Swansea arrived at the Etihad managerless after the sacking of Garry Monk, and the interim manager Alan Curtis made numerous changes. City chose to rest De Bruyne pairing Silva Navas and Sterling ahead of Toure and Ferdandhino.
Bony gave City the lead fed by Jesus Navas in the 23rd minute.
Pellegrini restoring Silva knows Silva will be key to the run in and was very fortunate that Joe Hart was in top form. City have an abundance of talent but it doesn’t always translate into smooth wins.
One thing City always give their opponents is some chances, they are not in the Chelsea league winning (mindset) of last year of keeping a tight ship, with limited chances for their opponents.
Pellegrini took Raheem Sterling off at half time preferring the industry of Fabian Delph to close Ki and Sigurdsson down who were growing in their prominence on the ball.
The City highly priced signings Ferdandinho, Fernando and Mangala all have one mistake a game in them.
Ferdandhino lost possession and a quick Fernandez pass led to the Batefemi Gomis equaliser in the 90th minute, which Gomis rifled into the roof of the net.
A fortuitous strike by Yaya Toure which struck the back of Iheanacho to deflect in, in the 92nd minute won City the game. City had done the same midweek, going behind against Moenchengladbach after taking a 1-0 early lead, before winning 4-2. They struggle to put teams to the sword and almost have a lackadaisical attitude, until their backs are against the wall.
The possession stats of 51% to City and 49% to Swansea do not translate into a dominant league leading performance by City. Yaya was inconsistent and drifted into and out of the game, and Swansea’s industrious midfield often were more prominent than their more expensive counterparts.
Had Swansea not been in such a dismal run, with such low confidence, a better team would have held out and led to 2 points dropped by City. Bony doesn’t convince and the team certainly don’t have the same belief without Aguero up front. Bony is not clinical in the Aguero sense, and often requires too many chances.
City rarely sell out at home, and they have never created a cauldron, or hostile atmosphere for opposing teams. There were notable empty seats here and also on Tuesday in the Champions League game, there were numerous empty seats.
City are struggling to get the fluency that they would like, making all the expensive pieces fit seamlessly is proving difficult for Pellegrini. Their performances are often disjointed during different games like Liverpool home and Spurs away, and they are often disjointed in the very same game.
Almost by default City topped the league on Saturday night, they will no doubt gain more momentum with Kompany and Aguero back imminently. City only seem to have the necessary swagger when Kompany and Aguero galvanise City beyond these often nondescript performances.
Pellegrini summed it up “Of course, there was a feeling of relief,” he said. “We didn’t play well, but we got the three points.”
