First to the game verdicts, and the Guardian’s Daniel Taylor reckoned City showed admirable spirit after going down to 10 men.
He reported: “To the credit of Manchester City there are not many other teams who could come up with this kind of feat of escapology from a position at half-time where they were not only losing to one of the Premier League’s coming teams but also playing with 10 men because of the sending off that had spoiled Kyle Walker’s first night in front of his new fans.
“By the end, there was even the sense that Pep Guardiola’s players were disappointed they could not complete the recovery and conjure a late, decisive winner once Raheem Sterling, one of their second-half substitutes, had volleyed in an 82nd-minute equaliser.”
Sterling pleased with City character
The Manchester Evening News’ City reporter Stuart Brennan believes boss Pep Guardiola deserves credit for changing things around in the wake of Walker’s enforced exit.
He wrote of Guardiola: “He replaced players, and he re-jigged frequently, and it worked.
“Raheem Sterling led that fightback, his own brand of direct, breakneck running at the defence unsettling and disrupting the visitors’ back four.
“And after the unpredictable England winger had skied one great chance, he made up for it by slamming home an equalising volley to bring the Blues level.”
That second half display caught the eye of Daily Telegraph chief football correspondent Jason Burt, who declared: “A goal down and reduced to 10-men in the first-half they produced an astonishingly relentless attacking display, with Guardiola bringing on high-calibre substitutes, capped by a glorious volley from one of them: Raheem Sterling. But that volley only salvaged a point.”
City’s spirit was also picked up on by Henry Winter in his Times report, who wrote: “At the final whistle, Pep Guardiola embraced Wayne Rooney, who had shown his enduring powers in a draining, occasionally madcap match. Guardiola’s team also showed their resilience by fighting back from a Rooney strike and losing Kyle Walker to a controversial red card to secure a point through Raheem Sterling.”
Finally there’s a new name linked with City among the defender speculation.
The Independent’s Jack Pitt-Brooke reports: “With 10 days left in the window they have made 24-year-old (Ben) Gibson their new Plan B, after West Bromwich Albion rejected City’s opening £18m bid for Northern Ireland international Evans. Fear over a potentially spiralling fee for Evans, with West Brom demanding more than £30m, has prompted City to turn to Gibson this week.”
That’s your lot for today, we’ll be back at the same time, same place tomorrow!
