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I sent a text to my flatmate at about 5:05pm on Sunday that read "We've scored 3 goals away from home, whats going on?", clearly this feeling is not new, we had some fine away days last year, but hopefully it will quieten down some of the more misguided critics of the club who claim we are a negative and boring team to watch.
In truth it wasn't all so straight forward, granted we dominated possession but it was still just a one goal margin that proved the difference at the final whistle, a couple of defensives lapses luckily didn't cost us but on another day in a different time the result could have been a crushing draw.
Whilst it wasn't entirely smooth sailing at the back, the point still remains that City really should have scored a couple of goals more than they did, Sergio Aguero missed a couple of sitters in an all action display and perhaps we were a little wasteful late on.
It was however a slick performance, with attacking threat throughout the game. Bolton away perhaps seems a strange game for Mancini to unleash some of our attacking talent but it was definitely a much more attacking display than some away days last season. With Toure occupying a much deeper role than normal playing alongside the superb Barry, Aguero and Dzeko were left to terrorise the Bolton defense.
There was perhaps some fortune about the first goal, Silva hit a nice strike from outside the area that perhaps should have been saved by Jaaskelainen, but there was no argument about the second and third. Barry struck a stunner from a well worked corner, something that perhaps we haven't seen enough of. At 2-0 City were in total command and it took a very sharp finish from Ivan Klasnic converting a Martin Petrov cross to fire the Trotters back into the game. There is perhaps more Lescott could have done to stop Klasnic from reaching the ball, but it wouldn't be right to take anything away from Bolton who scored a superb goal.
The second half began as the first half had done with City on top, not more than 2 minutes had past before Edin Dzeko fought for a Milner flick, marauded past Zat Knight before firing a superb finish into the Bolton net, it was a great goal from a player who is now firing on all cylinders, cynics of the Bosnian should really take note, Edin was first class again and lead the line superbly. Much to Mancini's disgust however City endeavoured to give Bolton a way back into the game again with Kevin Davies heading home a good fee kick which maybe again Lescott could have done better with. There were late cameos from Johnson and Tevez and in truth even though Bolton were just one goal behind the game ended with City being on top again.
2 wins from 2, and more important a couple of very impressive performances, next Sunday will be a real test at White Hart Lane, but until then lets enjoy being top of the league, and more importantly being the team who has played the best football in the first two weekends of the season.
Enough of my diatribe, lets get onto the numbers:
Joe Hart: 7 - Nothing he could do with either goal to be honest, made a couple of smart saves early on, other than that he really didn't have a great deal to do.
Micah Richards: 6 - Got a great assist for a goal that was wrongly ruled out for a foul, good attacking performance, he was at times troubled by Petrov though and perhaps could have done a bit better on the first goal.
Vincent Kompany: 6 - Never looked totally comfortable with Davies, did a good job for the most part but didn't always have his supreme confidence. Having said that the Bolton captain is one of the hardest players in the game to deal with.
Joleon Lescott : 6 - Strange one really, generally defended really well, perhaps better than his partner, but was at fault for both goals to a degree. He was the right sort of player for the occasion, should perhaps have marked Davies and left Klasnic for Kompany though.
Aleks Kolarov: 7 - He replaced Clichy and was superb to be fair, lethal coming forward, provided some great ammunition and created width exceptionally well. Defensively he dealt with Eagles well and didn't give him a sniff.
Gareth Barry: 8 - Superb performance, dominated the Bolton midfield with Yaya Toure, shielded the defense expertly and I think it was probably his best performance in a City shirt, even if it wasn't for his stunning goal it was a quality run out.
Yaya Toure: 7 - Played a much deeper role than normal and he excelled, didn't offer as much offensively as can be expected, but he shut things down well and his power and presence infront of the defense steadied the ship.
James Milner: 9 - This was why Milner was signed, his energy and enthusiasm was great, he created chances, was unfortunate to not score, and he got back and defended too. It was an all action display from the Englishman, more of the same please, absolutely superb.
David Silva: 8 - Another quality display from the Spaniard, scored a good goal and was once again the heartbeat. Mr Reliable is always there when we need him and his ability to just pop up between the lines is exceptional, if it weren't for Milner he would be my man of the match.
Sergio Aguero: 6 - A good performance from the Argentine but he should really have had 2 goals. Nice runs, good link up, and very hard working display, but not great in front of goal, plenty will follow though, there is no doubt about that.
Edin Dzeko: 8 - I could fast run out of positive things to say about the massive striker, another top performance. He held the ball up, brought in his team mates, he bullied defenders, fought for the ball and scored a superb goal, fantastic game for Edin and his tally is now 3 in 3.
Substitutes
Carlos Tevez: 6 - Where to begin? He looked interested, hungry, and passionate, whether he will remain though no-one knows. He doesn't look fit yet, but a good 30 minute run out.
