So, Manchester City can win ugly.
Yaya Toure’s scuffed 70th-minute strike was a fitting winner for a game that at times bordered on gruesome. And Manuel Pellegrini could not have been happier.
City’s Chilean manager has brought a brand of beautiful football to the Etihad this season. But he knows it’s the ability to grind out results at the business end of the campaign that brings home titles and trophies.
“The satisfaction is the same because we have three points,” said Pellegrini. “We cannot pretend that we will win by three or four goals in every match.
“It is important to know how to win in both ways – scoring goals and if you cannot score goals then a clean sheet and the patience to score at least one.”
February has been a struggle for the team that had been scoring goals for fun but at least City ended the month by moving to within three points of leaders Chelsea and with a game in hand.
Home defeats at the hands of Jose Mourinho’s men and Barcelona have undermined the Blues’ quest for the Quadruple, while a goalless draw at Norwich also illustrated how tough the going had got following Sergio Aguero’s injury.
The Argentine hitman will step up his efforts to return for next Sunday’s Capital One Cup Final against Sunderland when he resumes training on Tuesday.
He can’t come back quickly enough.
Alvaro Negredo has only scored one league goal since the turn of the year and Stevan Jovetic needs another sicknote after adding a hamstring strain to his catalogue of injuries just 11 minutes after replacing the Spaniard.
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Then there is Edin Dzeko, the Bosnian striker who polarises opinion – even among the most diehard City fans.
This was one of those days when the £27million didn’t look good enough to grace the local Sunday League.
Seemingly disinterested and uninspired, the only saving grace for Dzeko was that Mark Hughes’ side couldn’t punish a comical 74th-minute miss with an equaliser.
Toure robbed Charlie Adam and sent Jesus Navas scampering down the right and when the winger crossed, it seemed Dzeko couldn’t miss.
But he did.
From four yards.
When his legs got in such a tangle that it seemed he must have been tasered.
Dzeko looked imploringly at the assistant referee to flag him offside before booting the post in frustration. Amazingly, this time he didn’t miss.
“I think every player can have a bad day,” said Pellegrini. “Maybe he was nervous. But I continue to trust in him.”
But the one player Pellegrini can put his house on when it comes to delivering is Toure.
There were howls of derision when City paid Barcelona £24m for him in 2010, but the Ivorian has proved himself to be worth every penny.
When Samir Nasri’s pass allowed Aleksandar Kolarov to pick Toure out with a low cross there was never any doubt that he would score his 16th of the season in all competitions.
“We switched off and made a couple of errors for the goal,” said Hughes. “We talk about reacting when you see an error and we missed a tackle on the edge of the box then allowed the ball to be crossed and didn’t track the runner.
“Consecutive errors like that lead to goals.”
Hughes’ men gave as good as they got in the first period and Adam lashed one shot wide before seeing another expertly saved by Joe Hart.
But the Potters were forced on to the back foot after the break and when City managed to bring some precision to their pressure, the breakthrough came.
Source :
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/manchester-city-1-0-stoke-match-3133975#ixzz2uIx4tejT
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