In May 2024, as last season drew to a close I published the following blog, https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/05/22/the-threat-of-dynasties/, warning of the threat that Man City posed to the competitive nature of football as they crowned a dynasty that looked unassailable.
I needn’t have worried, it seems City are determined to destroy their dynasty all by themselves.
The strange thing is that it started off so well, with 4 wins in a row in the league to start the season through August and September. October saw them win 5 of their 6 games, including big wins over Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League Group Stage. Things started to go wrong in November
First came a loss at Bournemouth with an 83rd minute Josko Gvardiol strike not being enough to prevent City’s 32 game unbeaten run, stretching back to 6th December 2023, from being smashed on the south coast.
Losing their unbeaten streak must’ve hit City like a freight train as they went on to lose the next 3 games on the bounce and ended the month with a 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord.
The worst part for City was that, 4-0 home humiliation by Spurs aside, they had actually taken the lead in each game. Foden had given them the lead 4 minutes into the Sporting Lisbon game, but then 3 goals in the 10minutes either side of half time turned their joy to ashes. The last of those goals was a penalty and then City shot themselves in the foot again by giving away another one 10 minutes from time.
Self-inflicted has become City’s modus operandi ever since, with 2 goals in the final 12 minutes and 3 goals in the last 16 minutes being the way they chose to lose to throw away leads against Brighton and Feyenoord respectively.
They took this MO of late collapses to the extreme during the Manchester Derby on 15th December 2024. Huge favourites going into the match, against a United team struggling for form, they took the lead in the 36th minute and held it all the way till the 88th.
Just 2 minutes from victory they couldn’t help themselves but give away a penalty to their hated rivals on their home turf, which Bruno Fernandes smashed home before Amad Diallo administered the knockout blow in the dying seconds to send the away fans into extasy.
City fans might have thought it couldn’t get any worse and their start to 2025 looked to confirm their return to form, following up a 4-1 win against West Ham United with an EIGHT-0 win against Salford City in the FA Cup.
Then the wobbles returned on a trip to London and Brentford’s Gtech fortress. The fortress had been trembling in the weeks before their arrival, having been first breached by Nottingham Forest, and when City took a late 2 goal lead it looked like the fortress was truly crumbling.
What had been forgotten was that it was City that were the crumblers now conceding 2 goals in the final 10 minutes to throw away the victory, topped off with a 92nd minute headed equaliser from Christian Noorgaard.
Any hopes that the collapses were resigned to history after a 6-0 destruction of Ipswich in their next game were crushed in Paris.
Going into the must-win Champions League showdown with PSG off the back of such a commanding victory should’ve been enough to power City over the line in the city of love and when they took the lead with 2 goals in 3 minutes just after half-time all looked rosy.
Then came the collapse.
It took just 7 minutes from taking the lead for City to collapse and let PSG equalise. From there it only got worse and by the time Goncalo Ramos topped off the host’s victory with 4th goal in the 93rd minute I had City fans I knew messaging me rants about their team.
How the mighty have fallen.
The worst collapse came yesterday at the Emirates, as they equalised through Erling Haaland in the 55th minute only to be 3-1 down within 7 minutes and Arsenal didn’t even have to work hard for those 2 goals. Another double would follow before the final whistle as City slumped to a 5-1 loss against the team they beat to the final last season, their 4th title in a row.
Yesterday was the day it truly hit home for me just how swift and total the collapse of this Dynasty has been, 15 points behind top of the table Liverpool and looking like complete Jekyll and Hyde basket cases.
You never know which City will turn up anymore, though their home form has been much better than their away form in 2025, but at least things get easier soon with just Newcastle United, Liverpool and Real Madrid lying in wait after an FA Cup 4th round trip to Leyton Orient next weekend.
Wouldn’t it be brilliant if League One Orient could dump City out of the cup?
Double Sucker Punch
Some things in life just aren’t meant to be, like Manchester City holding onto a lead.
