Manchester City faced West Bromwich Albion today in one of the traditional Barclays Premier League Boxing Day fixtures. City began the game with no natural striker in the starting lineup, putting James Milner in the striker position instead. In the seventh minute, Samri Nasri put in a great cross, but hope seemed lost as Ben Foster came out to intercept the ball in the air. However, Foster calamitously dropped the ball, and Fernando had the easiest of finishes to put City 1-0 up.
After a crunching challenge from Joleon Lescott, David Silva went down in the box where a penalty was awarded for Manchester City. Yaya Toure stepped up to take the penalty to put Manchester City up 2-0 in the 13th minute.
West Brom came close in the 28th minute when Youssuf Mulumbo was on the end of a great cross, but he ended up shooting the ball right into Joe Hart‘s hands. In the 34th minute, Fernando led Manchester City on a swift counterattack after intercepting the ball. He released Jesus Navas with a pass moving forward, and Navas saw Silva, who managed to place the ball beautifully in the bottom corner of the second post.
With that goal, Manchester City went up 3-0, and the score remained the same at the half.
As the weather conditions deteriorated, City manager Manuel Pellegrini expressed some concern at the beginning of the second half, but the game went on. West Bromwich remained hopeful when Silvestre Varela received a great cross in the 54th minute, but he managed to miss it right in front of the goal. Gareth McAuley came close to putting West Brom on the score sheet on the 57th minute after he intercepted the ball outside the penalty area and got off a great shot, but Hart was equal to the task.
The field was covered by snow by the 70th minute, but the game played on. West Brom got a consolation goal in the 85th minute from a corner. Hart let the ball slip through his fingers, and even though Manchester City players were grouped up in front of their own goal, the ball still fell kindly to Brown Ideye, who only had to lightly touch the ball in with his head to make the final scoreline 3-1, leaving City 3 points behind Chelsea on the league table.
(Feature image: AP Photo/Rui Vieira)