"The Citizen" Mancini

The Italian coach took over Manchester City

The 18th round of the English Premier League turned out to be very eventful. Here is Manchester United's unexpected big loss to London's Fulham, the already routine defeat of Liverpool, and Chelsea's third winless match. And also Bilyaletdinov’s goal and Zhirkov’s debut in the Premier League. But everything pales in comparison to the changes at Manchester City.

The victory over Sunderland with a rollicking score of 4:3 did not save the now former City coach from resignation. Before Mark Hughes had time to receive congratulations, he received a notification to “pack his things.” “Two wins in the last 11 matches does not meet the goals set for the manager at the beginning of the season. The club owner and the board of directors came to the conclusion that the situation would not change in the near future, and made this decision,” said the chairman of the board of directors of Manchester City, Haldon Al-Mubarak. Of course, £330 million has been spent on strengthening, and the club is only in sixth place. So the coach is to blame, and former Manchester United star Mark Hughes has lost his job at Manchester City.

The news of Hughes' resignation was received ambiguously and negatively within the team itself. It split into British and non-British. Shay Given and Craig Bellamy went to the club's executive director Harry Cook to ask for a coach. The English and other British football players were ready to support them. At the same time, Robinho, Adebayor and some other overseas City stars expressed dissatisfaction with Hughes.

The coach's chair was not empty for a minute. Italian Roberto Mancini was appointed as the new coach. “Mancini is an experienced specialist. His successes and won trophies speak for themselves. And what’s more important, he believes in the team’s potential, in the ability to achieve high results. He is also confident that he can really lead the team to these results,” the already mentioned Al-Mubarak described the new coach.

But Mancini was already considered almost “ours”. The 45-year-old Italian was actively wooed to become the head coach of the Russian national team. It was believed that as soon as Sergei Fursenko became president of the RFU, Mancini would lead the Russians. It’s curious, but the Italian’s appointment as MS coach coincided with Sergei Kapkov’s recusal. Perhaps a compromise has been reached: Fursenko wins the presidential election in a landslide, but Hiddink remains the coach of the Russian national team.

Now about other events. Yuri Zhirkov, yearning for the game, entered the field as part of Chelsea. The meeting with London's West Ham turned out to be our midfielder's debut in the Premier League. Yuri played only 15 minutes at the end of the match, but looked decent and will probably get more match practice. Although in CSKA and the national team he was used to coming out not as a substitute, but for the entire 90 minutes of the game.

The meeting of two London teams and the confrontation between Italian mentors Carlo Ancelotti and Gianfranco Zola ended in a draw - 1:1. The third match without a win in the last four rounds has not yet affected the fate of Chelsea; the Blues feel very comfortable in first place. The Hammers are stuck in the relegation zone, although they clearly don’t belong there. Neither in composition, nor in the quality of the game. It’s just that every point is given to Zola’s guys with great difficulty.

For the third time in a row, not only the London, but also the Liverpool “blues” – Everton – played a draw. The opponent of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s team was again the “blues” - “Birmingham”. What can you do, the British have little imagination. Diniyar himself opened the scoring in the fifth minute, but in the middle of the first half Sebastian Larsson restored the balance. There were no more goals. Birmingham have not lost in nine matches in a row; moreover, before the match with Everton, the club, which returned to the elite, won five victories in a row.

Arsenal beat Hull City 3:0. Arshavin did not score, but at the same time played a good match. After this victory, the Gunners moved closer to Manchester United and are two points behind. The Red Devils received three unanswered goals from Fulham. Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson was clearly despondent and tried to explain the failure by personnel problems.

It's really bad for Liverpool. The Reds managed to lose to underdog Portsmouth and continue to lag behind the top four. There is still no light at the end of the tunnel. It all comes down to the resignation of Rafa Benitez. Liverpool is tired of the Spaniard, Liverpool is tired of the Spaniard, but the management does not want to pay the coach a large penalty. In the meantime, it remains to be stated: we have not seen such an uncertain Liverpool for a long time.

Results. English Championship. Premier League. 18th round. “Portsmouth” – “Liverpool” – 2:0, “Fulham” – “Manchester United” – 3:0, “Blackburn” – “Tottenham” – 0:2, “Aston Villa” – “ Stoke City - 1:0, Manchester City - Sunderland - 4:3, Arsenal - Hull - 3:0, Wolverhampton - Burnley - 2: 0, Everton - Birmingham - 1:1, West Ham - Chelsea - 1:1. The match between Wigan and Bolton has been postponed due to snowfall.

English Championship. Premier League I V N P M O

1. Chelsea	18	13	2	3	43--15	41
2. Manchester United	18	12	1	5	37--17	37
3. Arsenal	17	11	2	4	44--20	35
4. Aston Villa	18	10	5	3	29--14	35
5. Tottenham	18	10	3	5	40--22	33
6. Manchester City	17	7	8	2	33--27	29
7. Birmingham	18	8	4	6	19--18	28
8. Liverpool	18	8	3	7	34--25	27
9. Fulham	17	7	5	5	23--17	26
10. Sunderland	18	6	3	9	25--28	21
11. Stoke City	17	5	6	6	15--20	21
12. Wolverhampton	18	5	4	9	17--31	19
13. Blackburn	18	5	4	9	17--32	19
14. Burnley	18	5	4	9	21--37	19
15. Everton	17	4	6	7	23--31	18
16. Wigan	17	5	3	9	20--38	18
17. Hull City	18	4	5	9	17--37	17
18. Bolton	»16	4	4	8	23--33	16
19. West Ham	18	3	6	9	26--35	15
20. Portsmouth	18	4	2	12	17--26	14

Oleg TIMOFEEV