Manchester City 3 1 Blackburn Rovers Review

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Blackburn may have had Samba the player, but City had samba the rhythm, as goals from their South American trio of Elano, Robinho and Felipe Caicedo brought them a comfortable, if not entertaining, victory over athoroughlyunimpre sive Blackburn Rovers side. The home team led three  nil at the break, and despite a second-half goal from Keith Andrews, the final scoreline was never in doubt.On the whole, this encounter was a dull affair, with limited action and barely any excitement, but the result moves City up into eighth place in the Premier League table, and continues their excellent home record, Keven Durant Jersey  having now won eleven out of the past twelve games at Eastlands. Blackburn remain in fifteenth position, currently lying six points off the relegation zone, but their manager, Sam Allardyce, will surely be concerned with his sides lacklustre display.Big Sam hasnt acquired that name for no reason Team NewsBlues bo s Mark Hughes named the same side that started the win against Everton in Citys previous match, with Micah Richards recovering in time from his knock. Bulgarian duo Valeri Bojinov and Martin Petrov, who both scored for the reserves in midweek, were named on the bench, where they were joined by Brazilian defender and Jewish legend Berti. One recent addition to the City faithful, a little ball-boy who is positioned near the South Stand, was greeted with his now customary chant of Shauny Wright Wright Wright sincethe resemblance to the England winger is remarkable, whilst this adorable kid, soon to be known as SWP 2, delighted the fans with his occasional wave when prompted.Former Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce faced an injury crisis up-front, with Roque Santa Cruz and Jason Roberts both ruled out, and with Matt Derbyshire away on loan, behemoth Congolese defender Christopher Samba was asked toplay as a forward, where he was partnered by Benni McCarthy. Although Samba clearly offers a physical presence, akin Jason Kidd Jersey  to the one posed by Felipe Caicedo for City, one could not help but wonder if Rovers had severely weakened their defence, but Allardyce is the manager for a reason, so we would have to wait and see if this was an inspired tactical choice.City Line-Up (4-2-3-1) GivenRichards  Dunne  Onuoha Bridge de JongKompanyElanoIreland   Robinho CaicedoSubs: Hart, Garrido, BERTI, Fernandes, Petrov, Evans, BojinovGet a room, lads!ReportThe match started at a fairly sedentary pace, with barely any action within the opening quarter of an hour, a swerving Vince Grella shot aside. The travelling Blackburn faithful attempted to imitate their City counterparts by bringing inflatable bananas with them, but the idea backfired when only two fans joined in. The loudest cheer in the first few minutes was for the SWP look-a-like ball-boy when he retrieved the ball for a corner, which was promptly cleared.Turkish midfielder Tugay Kerimoglu, who is being released at the end of the season, should have been cautioned for a tackle on Stephen Ireland, before City took the lead in the 26th minute following a goalmouth scramble of gigantic proportions. Elano swunga cornerover and the ball fell to Caicedo, via Kompany, Onuoha, Samba, Warnock and Pedersen, two yards out and the Ecuadorian made no mistake with his unerring finish; a toe-poke into the corner! The striker was booked for taking his shirt off when celebrating, thus revealing a body that should not belong to a 20 year old.Caicedo pokes home before taking off his shirt to celebrateFirmly in the ascendancy, City pushed in search of a second goal, and that goal duly arrived just after the half-hour mark when another corner from Elano found Vincent Kompany on the edge of box. The Belgians header was cleared, but only to the right boot of Robinho, who calmly stroked the ball home past the stranded Paul Robinson to extend the home sides advantage.Forced to open up Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot Jersey  a smidgen in order to restore parity, Blackburn started to cause a few problems, with Benni McCarthys header agonisingly dropping just over the bar with Given helple s. Both Tugay and Andre Ooijer saw their long-distance efforts land harmle sly wide, but it was still City who led.Robinhos effort beats Robinson, whilst the Brazilian does his best impre sion of the Asda advert to celebrateWith half-time approaching, Blackburn were almost down and out, but City delivered the final blow courtesy of creative midfielder Elano, whose penalty found the back of the net. A neat interchange of pa sing between Robinho and Ireland saw the Irishman set free inside the box, but his attempted back-heel was handled by Gael Givet, so referee Mike Hunt Dean pointed to the spot. Furious at the decision, which  Julius Erving Jersey replays proved was correct, a plethora of Blackburn players surrounded the official, who proceeded to caution three of them. Elano stepped up and, as we all expected, calmly slotted the ball past Robinson to give City a three  nil lead at half-time.Givet handles the ball before Elano sends the keeper the wrong wayThe second period brought a spate of substitutions for both sides, with the visitors utilising their full allocationof three changes, replacing McCarthy, Tugay and Samba with Carlos Villanueva, Keith Andrews and youngster Aaron Doran. Meanwhile, City brought on Bulgarian striker Valeri Bojinov in place of Caicedo.In general, the second-half contained about as much excitement as a geriatric get-together, but the boredom was lifted when Dean awarded the visitors a penalty in the 66th minute for a foul by Nedum Onuoha on Pedersen. Everyones favourite player to hate, El Hadi Diouf, stepped up, but was foiled by a fantastic diving save from Given. And although the former Newcastle stopper also stopped the rebound, Keith Andrews was on hand to tap the ball home to give the scoreline a tinge of respectability.The rest of the game meandered on, with Martin Petrov replacing the impre sive Elano, but Blackburn offered limited threat and City ran away comfortable winners. It was the first time since October 2007 that the Blues had strung together a run of three consecutive Premier League wins, so confidence in the Bruce Brown Jr. Jersey  camp should be high for the all important game next week; the derby!Morten Gamst Pedersen and Wayne Bridge contest an aerial ballKey BattlesMicahRichardsv Morten Gamst PedersenRichards, despite being doubtful for this match with the injury he picked up against Everton, was solid enough at the back, without ever being in total control. He made a couple of lung-busting runs forward, but his final ball needs work on. Pedersen, whose Rory Delap-esque long throw was deployed on several occasions without any notable succe s, drifted in and out of the game, but was still capable of supplying quality from a dead-ball situation. This was a fairly evenly matches contest, so the final outcome is a DRAW.Elano v Stephen Warnock Warnocksdistribution and general positional play left a lot to be desired, and with Elano in po sibly the form of his life, the former Liverpool left-back was tormented throughout the match. The Brazilian was full of dainty flicks and wonderful skills, and his pa sing was a
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