City 0:1 Spurs : Review.

A disappointing, yet unsurprising result from last nights game, means City finally concede the Champions league place battle to spurs. They perhaps wanted and it more and needed it more than we did. They are a side more settled than ours and that showed. They deserve their position in the Champions league next season. As for City, well it's been a very good season on the pitch for us, despite all that has happened off it, Europa League next season does provide some motivation for players to join the club. We have made big steps this season.

Despite the long term progress, what really angered me after the match was the lack of quality City showed. In the words of Garry Cook 'they bottled it'. The team blows hot and cold several times through out the match, and that's simply not good enough. We had a great deal of possession in the 1st half, especially in the final third, yet it should of been Spurs who went in 2-0 up. That's really not good enough. The defensive issue, which haunted Hughes from Day one, simply has to be addressed in the summer, or we will always suffer. Ball retention is also a real issue. It was farcical at times how easy we gave it away.

I have mentioned over the past few weeks, the difference in City when they play with a high tempo and when we don't. We lacked the edge that saw us put 3 past Villa, and ended up mirroring our Derby performance, Spurs did play with a high tempo for most of the game. It wasn't until the forced substitution of Vieira that we actually tried getting balls into the box through the middle, instead of consistently spreading the ball wide and ultimately ending our attack with a poor final ball. Our full backs are not good enough to overlap. I see little point in them both bounding forward if they simply lose it when they get there. The less I say about Wayne Bridge the better!

The lack of chances on goal cost us, with the attacking threat on the pitch, that's quite a poor outcome. Spurs in attack looked more purposeful. Crouch was the main focal point of their play, it worked. His aerial ability was simply too much for Toure and Kompany. At set pieces we looked particularly weak, I have yet to see the disallowed goal, but in open play it looked all to easy for them to get their head on the ball.

Credit has to go to Martin Fulop for a top display making a couple of cracking saves. He did himself the world of good.

The West Ham match has become a bit of non-game now. Plans will now be afoot for the next season. What is clear is we need to sort out our defence. The several lapses in concentration this season has been our real downfall. We can now build on our already established squad and finish higher next season, under Mancini of course. The season has been a real success, we just missed on a Champions league spot, from finishing 10th the previous year. That's a Job well done!