Adam Johnson: 6 - Good cameo, but not really enough time to do anything, some tricky runs, but he was barely on the field for 10mins.
Pablo Zabaleta: N/A - No time to judge.
I have to give man of the match to James Milner personally, but to be honest it could have also gone to Silva, Dzeko or even Barry. The midfield and attacking unit was for the most part superb, but Milner stood out for me because I think he proved to some people just how useful he can be, and showed what he is capable of. The hard part for the England man now is to continue in that vain because he has proved what a massive part he can play in our push for success.
As I said when writing the report of the game against Club America, I am not going to cover the games in any great detail in preseason, this is more going to be looking at who impressed during our time in Dublin.
Our form in the run up to this season has seen us go unbeaten and whilst it doesn't really count for anything, some performances are giving extremely positive indicators for the coming season. We played 2 entirely different teams in both the games, and everyone in the squad got a decent run out with the exception of Sergio Aguero who has been thwarted with a bad case of blisters.
The game against the Irish XI was mostly a chance for some of the younger members of our squad to demonstrate their ability. With the exception of Gareth Barry, Adam Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stuart Taylor it was an extremely young side. The game was won 3-0 and was pretty straight forward really, the Irish team put up a good show of their defensive ability in the first half but City slowly picked up the pace as the game went on and there were some extremely encouraging performances.
SWP continued his impressive preseason, for me he was the man of the match, at this point we know exactly what we are getting, it was a performance full of endeavour and work rate and he along with Adam Johnson ran the show and gave the Irish defense a torrid time. They both managed to get on the score sheet with will well taken goals, Wright-Phillip's strike in particular was a lovely finish on the volley. There also has to be a lot of credit for Gareth Barry who played some defense splitting passes and got himself an assist.
Some of the youngsters impressed as well, one of the stand out performers for me was midfielder Abdul Razak who patrolled the midfield alongside the England international. He made a brief cameo against West Brom last season and he is highly thought of by many at Eastlands, he looked industrious and kept things simple, it was a very impressive performance.
Stefan Savic looked solid again at centreback, he had very little to do, but when he was tested he dealt with things well. Young Swiss player Frederic Veselli got another run out after his first against Club America, he looked competent and solid at full back and got forward well to support the midfield. Perhaps the best youngster was newly signed Denis Suarez, to say that he looks like a David Silva in waiting would be heaping too much pressure onto his shoulders, but he looked great. His movement in the midfield was superb, and he always wanted the ball, he floated about well and seemed to understand what was expected of him. He got 30mins and to be honest I was hoping he would play the full 90, but there are definitely signs there that he could go on to be a really special player.
The third goal was scored by a young Italian trialist Luca Scapuzzi, a player who has previously been at Milan, his goal will no doubt have done him a lot of good and who knows it may secure him a 12 month contract to see what ability he has.
The only real disappointments for me were Weiss and Guidetti some of the 'older' statesman in comparison. Weiss got a lot of praise on twitter, but a lot of it surprised me, he is full of endeavour but he has a real tendency to overcomplicate things, with a resurgent SWP I do wonder if he will see many games this season. Guidetti as well worked hard but never really tested the opposition defense, good effort and work rate, but there was very little final product.
Mario Balotelli was also much more involved this time, he scored a cracking header off a corner to give City the lead and he looked a constant threat. Such a frustrating player, if he was 'interested' every game like he was yesterday he would be a top striker, but his attitude makes it difficult. You don't know what you are going to get, his performance against Milan was much more FA Cup final rather than LA Galaxy.
The star of the show, as has been on numerous occasions however was David Silva, on a day where Wesley Sneijder was expected to shine, he was totally eclipsed by the magical Spaniard. He was the heartbeat of City again and there was a clear suggestion that he might be even better this year than he was last. Some of his passing was sublime and the Inter midfield never managed to get close to him. I still have concerns that we may be too reliant on him, but with the arrival of Sergio Aguero some of the creative responsibility might be taken away from him, and that may not necessarily be a bad thing.
There was another good cameo from AJ and SWP who played the final 10mins, and they combined late on for another Adam Johnson goal, if Wright-Phillips isn't at the club next year it would be a real shame, his preseason has been excellent. Milner looked solid and impressive in the midfield, his work rate is truly exceptional and I think people may have judged him too early last year and now that he is settled into his better position I am sure he will go along way to win over some of his critics.
3-0 against Inter Milan on paper is a great result, and it was, the team played with fluidity and understanding and that can only be a good thing with the Premier League season just 2 weeks away. It is important to remember that Inter are much earlier in their preseason than we are and so we always had a great chance of winning the game, but some of the performances on show were extremely impressive, definitely reasons to be cheerful as we start with the competitive games next weekend.
