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Penalty pointers
Pep Guardiola was nicknamed “Fraudiola” and was openly mocked by some critics the last time Manchester City took a beating against Leicester.
The Blues boss has put those words back down those snipers’ throats ever since.
He was ridiculed for saying he didn’t train by tackling, which wasn’t a revelation. Premier League coaches shouldn’t have to teach players how to tackle.
But the three penalties City gave the Foxes were a sign that while tackling practice would be futile, some advice on how to resist the urge to engage in reckless challenges, especially when facing the Jamie Vardy pace, might not. be bad.
Kyle Walker, Eric Garcia and Benjamin Mendy were all guilty of lapses – going to hell for leather in a challenge with someone as fast as Vardy looking for trouble. It is always likely that you will arrive first, so you should keep that in mind and contain the urge to compromise.
Delayed reaction
Fans have been quick to compare a terrible performance to the worst moments of last season.
But while Pep Guardiola said last week that there could be no “excuses”, there were at least some extenuating circumstances.
They had no advantage without Sergio Agüero or Gabriel Jesús: Raheem Sterling is not a spearhead of the attack, despite all his goals last week.
City faded badly in the second half at Wolves, but they had won the game at the time. This time around, they looked like a team that is either still tired from their short break or rusted from a lack of proper preparation, in contrast to a sharp and focused Leicester who got away with the game.
Palmer is going up
If Guardiola follows the same formula as last week, Cole Palmer will make his City debut at Burnley on Wednesday night.
The 18-year-old Wythenshawe was on the bench yesterday, and six of the seven substitutes at Wolves last Monday started against Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup three days later; the exception was Nicolas Otamendi, who Guardiola said had “drawbacks” but was apparently about to move to Benfica.
Doubt stones
After his half-and-half performance in Wolves, the jury was still out on John Stones. He was cool and precise in the first half, then wobbled in the second, a microcosm of his City career to date. But the fact that his body later disappointed him, when City fought for the numbers, felt like a great moment.
He was also injured two or three times last season, all of which led to the general feeling that his time at City was coming to an end.
Pep Guardiola has said that the Stones will be a fixture on his City squad for years, that prediction is starting to look a bit pale.
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Repeat foul
With consistency a hot topic when it comes to refereeing decisions, an incident early in the first half will not have gone unnoticed by City fans.
Raheem Sterling chased down a pass that his pace, despite being Jonny Evans’ second favorite, gave him a chance to get. Regardless, Sterling accidentally hit the heel of the Leicester defender while trying to escape and was rightly given a free kick.
If only the referee had been so lucid when Moussa Dembele did the same to Aymeric Laporte in the quarterfinals of the Champions League last month.
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