Manchester City caught napping by Stoke’s Marko Arnautovic
Stoke 2 - 0 Man CityHome team scorers
Marko Arnautovic 7
Marko Arnautovic 15
Marko Arnautovic scores Stoke’s second goal against Manchester City at the Britannia Stadium.
Stoke put on a masterclass against a Manchester City who were just plain awful. Mark Hughes’s side were everything Manuel Pellegrini’s men hope to be: quick, slick and teeming with dazzling trickery.
The headline acts in Stoke’s fourth consecutive home victory were Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic, who scored both goals and could and should have had a hat-trick.
Shaqiri was the Potters’ creator and the visitors’ tormentor-in-chief. It was his two sublime balls that punched the hole in the visiting defence from which Arnautovic beat Joe Hart.
As Hughes said: “We had a number of chances. We were way ahead of Man City and could have made it embarrassing for them. But we’re happy with two goals and the fact that we knew what we had to do today and we went out there and did it. It came off because the players worked so hard to make it happen.”
So Stoke were impressive, defying the stereotype that they are a dour, unadventurous proposition. But the visitors, in truth, were close to embarrassing. There are ways to be beaten and to go down toothless while hitting passes straight out, lacking a first touch, and having all other base elements of the elite player missing is unforgivable.
The fault line in Pellegrini’s team runs through the defence. When Vincent Kompany is absent they struggle. The captain is out with his latest calf injury and yet again his side paid. Martín Demichelis, Saturday’s replacement for the Belgian, had already been left behind by a skipping Arnautovic before he punished City with the opener. This time the Austrian beat Demichelis to Shaqiri’s perfectly measured cross and it was 1-0. Yet the centre-back would not have been exposed if Fernando had earlier challenged the Swiss along the Stoke right to prevent him motoring forward and finding Arnautovic.
More of the same slipshod defending was about to come. The Stoke No10’s first came after seven minutes, his next was on the quarter-hour. Again, Shaqiri was the provider. Again, Fernando, who suffered a hamstring problem and so could be a seventh City player unavailable through injury, failed to reach him. This time the forward skipped infield from the right and passed forward towards Bojan Krkic. The latter failed to collect and the ball travelled on to Arnautovic. Bacary Sagna may have been covering across from right-back but the Frenchman should still have been closer. He was not and Hart was given no chance by Arnautovic for a fifth of the campaign for the club.
So scant were the visitors’ forays into Stoke territory that any felt like news. Kevin De Bruyne was as becalmed as Raheem Sterling, Wilfried Bony and David Silva, who was making a first league start since 3 October. The Belgian did skip along the left once before pinging the ball in towards Silva. The Spaniard allowed it to run and the move folded.
At the other end Stoke’s ability to carve through the Sky Blues had become regulation by the break. First, Arnautovic was slipped in with ease by Krkic. Later, the latter strolled past the struggling Demichelis into Hart’s area. And, Arnautovic (yet again) had a golden chance for his third. This time Glenn Whelan’s left boot placed the ball on to the 26-year-old’s head and while the effort wrongfooted Hart it was inches wide of the right post.
Four minutes from the interval Jack Butland saved a fierce Aleksandar Kolarov shot from close in on an angle from the left and this was about as good as it got all day for the left-back’s team. When the sides had walked off City were fortunate to be only 2-0 behind and to still have a chance. The potent Shaqiri-Arnautovic axis again came close to extending their team’s advantage. The former beat the comatose rearguard with the same familiar ball around the back and the latter was unlucky to see his shot rebound from Hart’s left post, the Austrian’s standing foot slipping as he unloaded with the right.
Normal business was resumed when the second half began. Sterling and Kolarov delivered miscued balls, and Krkic and Arnautovic each might have beaten Hart. These opportunities came from the same passage of play: Krkic dribbled along the right and when Hart saved Arnautovic failed to finish the rebound.
Later, Krkic slipped in Arnautovic, who squared the ball to Shaqiri. The goal was gaping, Hart was out of position, but he could not make it 3-0.
By the closing third of the contest Jesús Navas, for Silva, Kelechi Iheanacho, for Bony, and Fabian Delph, for Fernandinho, had all been thrown on by Pellegrini. The changes made scant difference. On afternoons such as this – the 4-1 defeats at Tottenham Hotspur and at home to Liverpool are other illustrations – City seem more like title pretenders than genuine contenders.
Guardian