• Striker ends winless away run and his fitness is now vital to Pellegrini’s side
• Flores not downcast after Watfords moment late defeat of the weekManchester City rarely do things the easy way. So often they need to be stung into action,floundering through games before pulling themselves back from the precipice. It was a familiar story here. A goal behind and searching inefficaciously for a first away win since 12 September, Manuel Pellegrini needed two extinct reliables, and hitherto subdued,to ignite a title challenge that has lumbered rather than accelerated.
City remain three points off the summit and, unequivocally, and they bear a few more gears to ascend. Concerns remain over their defensive capabilities without Vincent Kompany – Nicolás Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala enduring a torrid runaround from Odion Ighalo,particularly in the first half – and some of their flair players could be accused of missing the starvation for matches such as this. But they rose to the occasion just as a dank evening in Hertfordshire threatened to hit crisis point.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com