West Bromwich Albion 0 - Manchester City 3

Date:	Monday 10th August 2015
Competition:	Barclays Premier League
WBA: 4.3	Myhill 5.8, Chester 4.7, Dawson 4.8, Lescott 5.3, Brunt 4.9, Gardner 4.2, Morrison 5.5, Fletcher 4.8, McClean 3.9 (Yacob, 46 5.2), Lambert 6.0 (Anichebe, 74 4.9), Berahino 5.9 (McManaman, 79 4.4) Manager: Tony Pulis 4.2
Man City: 8.0
Referee:	Mike Dean (Wirral) 3.9
Attendance:	25,564 Home Fans 5.7 Away Fans 6.7

Summary:

After a weekend of watching the top sides struggling somewhat in their first matches, you could have been forgiven for holding out a shred of hope that Albion might be able to make life difficult for their visitors. That hope may even have survived the first nine minutes, which City dominated and ended with a slightly fortunate goal from Yaya Toure that took deflections from David Silva and Craig Dawson before trundling into the far corner while Boaz Myhill could only stand and watch.

But surely City's second, an unstoppable strike by Toure from just outside the area, would have shattered any remaining hopes of any sort of result, their third courtesy of a Vincent Kompany header just providing a final turn of the screw.

Albion offered worryingly little in reply, a half chance from Saido Berahino and a free kick from Rickie Lambert that dipped just over the bar being about all there was to give any hope. The game wasn't helped by referee Mike Dean punishing almost every Albion foul with a yellow card but incensing the crowd by failing to do the same for City, but he can hardly be blamed for the defeat. All in all, the evening had a rather familiar feel to it.

Mark Koppel:

WBA 0 v Money Bags City 3

Although it was against £49m a player Man City I actually thought we would get something from this game tonight. As such it was a big disappointment. The speed of movement and passing from the Money Bags City really did expose our Dads Army Team at times, especially in mid-field. We have strengthened quite well this summer, as long as our best player Saido stays, but the lack of pace in the middle of the park is a concern.

Myhill 5 - Some good saves but looked vulnerable to high shots and headers, like the 3rd goal.
Dawson 5 - Pretty solid overall. Does like to take man and ball in a tackle if given the chance.
Lescott 5 - Is he past it at this level now?
Chester 4 - Really looked like a Centre Back out of position at Right Back. Have't we been here before?
Brunt 4 - Once again didn't look like the long term answer for left back.
Morrison 6 - Our most energetic mid-fielder, but that is not saying much.
Fletcher 3 - Very static. Might be ok if he had more youth and pace around him, which he hasn't got.
Gardner 3 - I think he was wearing Sessegnon's shooting boots tonight.
McClean 5 - Perhaps unlucky to get subbed off. Things got worse when Yacob replaced him.
Saido 6 - Not his best game, and missed a golden opportunity early second half. Still our best player by a country mile. Teams who want to progress don't sell their best players. Stoke and Crystal Palace haven't so why should we?
Lambert 5 - Tried without much impact today. I think it will come good with him this season though.

Subs

Yacob 2 - Massively exposed by his lack of pace and lack of a brain. Lucky not to get sent off for repeated fouling and lucky not to concede a needless penalty.
Sick Vic 5 - Made an impact but we all know he couldn't do this from the start and/or for 90 mins.
Calum 4 - We are still waiting to see what he can do at this level.

Matty_b:

City are a class team and would anyone be surprised if they won the league, I don’t think so.

I was surprised with the two upfront, but fair play to Pulis for ‘going for it’. I hope this doesn’t taint his thinking so we now get ‘not going for it’ against lesser teams when we should be…. If you know what I mean! Saying that, the addition of new strikers would surely mean they would be played more often than not, so hopefully we’ll get a twin attack most weeks.

I’m still very positive and think we are a decent squad with great attacking options and will be more than robust at the back. Maybe a keeper concern depending on Foster’s return / form. Just the midfield lacking that touch of class IMO, but you can’t have it all!

Brendan Clegg:

A bit late with this but I think Mark has got it pretty spot on anyway.

Quite why TP thought we'd be good enough to play 4 across the middle against City is a mystery and the only thing that stopped me from posting an immediate rant was Pulis coming straight out after the game and admitting it was completely his fault. Perhaps he was drunk on us signing Rondon still.

Surely the benchmark for us is the Chelsea game at the end of last season? Compact, 5 across the middle with pace in wide areas and Mozza in his best position with Saido up top? Why we would ever deviate from this is beyond me. Even against the so called lesser sides I don't believe we have one midfielder capable of playing in a flat 4 in the centre.

It was inevitable we'd get comfortably beaten playing like this so best to just sweep it under the carpet and move on - we could really do with getting soemthing at Watford.

Of the new boys I thought that McClean was totally anonymous - he wasn't alone but every time the ball came near him he passed it 5 yards backwards to Brunt and ran off up the line. I don't think he is a terrible buy at 1.5 million but are we to honestly believe he is better than Sess? Or McManaman? Or Brunt even? Probably going to be a covering out of position left back at best.

Chester was rubbish. He was playing out of position but you'd expect an 8 million pound footballer to be able to control a ball, pass it or cross it when unchallenged. I found this an odd signing, not big enough to play at centre half in my opinion and clearly not a right back. Not particularly quick either. did anyone else watch Hull last year and think 'he's one we could nab'? Dare I say that Wisdom was a better right back? I'd have a fit McAuley back in and move Dawson back across in a heartbeat.

Lambert did OK - it was a great shame we couldn't get numbers or pace up around him as he won his fair share and looked decent.

I thought Saido and Mozza were out stand out performers which is pretty par for the course - even when they overran the ball, gave it away cheaply or missed our best chances they both showed quality, intelligence and skill. Fletcher was probably our worst performer - nowhere near the legs to live with City. He read the odd pass well and was decent on the ball provided it was right to him but generally struggled quite badly.

Gardner was totally Gardner - plenty of effort and spirit but lacking in quality or pace when we ideally needed wither or both and although he wasn't afraid to shoot most people in the ground where fearful of him doing so. Lescott, Dawson, Brunt and Myhill were 6/10 - Dawson probably the pick and Myhill made some good saves.

Yacob was probably our first player to make a tackle but then seemed to be determined to get sent off. I'd have started him in a 5 but he genuinely seems to go a bit Jara nutcase when he comes off the bench.

So there we go - I was bouncing off the walls from 6am in the morning before the game anticipating another Chelsea-style show and got an Arsenal one as brilliantly summarised by Kev Buckley last season, especially regarding bizarre tactical objectives.

Peace (who I'm thankful remains our known-enemy-cum-saviour) has backed TP - I do wonder how we're going to get our highest earners/best players into the same 11 without reducing our overall effectiveness.

I'm sure Watford away isn't going to be one for the purists after a result like this and being an away game anyway.