Fighting on the training ground is sometimes no bad thing, as long as no one is hurt and the right guy wins. The dogwalkers' paradise that is the footpath past Manchester City's practice complex is a fine place to observe the assimilation of diverse talents and the quest for team spirit among the second-highest placed team in England.
City won no prizes for artistic merit with this goalless draw at Arsenal but this was no place to condemn them for lack of ambition. For 20 minutes they were cut to ribbons by Arsène Wenger's artists and smothering tactics were an understandable response. Most usefully they left north London with the look of a side bound more tightly than at any time in Roberto Mancini's eventful year in charge.
In America, City's training sessions would be on pay-per-view by now. Again this may not be the PR catastrophe many assume it to be. In rugby a touch of Tuesday afternoon grappling is often taken as a sign that the mood is bubbling nicely. Creative tension is a feature of many a workplace.
With City we wonder whether the unfolding battle is between warriors and faint-hearts. On one level the discord is embarrassing – and easily relayed to newspapers by Carrington's pooch-walkers – but the frequency with which hand-to-hand combat breaks out might also be cited as evidence of growing unity.
The two brawls we know about were between Jérôme Boateng and Mario Balotelli, and between Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor. Spot the two semi-detached pugilists in that quartet. Adebayor inhabits a shadowland and Balotelli speaks as if he were the victim of an elaborate kidnap plot hatched in Manchester. Suppose the most committed members of Mancini's squad are gradually imposing their will on the moody brigade? What if the strong are subjugating the weak on the road to trophyville?
When they pull together they are a formidable bunch, these hired guns of Middle-Eastern oil wealth. From the swarm of expensive talents Mancini is steadily identifying the men he can trust in a skirmish. There is no record of the Premier League being won by a team with a soft emotional centre.
With Edin Dzeko soon to arrive to support the endless foraging of Carlos Tevez, togetherness is one of the few deficiencies to stay beyond the scope of money. So is kaleidoscopic passing, which takes years to develop, at the level Arsenal operate it, so there was no disgrace in City's inability to match the distributive patterns of Cesc Fábregas, Samir Nasri and Jack Wilshere, who became the latest notch on Nigel de Jong's tomahawk when the Dutch enforcer jumped at the young Englishman's ankles and was booked. Thankfully De Jong's recidivism is not indicative of a thuggish streak in this City team.
Only Barcelona come to Islington to out-pass Arsenal. United use interception and counterattacking strategies to negate all that beauty. Chelsea seek to overpower. Spurs try to out-score. City, still a work in progress, have yet to finalise a range of plans for dealing with the best opposition, but it made sense to confront Arsenal in a 4-2-3-1 formation, in which Yaya Touré was again asked to perform the attacking midfield role best suited to the absent David Silva.
City's weakness in the first half was the back four's inability to contain Arsenal's thrusting runs, which brought a battering for the frame of Joe Hart's goal and caused Mancini to spend much of the first 45 minutes coaching his defenders. Pablo Zabaleta took the heaviest ear-bashing as Arsenal endeavoured to exploit a lack of pace in this meaty City side, but reacted superbly after the interval, chasing and blocking demonically before being dismissed along with Arsenal's Bacary Sagna for use of the head.
To see Jô starting in a wide position ahead of Adam Johnson was the clearest proof that Mancini has his own clear ideas about who can be relied upon for the most daunting assignments. Johnson, who eventually replaced Jô on 65 minutes, has slipped from that list. Some pure talent has been sacrificed in favour of greater toughness and cohesion. With City so well‑placed in the league on the homeward stretch Mancini, who has increased the attacking quota, is within his rights now to advance by stealth, especially as all his major rivals display vulnerability.
Plenty of good judges think Dzeko's arrival will tip the balance and confirm City as United's main challengers in this title race. With Silva emerging as their Luka Modric or Rafael van der Vaart and Tevez seemingly pacified, the addition of Dzeko will complete the attacking set, especially if Balotelli starts to realise how lucky he is, and cheers up.
Even under the most lacerating attacks Mancini's scrappers maintained their shape and purpose. The day of arrival will be the one where City cease being an idea and start to become an indivisible force. That day is closer, even as the fists fly.
Source: Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 6 Jan 11
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