Join @markbooth_mcfc on a look back on the 4-1 Boxing Day victory over Sunderland and a preview of what to look out for in Tuesday night’s game against the league leaders.
De Bruyne and Silva starting to click…
The opportunity to play alongside someone like David Silva ranked high in Kevin De Bruyne’s decision to swap Wolfsburg for City in the summer.
Due to David’s troublesome ankle problems, it’s been a frustrating wait for supporters to see the pair properly tune into one another’s wavelength but it looks as though that’s starting to happen, if Boxing Day is anything to go by.
David and Kevin terrorized the Sunderland backline, setting up intricate triangles with rotating Toure/Sterling/Bony-shaped corners, finding pockets of space and playing passes which were unexpected by everyone except each other.
Vito Mannone denied what would have been one of our goals of the season with his fingertip stop after De Bruyne’s incredible backheel-flick-through-ball for Silva.
What a spoil sport.
The perfect Boxing Day…
All of the stars aligned for City on Saturday as results up and down the country went in our favour.
Perhaps most importantly of all, Arsenal went down a heavy defeat to Southampton, wiping out the effect of our loss at the Emirates last week.
Leicester also suffered their first defeat in nine matches, losing to Liverpool at Anfield, meaning City can overtake Claudio Ranieri’s side with a victory on Monday.
There was only one cloud hanging over City’s Boxing Day…
A word on the skipper…
Vincent Kompany seems to have no luck whatsoever where injuries are concerned at the moment.
Our captain lasted just nine minutes after coming on for Nicolas Otamendi as a second half substitute as his calf problems resurfaced.
You can’t keep a good man down though and the captain vowed he would not give up on his City and Belgium 2016 dreams in an emotional post on Facebook following the game.
Eliaquim Mangala and Otamendi will have tougher afternoons than they had against Sunderland but the pair will only get better as they get used to playing alongside one another in Vincent’s absence.
Vardy and Mahrez…
Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri admitted that his two leading stars of the season so far, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, were feeling the strain on Boxing Day.
The Premier League’s top scorer Vardy actually played with a fever and Ranieri took both players off despite the fact that they were chasing a 1-0 deficit in Liverpool.
That was to freshen them up for the game against City at the King Power Stadium – a ground where the Foxes have won 10 of their last 14.
City are on a five-game win-less run away from home in the league which is our worst away run in the Premier League since April 2011.
Stopping Vardy and Mahrez will be key to City ending that streak and taking a big step back towards the table summit.
Auld Lang Syne…
City are looking to keep up a proud record we’ve held since the turn of the millennium.
We’ve not lost our final game of a calendar year since the year 2000 when Charlton Athletic defeated us at Maine Road.
Something’s got to give though, as the Foxes have won their final games of the last three years and they are looking to avoid going down to three successive league defeats to City for the first time since 1961.
