In the thirty-fourth round of the Premier League, Man City faced Blackburn away.
Blackburn, known as Violence Ben, played one match a week, unlike Man City, who were fighting on multiple fronts. With home advantage as well, the match was fiercely contested from the opening whistle. Players went tumbling everywhere, and the home side came out aggressively, looking determined not to let the visitors leave unscathed.
Man City had been hit by a brutal fixture schedule. First, they drew 1–1 at home with Braga in the Europa League and advanced 4–1 on aggregate. Then they beat Arsenal 2–0. Just three days earlier, they had battled Tottenham Hotspur at home and only narrowly defeated the North London powerhouse 1–0 with Su Dong's heading in the dying moments.
Now, at Ewood Park, Violence Ben had no intention of showing Man City any mercy.
It was not that the two sides had any particular grudge against each other. Blackburn had simply begun facing a relegation crisis.
When Man City had drawn up their plans, Blackburn were sitting thirteenth. They could not say there was absolutely no relegation pressure, but it was honestly not that great. At the time, everyone at Man City had felt that facing Blackburn away would not be too difficult.
But the best-laid plans could not stand against fate. Blackburn had drawn one and lost two of their last three matches, and their ranking had suddenly fallen to sixteenth. They were only two points ahead of Blackpool, who occupied a relegation spot. The situation was already extremely dangerous.
Precisely because of that, Blackburn had brought everything they had to their home match against Man City, trying to fight them to the death. Man City, meanwhile, had just gone through several consecutive matches on multiple fronts, leaving the players physically and