The final fixture of the Run of Doom™ is finally here, then we can get back to playing some other teams that are also a bit crap like us. It's been a really mixed journey, taking in: an insipid defeat to Liverpool; a barnstorming win at Everton; a total non-performance vs Southampton; an unlucky defeat at Arsenal; a brilliant win to write off Ole's car for good; a promising performance undone by the defence in the snow at Leicester; and a valiant defeat to Chelsea. Six points from those seven games isn't awful but it's fair to say we are a slightly bonkers, unpredictable and sometimes infuriating team. What can easily be predicted, however, is what happens every time we play Manchester City. The stats just keep rolling in here - haven't beaten them in 18 games going all the way back to 1989, and have lost 16 out of those 18. Gets even better when we enter the Pozzo era where we've lost 13 in a row, scoring six and conceding a barely believable 50, including of course the record equalling shellacking in the cup final. But what's that I hear? Pep Guardiola the cashmere wearing sociopath says they are facing an emergency and only had 14 or 15 players available for tonight's game against Villa. Poor Pep had to make do with putting out a starting XI with a meagre value of just north of £500m and could only bring on a £100m sub. He's a bit of weird bloke Guardiola, the manager that has been given everything on a plate and yet can't stop moaning and making excuses. Here is in 2018, saying they only had 15 fit players before a Champions League tie, and oh look in 202o they only had 13 players and his Bayern Munich only had eight or nine fit back in 2014. Just very odd behaviour from a man who has only ever managed clubs with the very deepest pockets and squads. Try wandering into the treatment room at London Colney and looking at the remnants that Claudio has to try to forge a defence from, then you'd really understand what a crisis was. There are many good reasons to dislike Manchester City other than Guardiola. The sports washing, the circumnavigation of Financial Fair Play and the attempt to bully UEFA afterwards, the fact that 95% of their goals seem to be the same one where they cut the ball low across the six yard box for a tap in. But actually, the thing that annoys me most about them was once again their ******ous manager's behaviour. Cast your mind back to the dying embers of our relegation season and Manchester City had already lost the title to Liverpool but still had the FA Cup final and were in the delayed Champions League. They had consecutive league games against two teams fighting the drop with Bournemouth just before the FA Cup Final and Watford just after. So what did Guardiola do? He rested all his best players for the Bournemouth game and then recalled them all for the Watford game because he couldn't care less about the integrity of the relegation scrap, could he? That's just the little people at the bottom of the table, somewhere he's never had to worry about. Ever since then, I've taken great pleasure in watching him bottle the important games where he's been consistently out thought by the coaches that have now overtaken him. His philosophy is a busted flush now, great for steamrolling the dregs of the Premier League like us but he's lost the plot when he comes up against any manager that has even remotely similar resources. So yes, it'll probably be another 5-0, the commentators will wax lyrical about how even the Watford fans in the stands will be enjoying the quality of the football, we might even get to wave our flags a bit. If they do win, then it's expected, it's financial doping and he'll stay there a bit longer underachieving and never winning the Champions League, just like he couldn't at Bayern. And you never know, Don Claudio, the ultimate gentleman, might mastermind a rare win over the charmless Citizens (does anyone really call them that?) and at least we wouldn't have to wait until the post match interview to know what the excuse would be...
I can't stand Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd etc but Man City just don't even register with me. Clearly a brilliant team but their football bores me to death. When you buy success in the way they have it's just difficult to see them as anything other than soulless, I don't really think of them as a football club enough to hate them!
Sounds vaguely ludicrous to say, but I think I hate City more than L*ton...inbred ****s the latter may be, but at least they're not a sportwashing front for a murderous regime (plus, you know, the 8-0 and the 6-0!). I'm absolutely not confident of us getting something (though we're ******* due something against them!), but, as usual with us (perhaps even more so with their arrogantly open style of play), I'm confident we knock in a goal or two!
Kevin Friend is the referee, so we all know we’re going to get shafted again. If things get a little sticky for City, Friend will be their friend to help them over the line. He’s their insurance policy in case we play well against them.
With their resources they should win every domestic tournament every year. I really think that Guardiola is underachieving. Their bench did look a bit short of first-teamers today. Give them a good kicking early doors as we did tonight. See if they are up for it. If Ranieri gets any kind of positive result then he can have a statue - Etihad City are our ultimate nemesis.
For ******* real, that ref tonight was ***** but friend, we may as well forfeit now Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Nothing to lose. Expected to get smashed and it’s the end of the hard run of fixtures. Put a performance in like the last 2 home games and we have a glimmer of hope. Listened to a villa fan on radio who was upset they never got anything from the game in the end. Could be a good time to play them if there is such a time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As much as I understand the sentiments in the OP, I still find I always want Man City to overcome Liverpool (and Man United for that matter, whenever they are a threat). I suspect this is a historical thing for me.
