City Pounds Hammers

Welcome back to a new season of Manchester City football!

Yes, I understand that two league matches, and a round and a half of UEFA Cup matches, have already been played. But, there hasn't been anything worth remembering until the Citizens 3-0 dismantling of West Ham this past Sunday. A friend of mine, who is a Hammers supporter, informed me that City was lucky that they were able to play most of the match a man up as West Ham midfielder Mark Noble was sent off in the 39th minute with his second yellow card of the day. Neither of Noble's bookings were questionable, and thus it was no surprise that he was shown to the dressing room after his late tackle on Michael Johnson.

By the time Noble was walking off the pitch City were already in complete control of the match and would have won had the sides remained even. Up to that point the Blues had been denied by the goal frame twice, they controlled nearly all the midfield play, and City goalkeeper Joe Hart had yet to touch the ball.

The scary point in the match came when City's pivotal central defender Micah Richards dropped unconsciously to the turf after knocking heads with teammate Tal Ben-Haim. Play was stopped for nearly ten minutes as Richards was eventually carried off on a stretcher and later taken to the hospital. The collective exhale of relief that you heard coming from Manchester on Monday was from Blues supporters as news broke that Richards was not seriously injured.

This match has excited me to watch City again. Key players to watch at this point are Stephen Ireland and Martin Petrov on the flanks, they're looking very dangerous, most particularly Ireland. He created both of Elano's goals late in the match, but was also a workhorse through out. It should be fun to see how Jo connects with the service those two will provide. Also, the newest signing, Dutch defender Vincent Kompany was also impressive. His presence on the back line gives me hope for City this Thursday as they try to climb out of a massive hole in UEFA Cup qualifying without the services of Richards.