It is a cumbersome, unnecessary phrase which can be shortened more than adequately to ‘class’.
Still, the aim of the now clichéd noun, is easy to fathom. For every top class sportsman or woman has to have it or they will be condemned quickly to the status of also-ran.
Great golfers will more often than not follow a bogey with a birdie or eagle, exceptional cricketers will stroke a chanceless century after walking for a ’duck’ and unseated jockeys will climb straight back aboard and punch home a winner.
So it is with football. Top teams lose games – they all do – but the mark of true greatness is when you don’t break stride and bounce back in style.
That is the task now facing City after they failed to wipe the memory of a three-goal, ten-man defeat to Arsenal by losing to a side in the bottom three that hadn’t won since the opening day of the season.
Questions will persist after Roberto Mancini’s men took the lead but still succumbed to a shock loss.
Bad decision making, bad passes, bad defending and bad shooting all permeated a performance that started with thrilling promise
...match report...
They clearly missed Nigel de Jong who was injured in training and skipper Carlos Tevez but that is not an excuse for a side packed with international talent.
It was a game that was always competitive and early on the Blues combined bite with brawn and guile with gumption to suppress a Wolves side struggling to get out of the bottom three but one that plays far better football than their league position would imply.
After Balotelli fired too high and Micah Richards had a shot blocked in a whirlwind opening from the Blues, it was Mancini’s men who took the lead a quarter of the way through the contest when Adebayor stroked home the perfect penalty.
It was awarded after Richard Spearman took away David Silva’s legs close to the goal-line.
But that lead led to a poor spell from City as David Edwards forced Hart into a spiralling save and then hit the post before Nenad Milijas levelled from the edge of the box with the aid of a couple of deflections.
City could have gone in front again from Adebayor but his header went six inches wide and level pegging at the break was not unfair on either side.
Balotelli was enjoying and up and down debut but the brightest attacking stars were Silva and Wolves winger Matt Jarvis who was real handful.
The Blues had plenty of possession in the second half but moved the ball too slowly and were shoved out of stride by Wolves’ hunger for the ball
...match report...
The home side got something to hold on to just before the hour when Kolo Toure’s attempted header clear fell to Kevin Doyle on the edge of the box.
The City skipper blocked the attempted shoot but it fell cruelly to Edwards who had a simple job to find the net.
Adam Johnson was introduced in an attempt to rescue a point and quickly had onlookers wondering why he hadn’t started.
It was he and Yaya Toure who set up a great chance for Adebayor but it was scooped over from 12-yards and the Blues were left heading for Poland in midweek licking wounds that have deepened.
