Meanwhile, Birmingham twice came from behind and thoroughly deserved their point.
In a tense match, that saw a freak accident involving two of its own players, City let slip a golden opportunity in the race for the premiership.
His face lined with concern, City manager Roberto Mancini—who had already lost key forwards Mario Balotelli and Adam Johnson to injury—observed the aftermath of a sickening first-half collision between Micah Richards and Nigel de Jong.
Just after the half hour mark, Richards dived full length to execute a clearing header, but literally flew into his team mate. Both players collapsed on the ground in a heap. The game was held up for 7 minutes while the unconscious Richards received immediate medical attention on the pitch prior to being stretchered off to hospital. De Jong at least was still able to stand, and managed to play out the rest of the half with a large bandage wrapped around his head. However, the Dutch midfielder failed to re-appear for the second period, being replaced by 34 year-old veteran Patrick Vieira.
The evening had started pretty well for the visitors. With the match only 3 minutes old David Silva weaved his way into the Birmingham penalty area, then slipped the ball to Carlos Tevez who also exhibited some fancy footwork as he threaded the ball through a defender’s legs and across Ben Foster into the bottom corner of the net from a 45 degree angle.
David Bentley is relishing the pivotal role he is being asked to play by Alex McLeish and the former Tottenham man has certainly added an extra dimension to the Blues. His 23rd minute free kick was deflected in by Nikola Zigic and Birmingham was back on level terms. However, the visitors restored their lead 5 minutes before the break thanks to an absolute pile-driver of a free kick from Aleksander Kolarov, after Craig Gardner had recklessly decked Edin Dzecko on the edge of the box.
Considering the amount of talent Man City had on the pitch it has to be said that they were disappointing in the second half. Birmingham continued to press for an equalizer and their opportunity came when Vieira rather naively fouled fellow veteran Kevin Phillips inside the area and the referee pointed to the spot. Blues top scorer Craig Gardener belted his kick into the roof of the net with due relish. On the Manchester City website Mancini declared that: “… we can’t concede two goals every game, we must do something (about it) and we must play better”.
Kolarov had a chance to secure all three points for the visitors when, in the dying seconds, Manchester was awarded another free kick in a very promising position. But this time the Serb’s curling drive flew inches wide and Birmingham’s precious point was safe.
Suarez Scores on Debut
New Liverpool recruit Luis Suarez came off the bench to score on debut as his new club cruised to a relatively comfortable 2-0 home win over Stoke City. The Uruguayan opened his Liverpool account at the 79 minute mark, adding to a Raul Meireles strike 2 minutes into the second half. It was the Portuguese playmaker’s third goal in four games.
Other Results
Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Blackpool 1-3 West ham United
Bolton Wanderers 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Fulham 1-0 Newcastle United