Two late goals worked out really well for us last week as we came from 2-0 down to claim a draw against the 4-time defending champions who are currently in the worst crisis of their Guardiola era.
Within that era only one team has knocked the conquerors off top-spot come the end of the season and although they are under new management this season, no-one expects an easy game when Liverpool come to town.
That’s why I was still on cloud 9 when I arrived at the Gtech on Saturday 35 minutes after kick-off, after hours of delays on my trains to London, to find the score still at 0-0 and Brentford giving as good as they got all the way to half-time.
From minute one of the second half it was clear we would struggle to find a breakthrough against the unbreakable wall of Ibrahim Konate and Virgil Van Dijk, but also that we would not be broken down easily.
Nathan Collins and Sepp Van Den Berg played a blinder and with the support of Christian Norgaard, Mads Roerslev and Keane Lewis-Potter they kept the mercurial talents of Luiz Diaz, Dominic Szoboszlai and Mohammed Salah quiet throughout the half.
Sure there were a few times I was wiping the sweat from my brow as Liverpool surged forth on the break only to be stopped at the last second. There were times throughout the half where I was certain they were about to score only for a goal-line block or a last-ditch tackle to maintain our clean sheet.
There was no denying that they had been the better team in the 2nd half but as the board was raised for stoppage time at the end of the 90 scores were still level and it felt like a huge achievement to be walking away with a point from a match that had been last-ditch defending for much of the half.
Sometimes luck just falls in your favour though and after defending so resolutely it was only right for us to secure a point, right? Wrong…
They say it is the mark of champions that they find a way to win even when not at their best and on Saturday Liverpool showed the mark of champions by hitting us with a double stoppage time sucker punch.
Darwin Nunez had replaced Luiz Diaz in the 65th minute but only managed a few headers into Mark Flekken’s arms within the regulation 90. So for him to be the one, so oft maligned by his own fans, to administer the punces was gut wrenching.
First being found in acres of space 8 yards out by a deflected Trent Alexander-Arnold cross to fire home then, with Brentford chasing an equaliser, latching onto the end of a Harvey Elliot through ball to slot home in acres of space.
A gut punching ending to what had been an exceptional performance in many ways from the Bees, but Thomas Frank didn’t call the visitors ‘The best team in the world’ for no reason.
Results like this solidify that claim because there is little doubt that no other team has shown such determination against such a brilliant defensive display at our fortress.
Brentford were brilliant but, with their double sucker punch, Liverpool were just better.
Due to financial contraints I will not be back to the Gtech till at least the end of Feb, but in the meantime I wish the Bees all the Best.
The Law of Manchester
Sometimes in great cities there exist great divides that can only ever be bridged by Great Men; Manchester is one such place, City-United one such divide and Denis Law was one of very few such men ever to have lived.
Born is the northern suburbs of Aberdeen in February 1940, whilst the world was busy tearing itself apart in WW2, it was down in the far southern city of Manchester that he would proceed to tear the world apart in his own inimitable fashion.
Sure he started his career over the Pennines with Huddersfield Town but it was only when he moved across to Manchester that things really took off.
Bill Shankly tried to tempt him to join the history being made at Anfield before Law decided that the Blue side of Manchester was the place for him.
How different things could have been if he had stayed there for more than a single season before being tempted by the bright lights of Turin. Though he would only play a single season for Torino before being tempted back to Manchester, landing on the red side of town this time with Matt Busby at the helm rebuilding United in the wake of the devastating Munich air disaster.
Part of that rebuild saw Law linking up with the duo he will be linked to forever more, George Best and Bobby Charlton.
As an integral part of United’s holy trinity he more than paid back his record transfer fee,£115,000, multiple times over as a mercurial striker whose goals saw United win the FA Cup in 1963, League titles in 1965 and 1967, plus the Ballon d’Or in 1964.
