It was not pretty and certainly not memorable but Manchester City did what they had to if they intend to hang on to fourth place, managing another win without expending so much energy as to blight their chances in Europe. They needed to come from behind to do so, and bring on their key players to help kill off a resilient West Bromwich Albion, but no one is fooling themselves at this stage that the Premier League is where City need to shine brightest.
“We are always looking up, not over our shoulder” Manuel Pellegrini said drily when asked it if was possible to catch Arsenal in third. “The win was the main thing today, and staying clear of injuries. Kun [Sergio Agüero] had a kick at the end but will not be a problem for Tuesday.”
City have a potentially season-defining meeting with PSG in the Champions League in midweek and Pellegrini made a conservative selection, restricting Kevin De Bruyne and Yaya Touré to the bench as they eased back after injuries and leaving out David Silva to rest an ankle problem. He still insists the plan is to take maximum Premier League points between now and the end of the season, and everyone at the club is aware of the danger of allowing Manchester United to sneak past them and leaving Pep Guardiola looking at Thursday night football when he takes over in the summer, though once again City’s defence was too easily breached as the visitors raced into a fifth-minute lead.
First City gave the ball away on halfway, then failed to prevent James McClean’s overhit cross being rescued in leisurely fashion by Stéphane Sessègnon on the edge of the penalty area then, with Aleksandar Kolarov not quick enough to close down the shot, Joe Hart was comprehensively beaten at his near post. It took City only a dozen or so more minutes to level, Agüero marking his 200th appearance for the club with a goal from the penalty spot after Sessègnon was adjudged to have tripped Kolarov, though that was hardly the point. City will not progress very much further in Europe if they keep putting themselves under unnecessary handicaps, while Hart knows the new manager is already considering bringing in a new goalkeeper.
City’s defensive cohesion was so ramshackle at times that at one point just before the interval Agüero came all the way back to show there was nothing particularly difficult about bringing the ball safely and securely upfield, earning a knowing round of applause from the home fans in the process. Agüero showed some neat touches up front too, which was only to be expected. Unfortunately, they only served to point up the rather more leaden contributions of his strike partner Wilfried Bony. The former Swansea player is having one of those spells where nothing will go right, and frustration from the crowd is increasingly evident, though most people would suffer in direct comparison to Agüero. Bony did not do too badly at the less glamorous aspects of his job, such as winning the ball in the air and holding it up in forward positions. It was not his fault if Samir Nasri and Jesús Navas did not manage to do much with the resulting opportunities.
Sessègnon had much more idea of what to do with the ball in wide areas, as he showed when getting the better of Kolarov again at the start of the second half to send over a cross. Albion had lost some of their attacking edge when Salomón Rondón pulled up midway through the first half but they still kept trying. Appeals for a penalty when Sandro backed into Eliaquim Mangala from a Sessègnon cross were predictably and probably correctly turned down. Tony Pulis did a little war dance of disappointment in his technical area but the Albion manager would have been properly incandescent had such a decision been awarded against his own side. “I thought it was a penalty,” Pulis said. “And I think all the teams trying to get into the Champions League positions will be disappointed with the decision as well.”
City kept trying too, with Agüero bringing a save from Ben Foster just before the hour, though exactly on the hour Pellegrini decided the game needed rescuing from tedium and sent on Touré and De Bruyne. The effect was not quite immediate: City had to wait five more minutes before taking the lead, though as a consequence of the substitutions West Brom quickly found themselves pinned back. The game stopped being a shapeless midfield contest and turned into a battle of wits between slicker City passing and defenders suddenly obliged to up their concentration. De Bruyne made the breakthrough on the right, supplying Navas for a cross that led to an Agüero shot being blocked before Nasri tucked away the loose ball.
Albion were not done. Saido Berahino had a couple of chances to beat Hart including one that looked suspiciously offside, yet failed to test the goalkeeper on either occasion. Perhaps the best chance of all was 10 minutes from time when Craig Dawson’s low cross went right across the face of goal with Berahino inches from a touch to tap in at the far post. Agüero tested Foster at the other end and saw the visiting goalkeeper save with his legs, before the striker picked out Nasri with a deft pass only to see the winger’s attempted curler fly just wide.
Nasri, making his first start in over six months, was quite effective in the closing stages, though it was never a comfortable win. City hearts were in their mouths when McClean fired narrowly wide at a stoppage-time corner but the points were safely gathered in the end. United will have to wait another week to be offered any encouragement.
