It was a good and well deserved point for the Potters as we extended our unbeaten run this season and maintained our excellent home record against the Champions.



You know we've done well when Mancini starts moaning again and he did exactly that as he sought to take the spotlight off his expensively assembled team who created very little all afternoon. The fact that his post-match comments have been centred on a single decision in over 90 minutes of football says all you need to know about his side’s performance on the day.

The talking points are as follows;

Team Selection/Tactics - I was happy to see Pulis opt for a five man midfield again having faired so well when he made that change up at Wigan a fortnight ago. We saw a debut for N'Zonzi who played as part of a middle three, flanking Adam with the industrious Whelan who had another good game. This formation, even with Walters on the wing, gives us much more presence on the pitch and afforded Crouch the kind of support he has missed for much of his time here. The tempo was back as the team pushed high up the pitch winning a lot more of those second balls that so often elude us.
Wilkinson - Wilko had another poor game and much of Man City's threat came down his side. Often he got too close and was spun and it was one of his fouls that led to the free kick where Man City equalised. He was confident in his ability though and indeed broke forward with the comfort of midfield cover on a few occasions and actually ended up with the second highest accuracy for attacking half passes (behind Kightly). He was however our joint most dispossessed player on the pitch. I don’t think it will be too long until we see Cameron get some time at right back and with his composure and the fact he hasn't conceded a foul all season despite making the most tackles in the league, this can only be a good thing.

N'Zonzi - I was pleasantly surprised to see N'Zonzi get thrown straight in to the action and am hopeful that he and Adam will be two key players for us this season and indeed in seasons to come. I thought he looked every inch the midfielder we have been crying out for and his stats make great reading; He won more tackles than anyone else in the side (5 tackles, 100% success), had the most ground duels and also won the most on the ground (11 ground duels, 7 won) as well as winning 100% of his aerial duels. He also made the highest number of successful passes (29) posting an accuracy of 83%. He absolutely bossed our midfield and was a standout Man of the Match for me, a lot was made of Adam's signing but this lad could really make a difference for us.

Wingers - I thought the wingers were quite ineffective and looked sluggish, though I think it's perhaps only fair to point out that many would look slow against Maicon and Clichy. It's a shame that Matty is so out of form as Kightly looks a lot more comfortable on the right, when he was withdrawn and Matty did come on, he looked very poor indeed. To be fair to Kightly, whilst he didn't affect the game too much, he did use the ball well when he did get it, that said he didn't get it much and made the fewest number of passes - only seven.

Crouch - Peter looked a lot happier with bodies around him and his best games this season have been when we have played with five in the middle. As for his goal, I think he did well to get past Kompany and Lescott, quite how he was supposed to avoid touching the ball when his hands were in a 'natural position' and the ball was driven into them, I'm not quite sure.

Overall, much like last week, there is plenty to be enthused about. The new shape is improving us as an attacking force immeasurably and once the new players settle in and get to test themselves against the teams around us we'll get a much better idea of how we will fare this season. As it is though, we are in a difficult set of fixtures so the order of the day is to keep it tight and get out at the other end holding our heads high, and we can certainly do that today.

Vis Unita Fortior

(All stats provided by @EPLIndex)

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