His crowning glory should have been firing United to their historic European Cup triumoh in 1968, only for a persistent knee injury to rob him of the night that should have been rightfully his. The King may have missed out on the greatest match, but his place in United history was secured long before that.
Having been part of the United’s Holy Trinity it’s only fitting that’s the final United game of his lifetime was topped off by a trinity of goals from Amad Diallo that secured the most miraculous of comebacks.
Law’s own playing association with United wouldn’t end quite so successfully as he returned to City for the 1973/74 season, his last as a professional player and put the final nail in United’s coffin with a delicious backheel goal that rubber-stamped his old employer’s relegation.
Other results meant that United would’ve gone down no matter the result of this match, but that hasn’t stopped that goal turning Law into a City hero.
A man that remains a hero with 2 of the biggest rival fanbases in the North-West of England more than 50 seasons after his retirement and can unite them both in grief at his passing is truly worthy of the epithet ‘THE GREAT’
How City could do with another player of his like to join them this month as their last match of The Lawman’s life saw them throw away a 2-0 lead and certain victory against Brentford, a team that spent his whole career yo-yoing between the Third and Fourth Divisions.
Given his Scottish routes and his final competitive games spent representing Scotland at the 1974 World Cup, Law’s interest in London teams is debatable but I had to get a London link in there somewhere.
Brazilian great Pele once said that Denis Law would fit into the Brazilian National team and given the football they were playing at that time, not to mention their 3 World Cup wins during the glory days of Law’s professional career that’s one hell of a compliment and extremely well-deserved.
The Pilgrim’s Progress
On paper this FA Cup 3rd round tie only ever had one winner,
what a shame the game has to be played on grass.
Plymouth Argyle have had a terrible time away from Home Park this season with no wins on the road in any competition, their last such win coming at Milton Keynes in their final pre-season friendly.
To throw further water on the Pilgrim’s fire of hope their hosts have the second best home record in the Premier League all season, the Gtech Community Stadium is Brentford’s fortress.
Okay, so Nottingham Forest had finally breached the gates in the last game, as my last blog explores, but surely the rebuild had gone well enough to keep out the managerless team pinned to the bottom of the Championship and had only scored 24 goals in 25 games so far this season?
Apparently not…
It shouldn’t have mattered that we put out a much changed side as it still included heavyweights Mikkel Damsgaard, Kevin Shade and Mathias Jensen not to mention the return from injury of Rico Henry…
Having been out with a knee injury Rico was back on the grass again and the best player on a Brentford team that looked cobbled together from spectators in The Orchard bar.
Every pass in the final third was either overhit or to the feet of someone in Pilgrim green, even the Pilgrims that had made their way all the way to the big smoke from the depths of Devon couldn’t help pointing this out.
It took them just 15 minutes to break out the mocking chants “how s*** must you be, we’re drawing away” being a personal favourite.
The embarrassment emanating through the home stands was palpable at points, even I was susceptible to it uttering the words “we are making them look competent” in my first half voice notes.
Our backline of Rico, Sepp Van Den Berg, Kim Ji-Soo and Mads Roerslev had never played together as a 4 before and at times they were bailed out hard by the pilgrims profligacy and the stellar work of Hakon Valdimarsson behind them to keep the scores level all the way upto Rico’s withdrawal at the 63rd minute mark.
By this point it was abundantly clear that the big guns were needed to turn this one around for the hosts so on came Keane Lewis Potter, Bryan Mbuemo and Yoane Wissa in hopes of propelling us into Round 4.
This failed spectacularly with Plymouth still looking the more likely to score and eventually they did.
Things had gone so far off the boil that I had spent most of the second half praying for a goal to save us all from extra time and penalties, but they do say be careful what you wish for and with 8 minutes to go all the Pilgrims prayers were answered.
Morgan Whittaker was the man to win it for the visitors and in front of incoming manager Miron Muslic too, which can hardly do his chances of being a huge part of their push for survival any harm at all.
