Man City v Middlesbrough - Saturday 7th Feb 12:45

Tomorrow Boro come to Eastlands in need of a win, they are currently 19th in the table. City in 10Th are also in desperate need of a win if we are to make any type of push for Europe.

Team news for Boro will see Didier Digard and Gary O'Neil back in contention at the very least although they are both likely to start, Afonso Alves is pushing for a start as are Tony McMahon and Justin Hoyte who will both be hoping to be chosen for the right back slot which would
see David Wheater move back into the centre of defence.

Citys team should only see one change made with Shay Given coming in for Joe Hart to make his debut.

Possible starting line ups:

Man City: Given, Richards, Kompany, Onuoha, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Zabaleta, Ireland, Bellamy, Robinho.

Boro: Jones, Hoyte, Huth, Riggott, Pogatetz, Johnson, O'Neil, Digard, Downing, King, Alves.

I expect to see Boro playing for a draw tomorrow, although they do have players who are competent goal scorers, and will try to nick a goal if they think they can push forward without leaving themselves exposed at the back.

As for City I hope to see us go out and try to win in style against a much weaker team, we need a good win to springboard from and at the same time we need to send out a message to the rest of the league that we are a team to be feared and will be fighting until the end to climb up the table.

But as we know we have shown signs of this before but have never built on a good result consistently, but I do have faith in the blues that it will happen and while it can still happen we always need a starting point so tomorrow is as good a time as any to get the ball rolling to winning a number of games on the bounce.

My prediction: City 2-0 Middlesbrough

Bets I will be placing at the match: City to win 2-0 with goals from Robinho and Bellamy and City to win 3-0 with Robinho, Bellamy and Ireland goals.

If you can't get to the match tomorrow it is being televised on Sky sports 1 and HD 1.