I agree with both of these comments. I actually enjoy watching them play (aside from when playing us) as them winning means Liverpool won't win the title and anything that prevents that is good in my book. Also their fans aren't particularly offensive from my experience and are generally pretty ok. Not like the Liverpools, man utds, and arsenal's who are people to dislike. So in general I don't really mind City. If they could just go easy on us for once that would be nice.
I lived in Manchester for 3 years when I was at University. It's a great place and a more of the locals I encountered (taxi drivers, bar staff and people I worked with in kitchens for a few quid) were City fans as opposed to United. They were probably the most "soulful" club in the Premier League back them (mid 90s), great unwavering support and a team that would sometimes spark into life and turn in great performances. Fast forward 20 years and they are a horrible, gold plated mutation of what made them such a great club. A horrible mix of a rich man's toy and a PR machine to paper over human rights abuses.
It's round one of our seasonal batterings by the Blue Moon of Manchester. but, surely we can at least give them a game for once? I say that in as much jest as expectation. We drew with Arsenal 2-2, played really well, then played City and got hit for EIGHT. I really don't know the mindset of our players when they see those navy blue shirts running at them under previous managers. However, Uncle C as a new mindset - we played the current leaders at their game and should of got a draw or even a win. Man City are not some terrifying nightmare for the players to fear. We know we can give them a game, and that's all we can ask. I think the general setup will be similar to last night. We will probably lose, but I do not feel it will be an scoreline to be ashamed of. Watford 1 City 3
I loved last night's performance - Sissoko was superb - but I do wonder if they can do it again on Saturday. The next game comes even sooner than this one did after Leicester and the players certainly started to tire in the last 20 minutes against Chelsea. The will was still there but the passing was not quite as sharp.
I also think aside from Claudio, we also finally have a competent forward line meaning hopefully we won't be camped in our half for 90 minutes watching them carve us up like a well roasted turkey. If we can give them something to think about in their half, I'm hoping it means we aren't subject to the standard thrashings for once.
I also think it will be a huge boost if we can get through this weekend and not be in the relegation zone after this horrendous run of fixtures is over. I know we're relying on 2 other teams not winning but if we could still be a couple of points off then we head in to Christmas in a good place comparatively.
If we can avoid the traditional shoeing then we’ll be well set for the rest of the season. We may not even be in the relegation zone after this game, and we’re playing a lot better than under Pearson when he took over and we were miles off safety then.
Getting anything against City would be such an incredibly uplifting event. I am confident that I will be miserable on Saturday evening. Other than Man City and Palace, I have no very strong dislike for other Premier League clubs. I think Newcastle will be a club to despise in time to come, but they may be a championship club next season.
We also lost to West Ham an unlucky 13 games in a row (though we didn't lose by nearly so much on average) - wonder if that's the joint record for consecutive defeats against the same opponent?
I don't even care what the score is, all we needed to do was not be cut adrift at the end of this run of games. We could now finish it outside the bottom three and with a general feeling of positivity around the club, remarkable work from Ranieri.
It will be interesting to see if we try and press city like we did last night. Not hopeful of a positive result but would be nice to be competitive.
Got the stats from this website. Can see the run you were referring to but this shows a draw in something called the Simod Cup that broke up the run of 13 defeats... https://www.11v11.com/teams/watford/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/West Ham United/
A significant proportion of our squad are not infected with the trauma of being involved in our recent stuffings by them. Bachmann, WTE, Rose, Sissoko, Louza, Dennis, King, Cucho, Kucka, Tufan, Ngakia have never faced them for Watford & JP was an unused sub in the 0-4 home defeat in the relegation season. Whether any selection we may put out is up to competing with them will depend to a large extent upon which Citeh turns up. But at least we can hope that the team will not be mentally shot before they even run onto the pitch.
I've got this nagging little feeling that we're going to absolutely snot them. 4 ******* nil us. With King Dennis in the side anything is possible. If he's out we're dead obvs.
Liverpool aside which you can’t really take much from, Ranieri doesn’t seem to care too much about who the opposition are. This is understandable and makes sense given our position, these are free swing games so we may as well go at them, especially when our defence is so bad that attack is our best form of defence. Previous managers when facing City have in the main crapped the bed and set the team up for damage limitation which has almost always backfired and seen us get mauled. I’m confident Ranieri will not approach this game in the same way that our previous managers have. We’ll still lose, but it’s preferable to go down swinging rather than parking 10 behind the ball and playing no forwards like previous managers.
Hopefully we play as well as we did yesterday. It's still City though so I'm going with a 4-1 loss with 2 of the goals coming from mistakes by WTF
Silly name calling is what 14yr olds do, apologies if your are 14. WTE deserves most of the criticism he get's, but there is no need for juvenile name calling.
Hopefully there'll be no internet in Kenya and by the time I get back this will just be a distant memory ......after our 4-0 defeat at Brentford.