I was too distraught at just how good we were making Plymouth look that I didn’t see the goal but as soon as I heard the thunderous noise from the away end I knew the Bees were well and truly smoked.
From the second we went behind the last 8 minutes were just a formality to get to the whistle and rubber stamp the Pilgrims progress.
They have been drawn at home to Liverpool, the biggest team at the best venue they could hope for. I wish the Pilgrims the best of luck for that match and the rest of the season.
As for my beloved Bees, good luck to us tonight against a Manchester City team that returned to form with an 8-0 (eight – nil) demolition of Salford City. Judging from Saturday, we need it.
2025: A Baptism of Fire
Brentford’s home form has been their saving grace this season.
Then the fortress was finally breached by high-flying Forest in the dying weeks of 2024 and it appears repairing the holes in the outer walls will take sometime, cause today Arsenal sauntered in and strolled out with all the riches going.
Worst of all is that they didn’t even have to try that hard cause all the defenders were either dead or hungover.
Referee Peter Bankes wasn’t far off that either, with some exceedingly questionable calls scattered throughout the match.
Things turned so bad in the second half that I decided to commit the mortal sin of all football fans, I left early…. like 66th minute early, but I just couldn’t stand staying and missing out on the family New Years celebrations I had waiting across town.
Few people would blame me though given just how abysmal my beloved Bees became the second their visitors equalised just before the half-hour mark.
We fell apart like a house of cards from the moment Gabriel Jesus snuffled home a scrappy equaliser for the Gunners, shooting down the hopes of the hosts in the process, just a minute after Brentford’s second goal was cleared off the line by a skittish David Raya on his return to the Gtech.
Having taken the lead through the mercurial Mbuemo turning his marker inside out before slotting a reverse shot between Raya and his near post in the 13th minute we should have doubled our lead through Keane Lewis-Potter, whose weaving charge down the right resulted in a shot that squirmed though Raya’s gloves.
Seeing this saved and then suffering Jesus’s sucker punch sucked the soul out of the hosts and this was pounced upon twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half as first Mikel Merino, not nearly woolly enough in front of goal, then Gabriel Martinelli stabbed home just 180 seconds apart to secure 3 goals and 3 points for the Gunners of North London.
Brentford were abysmal between the restart and the hour mark, when I decided to suffer no more, and unless they can rebuild the fortress walls quicker than the Flash they are in danger of crumbling to dust.
Forest and Arsenal have reduced the walls to rubble now all City, Liverpool and Spurs have to do is continue the looting for the next month.
Our next easy home game is Everton on February 25th, but at least we have away games at Southampton, Palace, West Ham and Leicester to boost us up the table right…….
At Least 2025 can only get better.
The Geordie’s Revenge
Having risen to the challenge of the North-East’s best so well just 10 days ago, https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/12/09/the-fortress-stands/, I rushed for the train north thinking that a first away win of the season was on the cards, especially with a League Cup Semi-Final at Wembley on the line.
I’m not sure anyone has been more wrong about anything in the history of the universe!
Newcastle exacted their revenge for their defeat down South by ripping their visitors from the capital to shreds from the first minute to the last.
Whatever special serum Brentford have been taking this season, it clearly doesn’t work outside west London as they appeared both unwilling and unable to muster the slightest resistance to the Magpies onslaught.
Sure they had suffered a setback before kick-off, with Sepp Van Den Berg getting injured in the warm-up, but by the time they lost Ethan Pinnock to injury in just the 14th minute of the match there was nothing left to defend.
Sandro Tonali had already scored his first of the night 5 minutes earlier and would double his tally 7 minutes before half an hour had elapsed.
Fluidity was the watchword for the hosts and every time they got the ball they looked like scoring. If only the same could have been said for the super Bees.
Our play was turgid and played petrified of playing the ball forward.
We have a reputation for attacking at speed and in great numbers, but there was not a drop of that this week. I can’t recall a single time throughout the match where we got the ball and ran at the opposition.
