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harry-newton
10th April 2017

Manchester City 3-1 Hull City

Manchester City got back to winning ways when they faced relegation contenders Hull City at the Etihad on Saturday
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TLDR

City vs Hull

If this game was a song…

Sunny – Bobby Hebb

The sun brought absolute madness to fans and players alike on Saturday, as Manchester saw massive highs of 14 degrees!!!1!! We don’t get it often in Manchester, and when we do, it sends everybody absolutely bananas.

The fans sang songs for Benjani and Shaun Wright Phillips like it was 2008 all over again, and there was utter disrepute on the pitch. An own goal set off the match as Ahmed Elmohamady put the ball into his own net following a sublime Jesús Navas cross. The next goal was almost just comical bad but with an awful lot more beautiful thrown in too. From Claudio Bravo in net, up to Sergio Aguero, the ball touched every single Manchester City player’s foot on the pitch without interruption until Raheem Sterling wriggled into the box effortlessly to square the ball to Sergio Agüero to score. Absolute sublime but there was also a little bit of madness, as the show was initially saved but then crashed against two Hull City players to go over the line. It’ll go down as Sergio’s goal and a beautiful team effort.

And just for balance, Manchester City threw some madness in of their own also. Hull City’s goal in 85th minute was only a consolation, but Claudio Bravo made sure they took the title of funniest goal of the day. The Chilean was back in the team, starting before Willy Caballero, but the ball went right through the hole in his hand. It may have been baking hot, but for Bravo – when it rains, it pours.

Niasse and Easy does it

Jesús Navas has been with Manchester City for four seasons now but has fallen out of favour particularly this season on the wing, with the emergence of Raheem Sterling. That being said, Navas has been given a run in the team… at right back. After facing Eden Hazard and Alexis Sanchez in his last two games at right-back, Navas was given an easier job today against Hull – namely with Kamil Grosicki, but he occasionally came up against Oumar Niasse and I really wanted to use that pun as the subheading for this bit. Navas had a really good game, after being under some heavy criticism from fans throughout the season. He’s not the best right-back in the world but he filled in well, and when attacking, playing just behind the winger worked well for him, assisting the first goal.

Fab Delph

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Wednesday’s trip to Chelsea ended in misery for City as they lost 2-1 in a close encounter at Stamford Bridge. The most surprising bit of the game was not that David Luiz and Sergio Agüero

didn’t try to kill one another, but the fact that Fabian Delph started his first Premier League game of the season. The English midfielder’s energy worked well, especially up against N’Golo Kanté. Starting again for City against Hull, Delph had a great game and was all over the pitch, even getting a goal to his name. The goal came from Raheem Sterling – who was comfortably Man of the Match for me – as he ducked infield from the wing and opened up play, he played it across to Delph who was allowed space due to Leroy Sané making a run down the wing. Delph moved forward with the ball and as soon as he reached the edge of the area, he let off a rasper of a shot into the back of the net. With İlkay Gündoğan injured, and Yaya Touré lacking in energy at the moment, Delph may find himself playing more in the latter parts of this season.

Numbers

Everyone loves a good stat don’t they – and there were some beautiful round numbers after this match which everyone loves, right?

300: David Silva captained City in his 300th appearance for the Blues, and received a beautiful standing ovation when he was substituted for Kelechi Iheanacho on the 72nd minute.

100: Fernando made his 100th appearance for Manchester City in all competitions.

100: City scored their 100th goal of the season in all competitions… and then Fabian Delph ruined my stats section by scoring the 101st.

10: 10 goals in 10 games now for Sergio.


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