freedom to go forward when we play 4-5-1 and he nearly put us clear with a half volley from just outside of the area which he sent well over and probably should have done a lot better with. We needed that third goal to kill City off and were putting more and more pressure onto City.
I was very impressed with Senderos and Gallas today. Both made vital tackles in particular Gallas who was superb today and his leadership qualities have been vital this season, we will need more big games from him if we're to end the season as champions. Vassel nearly got through after Diaby gave the ball away very poorly in the middle of the park, but Lehmann came out and cleared. It was a sign that all City needed was one chance and that would be our lead gone and we were looking edgy for periods after that.
Cesc had another very good chance. The ball fell to him about 30 yards out and he struck it on the half volley and sent it just wide. That would definitely have ended the game and we need more of them to go in from Cesc as the season goes on. We had a couple of chances on the break to kill them off, but were lacking the killer ball to end the game. Eduardo twice should have done better and only last ditch defending stopped us from killing City off. We broke away again and Elano hacked Ade down, but the referee played a great advantage. Cesc and Hleb exchanged passes and the ball broke loose into the area and who had made up the ground to fire home... the man that never missses Adebayor.
A superb goal from the big man and sum up a superb performance. Two goals, a superb assist and he worked his nuts off up front on his own in the second half. He now has 18 goals in the EPL and 21 goals in all competitions can he beat Thierry's best of 30 EPL goals? At the moment I wouldn't put it past him he has been superb lately and is keeping us in the title race. I have to praise Bacary Sagna who had a magnificent game on the right hand side. Many right backs have had trouble against Martin Petrov, but a combination of superb storming runs and excellent defending kept Petrov quiet all game.
A great result and see's us go two points clear at the top of the table.
Excuse the poor pun in the title