The Newcastle back line must have thought we had left the attacking members of our team at King Cross Station, cause they never had to face them.
Watching us wilt from the 7th tier of the stadium was painful, with even the double introduction of Bryan Mbuemo and Mikkel Damsgaard 2minutes after the hour mark unable to inject some much needed quality into the visitor’s performance.
In fact it was just 7 minutes after they entered the fray that Fabian Shar fired home to put the result beyond any doubt and book the Toon Army’s tickets to Wembley.
Sure Yoane Wissa was able to ruin the Magpie’s clean sheet in the closing minutes of the match, slotting home the visitor’s first proper attack of the night, for the ultimate consolation goal.
When Sam Barrott blew the final whistle there was nothing left to feel but relief that it was over and that I had no train to rush for, though waking up with a view of the immense Tyne Bridge the next morning took none of the sting out of the result.
At least things could only get better when we returned home to face Forest at the weekend….. oh yeah, forgot Forest are on fire
Brentford have a trip to Brighton to finish the year off, then start 2025 at home to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, so at least it gets easier.
Why couldn’t we be playing teams from Manchester instead? January 14th is so long to wait for a guaranteed 3 points
Christmas Gifts
Just 10 days till Christmas and the powers that be at the Premier League decided to give a few lucky fanbases an early Christmas present… a battle with their local rivals for festive bragging rights.
Annoyingly for me, the only home team to accept this gift were Brentford’s hosts for the day. By the time Bryan Mbuemo fired home a last minute consolation for the Bees, Chelsea already had their first home win over us since we joined the Premier League.
The spell of Brentford Bridge was broken and Brighton fans were broken by the end of their match too.
Seeing your greatest rivals fly back to south London with all 3 points having scored all 4 goals in their 3-1 win must have hurt something dreadful, but Crystal Palace fans will have enjoyed the celebrations despite Marc Guehi’s 87th minute own goal.
They will be counting that it failed to spark a remarkable last minute comeback, unlike a certain 88th minute penalty at the home of a crumbling dynasty.
Living and working in Manchester, as I do, I have both City and United fans in my team. Through the banter whizzing round the shop last week there was was one thing they all agreed on, no matter how bad their form City were the better team and would win on Sunday.
When Josko Gvardiol headed home 10 minutes before half-time it looked like they were right and it continued looking that way till 2 minutes from time when City hit the self-destruct button…
Bruno Fernandes never looked likely to turn down the gift from 12-yards and with the momentum now firmly behind them The Red Devils pounced on their rivals, went full grinch and stole their Christmas gift from under City’s noses.
The joy was ripped from Guardiola and co. by the boot of Amad Diallo and delivered gift wrapped into the grateful arms of new United boss Ruben Amorim.
Quite what Amorim is going to get to repay Diallo is unclear, but it’s unlikely to ever be enough.
Perhaps he should seek advice from St. Mary’s, cause home team Southampton were giving out gifts left, right and centre against Spurs.
I suppose they’re not called the Saints for nothing, but they tested the patience of their fans past breaking point by coughing up 4 gifts for their visitors within the first 25 minutes and delivering a 5th just before the ref called an end to one of the most one-sided halves in history.
Such a festive humiliation was enough for many of the home faithful to head home for a barrel of mulled wine in a forlorn effort to forget what they had witnessed.
In fairness to the Hampshire horrors they went full grinch in the second half and managed to limp to full-time with just a 5-0 humiliation to show for their efforts, they would’ve been better not turning up and only losing 3-0 by walkover.
Neither was likely to have saved Russel Martin’s job in the dugout, but at least he would have left his ex-charges with a slightly better goal difference and possibly more confidence for their League Cup Quarter-Final tonight against League leaders Liverpool.
They will be hoping for a miracle whilst Palace and United will hope to make it two wins in a row in their own Quarter-Finals, away at Arsenal and Spurs respectively.
