City On A Roll But For How Long?

Vital Manchester City newbie, claremont sent us the following:

Manchester City recorded their fifth consecutive Premier League victory on Saturday with a 4-2 win over Arsenal. That is the first time since 1986 the club has racked up five in a row in the top flight, albiet, City started that year with a bang, notching up consecutive league wins between 1 January and 8 February.

In typical City fashion they then failed to win another game that season accumulating just four more points from the remaining thirteen games. Fans are hoping the days of inconsistency have gone now that a committed and multi talented squad has been assembled. The next game though is a massive test at Old Trafford with City likely to be fielding a depleted forward line.

Robinho is out for a month and Tevez may not have sufficient time to recover from the knee injury picked up while playing for Argentina. Santa Cruz is apparently coming along nicely but will not have match fitness and Benjani's thigh is playing up again. That leaves Bellamy and Adebayor which would be more than adequate based on Saturday's performance against The Gunners.

However sections of the media have already decided that the Togolese striker is to receive an immediate ban following incidents in the match against his former club. The suggestion is that referee Mark Clattenburg will review the video recording of Adebayor's clash with Robin Van Persie and announce that he should have been dismissed for stamping. Such a review would normally occur when an official had an obscured view. Clattenburg though was perfectly placed and allowed play to continue.

Arsenal have portrayed themselves as victims for the third time in recent games following Eduardo's censuring for a dive and penalty decisions at Old Trafford. A carefully worded statement in the name of Van Persie appeared on their website shortly after the game against City.

Should the FA intervene and impose an immediate ban then City would inevitably have to play 4-5-1 in the Manchester derby. On the last occasion that the Blues recorded a sixth consecutive top flight victory they were able to call on Barnes, Kidd, Tueart and Bell in January 1978.

The good time beckon and quite rightly so.

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