Man City defeats Wigan 1-0

In front of over 41,000 loyal supporters at Eastlands, Manchester City defeated Wigan 1-0 on the strength of a Pablo Zabaleta’s goal. Playing a man-down the final thirty-six minutes after Richard Dunne was shown a straight red-card by referee Lee Mason for a moment of madness as he deliberately attempted to injure Wigan’s Amr Zaki, the Citizens were under pressure constantly but managed to hold for the crucial three points. While Mr. Dunne’s foolish incident will be reviewed by the FA and will possibly be dealt with by further disciplinary action, the victory showed a more disciplined defending unit and a revitalized Elano.

From the get go it was obvious the importance of the victory as Shaun Wright-Phillips was pushed into the lineup even though not fully recovered. With a series of injuries, Robinho and promising young striker Daniel Sturridge were paired up top along with Wayne Bridge making his debut. The match certainly sputtered to a start early but through the work of Elano, Man City were the first side to threaten as he created a strong opportunity after the eleven minute mark that Robinho steered wide. Ten minutes later his provision led Robinho to chip the ball towards the goal but it was cleared off the line by Titus Bramble. Legitimate opportunities slowly evaporated and the match went to the break scoreless.

The cold winter match warmed up considerably seven minutes after the break with Pablo Zabaleta preying upon a poor clearance by Paul Scharner and one-touched volleyed the ball into the net to give Man City the 1-0 lead. Fireworks erupted two minutes later when after a mash-up between Richard Dunne and Amr Zaki, the City captain attempted to kick the Egyptian international. As a professional it was a complete meltdown on the pitch and whether you think the incident was “embellished” it wasn’t the workmanship of a veteran. Referee Lee Mason had no other choice to show him the red-card, forcing the Citizens to play a man down for the balance of the match.

Wigan stormed forward with Amr Zaki and Mario Melchiot coming painfully close within the next ten minutes but still unable to breakthrough Joe Harts goal. Finally at the eighty-sixth minute Wigan looked to level the match as Amr Zaki was gifted a easy opportunity off a Lee Cattermole rebound but somehow his close-range header went askew. Wigan continued to pour on pressure near the end but City held strong for the 1-0 victory.

With the victory Mark Hughes side climbs to eleventh in the table with twenty-five points. As an aside point, although he did not feature in the match, it was absolute brilliance to see Vladimír Weiss on the bench today. Of the finest pedigree the young winger continues to show extraordinary promise and hopefully will debut soon.