The palindrome of Bolton would be "Notlob"

Even though the Man City/Bolton game is probably one of only a half dozen Man City games that FSC will bother airing all year, I don't think I'm going to watch it. I was TiVoing it but got home late enough such that Drew had already watched it, and he warned me that I shouldn't. Personally, I might have been able to live with the result had I just sat down and watched it, but knowing that I had reason not to caused me to look it up. 1-0 doesn't sound so bad of course, but it was the way they lost. (I watched the EPL Review Show later on FSC so I saw all the key plays.)

It's pretty depressing to think that a team can be that strong an attacking force despite missing their star transfer striker and still lose, but that's what happens when you hit the woodwork five times - five! - and your right back handles a ball in the area in stoppage time. I think Musampa should have scored on his frame shot - he tried to one-time a ball, which would have looked way cool had it gone in, but it would have been much easier to score had he gathered it and settled down, then taken a shot. He had the time and space to do so, too.

On the other hand, it's great to see City attacking like that. Sometimes you just have hard luck games and this was clearly one - going double-digit games without a loss isn't the most common thing, so to think it was going to stretch on forever was a bit naive. This kind of attacking football, where City looked to be dominating the game against a team good enough to play in Europe (the EPL Review highlights package did not contain a single Bolton shot on goal except for the penalty kick), is to be commended and I hope it continues going forward, starting with Doncaster on Wednesday. (No embarrassing early Cup crashes, please.)