da bwin： As opening day defeats go (and for Saints fans there have been many to endure over the years) this one may well live long in the memory.
da luck： Taking on the defending champions on their own patch with a squad that lacked any significant top-flight experience had many people (myself included) fearing the worst.
Swansea City visited the Etihad stadium in similar circumstances on the opening day last year, and despite playing well, they were well beaten 4-0, and not many pundits or neutrals were in much doubt that there was a repeat in the offing here.
The consensus amongst the majority of Saints fans was to just enjoy the day and celebrate our return to the Premier League after an absence of seven years, no matter how heavy the defeat was going to be. Yet we made a bright start in the opening 10 minutes, and after Aguero was carried off after twisting his knee as a result of Clyne’s excellent tackle, there was a feeling that this may not be such a one-sided affair after all.
These feelings were amplified when Silva fluffed his lines from the penalty spot after Tevez tumbled dramatically to win the penalty, after a tangle of legs with Hooiveld.
The breakthrough came five minutes before the break when a suspiciously offside Tevez sprinted clear to beat Kelvin Davies in the Saints goal with a fierce low drive at the near post. For the last five minutes of normal time and an extra four added due to the Aguero injury, it was one way traffic with City threatening to add to their tally, but with some resilient defending fused with a smidgen of good fortune, we held firm.
The opening ten minutes of the second-half pretty much followed the last ten of the first but then manager Nigel Adkins made an all important change by bringing on star striker Rickie Lambert.
Lambert had been a surprise omission from the starting line-up, with Adkins preferring the pace of Guly Do Prado and Jason Puncheon up front with new signing Jay Rodriguez. Within five minutes of coming on Rickie slammed home the equaliser and more amazingly after a fast paced counter-attack Saints took the lead when Lallana set up another substitute, Steven Davis to side foot home from distance.
As a Saints fan it was a time to pinch yourself, 2-1 up away to the champions after being one down and with the home side enjoying as much as 80% possession at one point in the second-half. The lead though, would last a meagre four minutes after some slack defending let in first Dzeko and then Nasri to regain the lead for City, a lead they held onto until the final whistle.
Despite the loss, this was a Saints performance beyond reproach, 90 minutes that showed immense spirit, togetherness and enough proficiency from a squad that is greater than the sum of its parts.
A display that should have a number of Premier League teams worried about coming up against us in the coming months, keep playing like this and with two or three quality signings then we may not be the relegation fodder we were expected to be.
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