EPL wrap: Brilliant Toure raises City’s expectation

There was not a flicker of satisfaction on Robert Mancini’s face as he spoke afterwards following Manchester City’s fifth Premier League win on the bounce, this one achieved against one of the best teams in the division and not at the sanctuary of the Eithad Stadium but at the boisterously intimidating arena of the Sports Direct Arena, home to Newcastle United. The 2-0 win was matched later by an already deflated Manchester United in their somewhat easier fixture at home to Swansea. But with no change in the eight-goal advantage held by City, another win on the final day of the season will now propel Mancini’s City to their first Championship since 1968. It took an innovative substitution by the Italian to lift his team on Sunday. With half an hour to go in a game locked at 0-0, he brought off the French midfielder Samir Nasri - a player who likes to push on to the edges of the opposition penalty box - and brought on the efficiently dour gap-plugger, Dutch international Nigel De Jong. This was a move met with confusion in some quarters, but the real cognoscenti knew what was going on. Blogger Michael Cox, whose ZonalMarking website is a must-read, called it “the key substitution of the Premier League season”. [caption id=“attachment_300582” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Toure scored a corking goal from outside the area, a curling, sweetly-struck finish. Getty Images”] [/caption] The arrival of De Jong was instrumental in allowing Yaya Toure to move into a more advanced central role, and he immediately became a nuisance to a Newcastle defence that already had its hands full coping with Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez. And the vital goal duly arrived. Supplied by an Aguero pass, Toure scored a corking goal from outside the area, a curling, sweetly-struck finish. A few seconds before that crucial opening goal had been registered, Mancini had already removed Tevez from the fray – replacing him with Edin Dzeko, another fresh pair of legs to terrorise the Magpies defence. But of the two switches, it was clearly the De Jong gambit that was the most important. In the period between the two goals City had the best two defensively-minded midfielders in their squad — De Jong and Gareth Barry — to soak up Newcastle’s attacks, and that was very important. Remember that the home side were chasing precious points to try to qualify for the Champions League, and with Papiss Demba Cisse in electric striking form, it was vital for City to cut off the supply route down the middle from Yohan Cabaye. Yet however good the tactics and strategy are, it comes to nothing if the players don’t deliver the goods. Ivory coast international Toure put Mancini’s plans into action by playing one position brilliantly for 60 minutes and then another equally well for the final third of the match. He was Mr Adaptability. The extraordinary range of quality in City’s midfield – David Silva, by the way, had a fantastic game at Newcastle – is something that Liverpool fans would kill for in their own team. In the FA Cup final 24 hours earlier, Kenny Dalglish had picked what looked like the right side – 4-2-3-1 with Stewart Downing and Craig Bellamy on the flanks and two holding midfielders in Jordan Henderson and Jay Spearing. The first half was horrible though, unless you were a Chelsea fan. Liverpool had plenty of possession after going 1-0 down, and plenty of space on the left to build their attacks because Juan Mata, notionally playing in a central role, was always drifting to the left side for Chelsea. The trouble was that Jose Enrique lacked quality and the man in front of him, Downing, simply lacked courage. Time and again, the expensive signing from Aston Villa had opportunities to run at Jose Bosingwa or Ramires, but time and again he simply bottled out of the challenge and played a sideways pass to Steven Gerrard. Downing completely failed to link up with the isolated Luis Suarez. Spearing also had a poor game on the big stage and when Liverpool finally brought him, off trailing 2-0, they went 4-2-4 and did a decent job of terrorising Chelsea’s defence. Unfortunately, Dalglish – as he has done all season – was too slow to make the substitution. Andy Carroll only had time to score one goal – tantalisingly, he almost added another but only three-quarters of the ball had crossed the line when Petr Cech clawed his header up onto the crossbar and away. Tournament specialists Chelsea had won the day again, winning the Cup for the fourth time in six seasons. It will be surprising now if interim manager Roberto Di Matteo does not have the job on a permanent basis next season. If he can go on and win the Champions League as well, Roman Abramovich will probably buy him a yacht.