City miss Silva lining

SO, from one title “decider” to another. Such is the unpredictability of an incredible season.
Manchester City, who had looked the more likely winners for much of the second half at Anfield on Sunday, are now outsiders and it’s Chelsea who could yet steal it from Liverpool.
The Blues’ visit to Merseyside a week on Sunday looks like the crucial game now. But don’t put your mortgage on it.
City were completely unconvincing against a Sunderland side that had lost their last five games – and were lucky to get a point. Sunderland! So bedraggled had the bottom club become that even manager Gus Poyet had almost given up on them.
After intimating that several players were rubbish and there was “something wrong” with the club itself, on the eve of the game the Uruguayan had to deny strong rumours that he was quitting.
On the face of it, City couldn’t have wished for an easier game to put the Liverpool defeat behind them.
But this is the Premier League, when the age of Superclub dominance is still being resisted on the field, when upstart Davids can still fell wobbling Goliaths.
Sunderland could easily have won this in the first half and although City came close to repeating the late heroics of two years ago, that kind of lightning simply cannot strike in the same place twice.
Their fans sensed it and when the second Sunderland goal went in the sprinkling of empty seats became light blue blotches as City’s desperation mounted.
So a season that began with so much promise and not so long ago had their manager talking of a Quadruple, could end in a whimper and an expensive one at that.
It was unfortunate for City that on the eve of such a poverty-stricken performance they were revealed as the biggest payers in world sport.
And as the crowd no doubt grumbled, many booing at the end, there weren’t many earning it on this evidence.
But in truth, their title chances have slipped in instalments. No sooner had the League Cup been secured, they seemed to stagger in pursuit of the other three trophies. Getting Barcelona in the Champions League didn’t help and then came the shock FA Cup loss to Wigan. And key players kept getting injured.
They may pay the most but they did not buy the best – at least not in all the right positions. Like Barcelona, they seem to think the way to cover up a deficiency in central defence is to buy more forwards.
There was no Neymar but the money spent on Stefan Jovetic would have been better invested on a centre back.
The Quad slipped from their grasp almost in the slow motion manner that the ball ultimately eluded Vito Mannone’s despairing attempts to keep out Samir Nasri’s 88th minute equaliser.
Scrambling recoveries were attempted in both cases but it came down to not being strong enough in the first place.
And in City’s case an overdependence on one man – the instigator of the fightback at Anfield but the one who was sadly missing against Sunderland: the magical, mesmeric David Silva.
You can’t blame City for not having an alternative – only Andres Iniesta would be – but the team is over-reliant on the little Spaniard’s incessant buzzing and marvellous creativity.
But like just about all his teammates, he’s taken too many knocks from a hard season.
Even dreaming about four trophies takes some effort and City were in contention until last month.
And once again we see what a massive advantage Liverpool enjoyed by not being in Europe this season and not doing much in either of the domestic cups.
Just what lessons City learn from this will be fascinating to see.
They may be richer than God but don’t have a lot of room for manouevre.
Besides already being top payers, they are facing punishment for failing to meet the Financial Fair Play rules.
It could be a fine or a transfer ban. Either way it is not what was on the Abu Dhabi drawing board.
Even if City don’t become champions, Manuel Pellegrini is still on course for his five trophies in five years, although you feel he’ll need something more than the League Cup next time.
He deserves to stay on – not all the signings were his after all – and he has nurtured a better team spirit than his predecessor. How City get around FFP and still assemble a squad for world domination is not just down to him.
It’s not all over for them yet, but if the body language and post-match comments were anything to go by, they are depending on both Liverpool and Chelsea messing up.
You can’t help but feel Liverpool’s name is etched on the trophy though as their second most awkward fixture – Crystal Palace away – may be a lot easier now as Palace are safe.
But City have to go there too and need to win all five remaining games. Still, the next title decider really looks as if it will live up to the name.