The Blues had to play the vast majority of the game with 10 men following Dedryck Boyata’s dismissal in the fifth minute, and they made a decent fist of trying to get back on level terms after Samir Nasri’s opening goal.
But it was the straight red shown to the young defender by Mark Clattenburg that proved to be the turning point of the day, and the City manager reflected that on choice of words:
“It was the key decision in the game, against Arsenal it was the worst time to go down to 10 men. But I am very proud of my players because I think they played very well,” he said.
“We stayed in the game until the second goal, we always tried to play and to score. After today we can say we are one of the best teams in the Premier League. I think with 11 against 11 we would have won this game. We are a good team, I am disappointed with the loss.
Against Newcastle, we had a penalty against Carlos, it was by the last man but it was only a yellow card. It’s difficult to say from the bench
...Roberto Mancini.
The City skipper did not see out the game, having been replaced just after half time, but thankfully his condition does not look to be serious with just under a week to City’s next game.
“We don’t think it is a bad one, he took a knock in a muscle in the second half but it should be OK,” reported the nanaager.
“We have improved, today showed that but now it is in the past and we must start again at Wolves next Saturday.”
