Blackburn milk the moment

Manchester City 1 Blackburn 1:EL-HADJI DIOUF, reverting to type, was bare-chested as he walked towards the tunnel, the last man on the pitch, waving to the home supporters, getting a kick from their disappointment . . . a one-man cabaret. A plastic bottle was thrown from the Colin Bell Stand. Diouf smiled some more and started kissing his biceps, whooping with malicious pleasure.

Diouf had been one of the Blackburn players to throw his shirt into the away end, celebrating their point in a way you might expect of a lower-league side that have had earned a cup replay against top-flight opponents. It felt a little over the top but here, perhaps, was the evidence of how Manchester City are seen by three quarters of the Premier League these days.

“These are one of the big boys now,” Sam Allardyce, the Blackburn manager, said. “We got a tonking here last season. We were played out of sight and buried. Since then they’ve bought even more expensive players so this will be remembered as a upset, not expected by anybody else in the world of football. Except in our own dressingroom, anyway.”

City have the best-paid players and the most expensively assembled squad and there are players who undoubtedly want to bring them down a peg or two. “They have signed all these players, and to get the best you have to pay big wages, but team spirit is something you can’t buy,” said the Blackburn captain Christopher Samba.

City, in fairness, were not short in endeavour and energy and though it has not really clicked for them since that 3-0 defeat of Liverpool, Roberto Mancini was entitled to think they could be a lot better off. They lost their previous game, at Sunderland, when Micah Richards gave away a stoppage-time penalty. In this match Joe Hart’s mix-up with Kolo Toure presented Nikola Kalinic a goal wrapped in bow and ribbon.

Hart had ran 30 yards from his goal and shouted he would take responsibility, so the England international must take the majority of blame. “The problem is we keep giving gifts away to the opposition,” an exasperated Mancini said. “I just hope we have finished giving gifts away until Christmas.”

The equaliser came 11 minutes into the second half, Patrick Vieira slipping the ball to Carlos Tevez on the wing, continuing his run into the penalty area and converting the exchange pass. Blackburn had their moments too but it was a prolonged spell of late pressure and it needed Samba, in the game’s exceptional moment, to throw his body in the way of the substitute Jo’s shot and deny the home side in the final exchanges.

The captain rose to his feet, screaming with a mixture of relief and competitive spirit, and punching the air. A few minutes later we got Diouf’s wind-up act. This is what it means against Manchester City these days. Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson excelled on a day when Hart was eclipsed by a man who has withdrawn from contention for the national team.

Guardian Service