For my beloved Bees it will simply be a case of recovering their form from the weekend before, when they ripped apart Newcastle United at fortress Gtech.
Unfortunately tonight’s game is up at St. James’ Park and whilst I run to the ground for kick-off I will be praying all the way for our first away win at a Premier League team this season.
Couldn’t we all use a Christmas miracle?
The Fortress Stands
The scale of the challenge facing Brentford’s unbeaten home record became crystal clear when the Magpies clattered one off the bar less than 2 minutes after kick-off.
Newcastle United are a Champions League level team now and they had come to our fortress to knock us down to size.
They forgot one very important thing though…. no one defeats Brentford in their fortress.
The Toon army were given a lot of hope in the first half though, as the visitors played their hosts off the park, only to head down the tunnel at half-time with the scores at 2-a-piece.
Guarantees are few and far between in football, but one that has held true all season is ‘there will be goals at the Gtech’ and so it was again, with Newcastle quickly pegging their hosts back each time they went behind in the first-half.
That’s right, despite being played off the park in midfield for most of the half it was the hosts who took the lead twice.
Firstly through the virtuoso talents of Bryan Mbuemo twisting this way and that to tie his markers in knots before smashing home from 12 yards out past a perplexed Nick Pope in the 6th minute. Then restoring their lead just before the half-hour as Yoane Wissa pounced on an under-hit backpass to steal in and side foot home from the edge of the box.
Alexander Isak should have put Newcastle ahead earlier in the half, having drawn them level with a diving header from 6 yards out just 6 minutes after they went behind, but he fluffed his lines at the last second, dithering on the ball just long enough to allow Mark Flekken to palm the ball out from under his feet and save a certain goal.
Not to worry though as the visitors would be behind for only 4 minutes this time before Harvey Barnes took advantage of time and space in the area to spin and slam the ball home across the face of Flekken and into the bottom right corner.
Neither set of fans could doubt the entertainment of what they were witnessing, but to call some of the defending circumspect would be generous in the extreme.
The host’s defence tightened up immeasurably after the break, the visitors did not.
Having seen their visitors burst out of the traps in the first half the hosts decided to see if they could take it as well as dish it out in the second as a devastating break from midfield ended with Wissa witnessing his shot palmed onto the post by Pope.
It was abundantly clear that only one team would win it in this second half but when the hosts 3rd goal arrived the circumstances were almost comical, unless you’re a Magpies fan that is.
Flekken launched a free-kick forward from half-way and it sailed over everyone to land at the feet of centre-back Nathan Collins, who took it in stride and side footed it across Pope and into the net with a single flick of his left foot.
Despite running the deflated visitors ragged for the rest of the match it appeared a 4th goal wouldn’t come for the hosts, until it did with just 4 seconds of the regulation 90 left to play.
Christian Norgaard pouncing on a loose touch in midfield to feed the ball to Mbuemo, who then slid it right into the stride of Kevin Shade and it was Shade, the hat-trick hero against the foxes last week, that would cap off another home victory for the West Londoners with a cheeky chip over the sprawling body of the onrushing Pope.
The scoreline should have been even worse for the Tynesiders when Pope was dispossessed in midfield by Mbuemo and his shot towards an open goal had to be cleared off the line by Dan Burn, Pope you owe him drinks all week for that one.
At the final whistle The Magpies were sent north through Storm Darragh licking their wounds, but with the chance for revenge in just over a weeks time at home in the League Cup Quarter Final.
See you there
A Ruud Awakening
1,700 partisan fans in full voice cheering you on having travelled south for hours to support you and you new manager watching on, that would be enough motivation for most players to put in their best performance
Leicester City missed that memo…
Brentford played them off the park from minute 1 to minute 101, there were 11 minutes added time across the halves and everyone of them the travelling fans could have done without.
