Not that you’d know it from watching Match of the Day, but Manchester City came perilously close to defeat at home to Wolves on Saturday.
Having watched ten minutes of highlights, Alans Shearer and Hansen put City down as a potential top four side, but the 90 minutes that I saw at the City of Manchester Stadium didn’t lend themselves to such a facile prediction.
At three o’clock The Blues came out for their first home game of the season with a swagger and totally dominated the first half. But at quarter to five they slunk back into the tunnel, wiping nervous sweat from their brows having just escaped a 20 minute barrage by newly-promoted Wolves.
In the closing period Andrew Keogh hit the bar and Richard Stearman narrowly missed a header for the visitors, while Kevin Doyle caused problems despite having two defenders on him. George Elokobi and Stephen Ward got down the flanks and put in good balls, while the rest of the defence got to grips with the one-dimensional threat offered by City’s three-pronged £82m attack and unimaginative midfield.
The brightest lights for City were the Adebayor and Tevez that showed up in the first half. The former a towering force exhibiting a grace and burst of pace that I’d never realised he possessed before seeing him in the flesh; the latter tirelessly lively, incessantly closing down Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey and providing most of City’s sparks of inspiration, including a deft lay-off for Adebayor’s goal.
Shay Given did well when called upon, pulling off a particularly impressive save from Martin Jarvis late in the first half, and Wayne Bridge looked solid, but elsewhere City looked little more than pedestrian.
Robinho was woeful, stepping over balls to little effect and scuffing shots along the floor; Wright-Phillips did little of note, other than being smaller than the ground’s corner flags; Micah Richards looked unreliable and was easily rattled by Elokobi and anyone else who ran at him in the second half.
Most worryingly for City fans the heart of the side was easily matched by Wolves in the second half and looked distinctly unlike the engine of a would-be top four side.
Richard Dunne was far from imposing and will be undone by stronger strikers than Doyle and Keogh – indeed Sylvan Ebanks-Blake might have done so had he been fit enough to play – and Kolo Toure’s performance justified Arsène Wenger’s decision to let him go.
Gareth Barry and Stephen Ireland were workman-like, and while there was nothing to criticise in their performances (apart from Ireland’s woeful miss from a few yards out early in the second half) there wasn’t that much to praise either. Neither would make it into a Manchester United, Arsenal or what looks a particularly strong Chelsea midfield.
Their failure to hold the side together as Wolves built up the pressure in the last 20 minutes doesn’t bode well. If a team with one of the Premier League’s worst midfields can run them ragged, how exactly are they going to fare when they come up against the likes of Fulham, Everton and Aston Villa, all of whom are eager to prove they’re just as likely to put the squeeze on the top four as City are?
City may have almost got their hands on Joleon Lescott, but they still need a couple of midfielders genuinely capable of changing a game if they’re to challenge the big boys.
Players like Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder could be realistic targets, providing inspiration where Sean Wright Phillips provides little beyond perspiration.
Even an older big name like Patrick Vieira could pass on some experience and provide some strength for a couple of years. Someone like Porto’s Bruno Alves would also significantly strengthen a squad that is defensively questionable.
Wolves meanwhile looked good enough to make a fight of it this season, although they’ll definitely be at the wrong end of the table in May. With Portsmouth, Hull, Bolton, Birmingham, Stoke and Wigan all looking like potential Championship sides next year it could be the ones with the most tenacity that stay up, and Wolves showed plenty of that on Saturday.