Sportsnob – Critics Corner

Not even the most optimistic City fan would have expected this. Top of the league with three games gone, no goals conceded, the defensive discovery of the decade (we’d like to think) and their city rivals (Manchester United, in case you needed to ask) two places off the relegation zone. Not a chance in hell, you might have thought.

Yet Sven-Goran Eriksson appears to be working the oracle at a club who were in a state of disarray not a month ago. Aided by Thaksin Shinawatra’s millions, and Youtube, he has assembled a team which actually appears to be playing like one – a sight we haven’t seen since Kevin Keegan took the Championship by storm back in 2001.

This was the acid test, though. The one game which could make or break his season, which could make people sit up and take notice, or simply dismiss them as another flash in the pan. I love my clichés, me.

Let’s be very clear here – United took City apart almost at will. Enjoying vast swathes of possession, they created chances with alarming regularity. But without a cutting edge up front (read Ronaldo and Rooney), it all went to waste. Kasper Schmeichel evoked memories of his father on occasion – particularly when he used the Star Dive to save a Patrice Evra shot. And even when he did contrive to spill a Giggs cross, Micah Richards was around to clear any danger.

Steve McClaren must be tearing his thinning ginger hair out – apart from trying to work out which of England’s substandard strikers to play up front, he’s also got several top class center halves to choose from at the back. Richards was immense – alongside Richard Dunne, he took the game by the scruff of the neck, throwing back everything United hurled at him with conviction. Carlos Tevez is going to have nightmares for a while.

City took the lead against the run of play, when the Brazilian winger Geovanni launched into a 30 yard drive. The shot took a wicked deflection off Nemanja Vidic’s legs before curling around a stretching Van Der Sar. One nil to the blue half of Manchester.

United’s best chances of the game, apart from the afore-mentioned Evra shot, revolved around Tevez. He doesn’t quite seem to be replicating his form from the end of last season, but that’s only to be expected so early in the new campaign. His movement was excellent, though, and he kept getting into goalscoring positions. Twice in the first half he broke the offside trap, only for Richards to get in with perfectly timed tackles. A Giggs ball into the box midway in the second half should have resulted in an equalizer, but Tevez could only get the faintest of touches on it, resulting in a goal kick.

United’s best chance of the match, however, came in the 89^th minute. A United corner capped a period of tremendous pressure. The ball was whipped in across the face of goal, evading everyone – Richards and Schmeichel included. Tevez at the far post looked almost taken by surprise, and he nodded the ball wide from 2 yards out. Done and, indeed, dusted.

Man of the Match: Micah Richards