Steve Bruce opted to make changes following the drab 0-0 draw with Portsmouth at the weekend. Clinton Morrison replaced Walter Pandiani up front, whilst Darren Carter, Stephen Clemence and Darren Anderton came into midfield for Stan Lazaridis, Mehdi Nafti and, wait for it, Damien Johnson.
A quick match summary...
Man City started brightly and were nearly in front within a minute when Robbie Fowler hit the post and Shaun Wright-Phillips hit the follow-up over the bar. Blues gradually began to settle, but without really creating too much. There were a few neat interchanges, and for a 5 minute spell they put together two good passing moves - one culminating in Emile Heskey firing over - but that was it really.
The second half started in much the same vain, and about 10 minutes in there was one of those so-called 'turning points' when Blues had a goal disallowed. Jermaine Pennant's low cross was turned in by Morrison, but he was flagged for offside. After that Fowler, Richard Dunne and Antoine Sibierski with a penalty settled the game in the home side's favour.
Now, some issues arise as a result of this...
I had actually thought before the game that it would be a good opportunity to freshen things up a bit, bring a few players in, rest one or two others, etc. Bruce did this. However, it's no good just simply doing that - the players who come in, and those whom they are playing alongside need to know how the side is going to play. There was absolutely no hint of any kind of system whatsoever for practically the entire evening from Blues. It's all very well throwing Darren Carter back in for Stan Lazaridis, but then you have to think 'actually, at Chelsea we played Carter wide left, and he struggled' and you have to decide against it. Nico Vaesen is as much of a left winger as Darren Carter is.
The answer to losing patience with inept performances isn't to throw different players in to churn out the same inept performances - it's to try and change whatever tactics are being employed that produce such inept performances. If you think you want to take Damien Johnson's 'headless chicken' role out of the team, then take the 'headless chicken' role out of the team - don't just assign it to a different player. It's the way the bloody team play that's meant Blues have been crap most of this season - not the players in the team.
A neutral observer may have commented tonight that Blues had 'variety to their play', but this wouldn't have been a compliment. It was the fact that they realised, 'Oh dear, this long ball up to Heskey isn't working - let's try something else'. This was then followed by, 'Damn, the shift-the-ball-wide-to-Pennant approach isn't working now either, so let's start passing it across the back four for minutes on end'. Blues lack any kind of notion of creating against teams that don't want to be created against - ie. most of the Premier League.
True, at times tonight, following the words of messrs Cisse and Melchiot, Blues did try and keep the ball on the deck at times. However, there's a difference between balls along the floor in behind full backs so your right winger can cut the ball back dangerously into the area (a la Manchester City and Wright-Phillips) and balls along the floor from centre half to deep midfielders to full back to centre half to goalkeeper (a la Blues). If you're as hopeless at creating things with the ball to feet, you may as well lump it long to Heskey and see what happens.
So, as I've said, it's not necessarily the players. In fact, let's look at some of the players who represented Blues last night:
Maik Taylor was last season voted the Premiership's best goalkeeper, and is hailed as a hero everytime he plays for his country. Mario Melchiot has won the FA Cup and is an established first team player for the country who are generally credited (along with Brazil) as playing the most attractive brand of football. Kenny Cunningham is the captain of a nation who are competing very well with France for a World Cup spot.
Matthew Upson was the country's first £2 million teenager and was also the first English player that the great Arsene Wenger ever signed. His former Arsenal colleague, Jermaine Pennant was the first £1 million teenager at the age of 15 and is one of only two players in history to score a hat-trick on their Premiership debut. Speaking of hat-tricks, Walter Pandiani has scored a hat-trick in the Champions League, not to mention many other strikes at the same level - including home and away against this year's favourite AC Milan just a year ago. Emile Heskey has 40 caps for his country - a country generally regarded as one of the strongest in world football. God, even Clinton Morrison has an international strikerate that the likes of Henry and van Nistelrooy can only dream of.
I think those things speak for themselves - Blues don't have a bad set of players. So, it's obvious that something else is wrong, and has been for most of this season. The players are clearly good enough, yet this season they've been beaten home and away by a team in Crystal Palace who boast the likes of Emerson Boyce, Tony Popovic, Dougie Freedman, Aki Riihilahti and even their star Andrew Johnson - a player who never looked like he'd make a player at St Andrews.
It's becoming painfully obvious that tactics and motivation are the issues here. Is that down to Steve Bruce? I don't know. Is it down to Eric Black? Again, I don't know. Is it down to the fact that we only really appear to have those two involved in the first team set-up? Once again, I can't answer that.
At the same time, I'm not paid to try and answer those questions, but there are people at the club who are, and they need to start answering those questions because the fans won't put up with this much longer. It's alright wishing for this season to end, but the fact remains that we've had this season, and it's been awful for the most part. Even so, with four games to go, it's easy to envisage three defeats on tonight's showing, with Everton, Norwich and Arsenal all desperate for points. Only Blackburn at home seems to offer the potential for any reward, and that could be tricky.
I know that 'if' is a big word (well, not literally - it's small literally...), but IF Blues hadn't won four games in a row over Christmas, or IF Blues hadn't done the double over our near neighbours and Liverpool (which you can't expect to do every season), then you wouldn't just be talking about Blues struggling, you'd be talking about them being bottom of the league. Like I say, it's a big 'if', but it's there all the same.
Blues have been miserable this season, and it's time people started answering some questions and taking some responsibility, and, most importantly doing something about it. I suspect that if nothing positive is done, the likes of Melchiot and Heskey will be more than entitled to start to question their commitment to a team who appear to be going absolutely nowhere.
Man City: James, Onuoha, Dunne, Distin, Jordan, Shaun Wright-Phillips (Croft 90), Barton, Reyna, Musampa, Fowler (Bradley Wright-Phillips 81), Sibierski. Subs Not Used: Weaver, Mills, McManaman.
Blues: Maik Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham (Lazaridis 41), Pennant, Carter, Anderton (Pandiani 76), Clemence (Blake 66), Heskey, Morrison. Subs Not Used: Bennett, Martin Taylor.
Booked: Morrison.
Att: 42,453
Ref: M Atkinson (W Yorkshire).