Whatever rot had set in under Steve Cooper was on full display for the incoming Ruud Van Nistelrooy today. All the way through the team, from the strikers back to the goalkeeper there was a lack of cohesion and a dearth of quality that cut the bottom out of their few forays forward.
Sure they took the lead in the 21st minute with what was, to my memory, their only shot on target all match, but within 3 minutes the scores were equal and a mere 7 minutes after Facundo Buonanotte had given them the lead they were behind. They never looked like scoring again.
In truth, they were only ahead due to some exceedingly profligate finishing by the hosts front 3, but Yoane Wissa and particularly Kevin Shade would soon more than make up for their early waywardness.
Shade got the assist for Wissa’s opener at the end of a slick and speedy attack that got the ball from goal kick to nestling in the net in less than 10 seconds.
Having set up the equaliser Shade took over the scoring duties for the rest of the match. He threw down the gauntlet to the visiting defence and proceeded to rip them apart.
His one-man masterclass in dismantling the opposition opened in the 28th minute and the brace was completed with the final kick of the half, before the visitors trudged down the tunnel to a chorus of boos from the away end.
Shade wasn’t stopping there though completing his hat-trick just before the hour mark and just in time, as the maestro of manoeuvres was removed from the field to rapturous applause in the 70th minute.
That his replacement garnered less applause speaks to the virtuosity of his performance, but I’m sure Igor Thiago would have hoped to be the main event on his home debut having been out injured for the last 3 months.
Unfortunately for him, by the time he was introduced to the fray the flailing foxes had been well and truly eviscerated. His absence from the scoresheet was the only minor blot on a glorious day for the home faithful. whose beloved Bees remain unbeaten this season at their Gtech fortress.
For the travelling faithful it was a bracing reality check after the high of yesterday’s appointment of a new first team Manager.
Whilst for the players being booed down the tunnel after each half, having your fans chant “this is embarrassing” at you 10 minutes from time, then agreeing with the home fans at the final whistle that “We’re f***ing s***” over and over again should serve as a very Ruud awakening for them of just how much they’ll have to improve to stay up.
As for Ruud Van Nistelrooy, watching on from the stands, well at least he now knows the scale of the gargantuan task he now faces. On the plus side though, in the words of a visiting fan on the train after the game ‘at least we can’t get any worse’.
Over to you Ruud.
Champions Capitulate
Having just finished the last of 6 days in a row at work I returned to my flat in dire need of a boost, so naturally I checked today’s football scores and damn did I find what I needed.
Tonight the Etihad witnessed a new low in the history of it’s Guardiola era, throwing away an unassailable lead in the final 15 minutes of a match. Oh how the mighty have fallen…
This summer, after their unprecedented 4th successive title, I wrote a blog about the new dynasty ready to conquer football and how much of a threat they were to the unpredictability that makes our beautiful game the life blood of so many souls.
So to see them collapsing like a house of cards, shattering their aura of invincibility and returning them to the plain of mere humans is a glorious thing, except for the home fans obviously.
Losing 4 games in a row was bad enough but collapsing so swiftly at home in the Champions League has to be a new low, especially when a lot of your best available players last the full 90.
Erling Haaland opened the host’s account from 12 yards in the dying embers of the first half and when he completed his brace just 10 minutes of game time later to put City 3-0 up, Ikay Gundogan providing the filling in the Haaland sandwich, the game looked sewn up.
A triple substitution 20 minutes from the end derailed City’s train and sent them to collapse city. Conceding the first of the comeback 5 mins after the substitution was a bad sign and from there it was all downhill.
Sure it took till the penultimate minute of the match for the inevitable equaliser to come, but the point is it feels inevitable now that City will collapse if you apply the right pressure.
For City to go from ‘every game is theirs to win’ to ‘just wait till they capitulate’ months after their latest title should be a shock for the home faithful, but to me it’s a reminder that nothing lasts forever.
Long may it remain so and long may the glorious unpredictability of the beautiful game be it’s only constant.
The Football tourist 