Happy New Year!

I just wanted to say another quick thank you to everyone who has supported my blog over the last year, so thank you!!!!!!

I hope that 2010 will be a great year for everyone, particularly City!

Wolves 0 - 3 Man City (Tevez 33',Garrido 69',Tevez 86') *Video*

Another win, another clean sheet and most importantly another three points. Up to now it seems like Mancini is doing a good job at continuing with what Hughes left behind.

Our first goal was scored by Tevez from inside the box after some great work down the wing from Bellamy, the second was a wonderful free kick from our forgotten man Javier Garrido. Tevez finished off the scoring with a left footed shot from outside the box. Goals below!

I am delighted with this win and with our current form in general, this result makes it three wins from three games and with our next six league games looking more than winnable then maybe we can break in to the top four.

We had periods in the game last night where we let Wolves have to much of the ball for my liking, but all in all we dominated for the majority of the game. When Wolves did put pressure on us tonight we coped with it excellently, our defence looked a lot more assured than it has at times this season.

Barry and de jong did a good job of guarding our midfield again last night although I thought that Ireland and Petrov could have been a whole lot better. Ireland was replaced and rightly so, he was not playing well at all. Petrov was also very poor, this week he said that Hughes was unfair to him but I don't think he was, he is a total fairy and I have to say I am getting tired of the way he ducks out of tackles repeatedly.

Our attackers were good again, Tevez worked hard and scored two goals what more could you possibly ask for? Bellamy, well he is for me the most consistent player in the league this season and I would have to say that for me he has to leading the hunt for the PFA player of the year award.

I am starting to regain hope that our season will not be yet another mediocre finish, our defending is better and our attacking is second to none lets hope it continues!

Goals.

Man City 2 - 0 Stoke City (Petrov 28', Tevez 45') *Video*

I am sure that I wasn't the only one who breathed a big sigh of relief after this victory, you could imagine what the papers were going to be saying tomorrow if we didn't.

Our first goal was scored by Martin Petrov, the Bulgarian winger hit home from close range and believe it or not he actually scored using his right foot! Our second goal was scored by Tevez, Zabaleta crossed the ball into Barry who headed into Tevez's path for him to finish in an unorthodox fashion. Goals and highlights Below!

This was a good win for us today considering the events of late, we played OK and deserved to win but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Our defence was still dodgy at times today but luckily our midfield duo of Barry and de Jong were doing a good job at protecting them, in fact saying that Barry alone made a big difference for us today. It was his first good game for quite some time and he made a major difference, he controlled the ball in the midfield and Stoke were not able to freeze him out of the game.

We missed a big man upfront today, Tevez did a great job on his own but we were certainly restricted from attacking aerially. If we had a big man up top I think that we would have won by a more convincing scoreline.

A huge difference from Hughes's team today was the tactics, Mancini was countering all Stokes changes and also made sure we played much more narrower when we didn't have the ball. It worked great for us because in recent times we have been far to open and the opposition have been able to take advantage of that, not today though!

I think the only thing that I was a bit unhappy with today was not seeing Weiss come on, we were really missing any kind of width on the right hand side. Petrov was going over to that side form time to time but was not very convincing because he constantly has to go back onto his right foot, I think at two nil we should have gave Weiss a run out for twenty or thirty minutes.

Listening to people at the match and on the radio on the way home today it is clear that they have already made their mind up about Mancini, I am not going to do that. It will take a few more games before I say if I like him or not, so far so good for now though!

Goals and highlights.

Man City vs Stoke City - Sat 26Th Dec 15:00 pm

A boxing day match awaits and I love it when we play at home on boxing day, it makes my Christmas that much better. Lets just hope we win!

Tomorrow sees the start of yet another 'new era' at City, Roberto Mancini takes charge of his first game as Manchester City manager.

I honestly think that Mancini has a huge pressure to win this game tomorrow, it is an absolute must win for us as far as I am concerned. We have a lot of injuries of course but I am not even going to let them use that as an excuse, if this guy is better than Mark Hughes as the club obviously think then he will be able to work something out.

If we are to make fourth place then we have to start winning game after game starting now. Without trying to be disrespectful we should have enough quality to beat Stoke regardless of injuries, on top of that it is time for people to make their mark and try and stay in the team.

We have to look at Stoke and see a threat tomorrow, not necessarily a threat in the sense that they can beat us but at the very least a threat that can stop us from winning. Stoke are a very decent side when they are playing well and I actually like the way they set up, they are a very strong, physical and organised team who perform the basics of football quite well.

Of course we are a threat to Stoke in a lot of ways but at the same time these kind of teams are not nervous of our threat because they come into these games against good teams with nothing but pride to lose if they don't at least play well.

The battle has to be won in midfield tomorrow, Stoke will not sit back and will certainly be in our faces from the first whistle, we have to be better in that department for sure. I think if we do that then we will not concede and because we know that we can score goals that should win us the game.

Man City Team News:
Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge are still out injured and Nedum Onuoha has joined them after picking up a calf injury. Micah Richards is 50/50 after coming off against Sunderland with a knock and SWP is also fighting to overcome an ankle injury, Adebayor is another doubt due to the same problem. Nigel de Jong returns from suspension.

Stoke City Team News:
Stoke are sweating on the fitness of Ryan Shawcross who has been having sugar injections in a groin injury. Robert Huth is back from suspension and could come straight back into the team, Ricardo Fuller and James Beattie are very much pushing for a place back in the starting line up.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Kompany, Toure, Sylvinho, De Jong, Barry, Robinho, Tevez, Santa Cruz, Bellamy.

Possible Stoke City Line Up: Sorensen, Wilkinson, Huth, Abdoulaye Faye, Collins, Whelan, Diao, Whitehead, Etherington, Sidibe, Tuncay.

My Prediction: Man City 3 - 0 Stoke City.

Worth A Bet: Santa Cruz and Tevez score in a 3 - 0 Man City win.

Happy Christmas and thank you!

I just wanted to say happy Christmas and thank you to a few people who have helped my blog to be what it is, also for anybody who does not celebrate Christmas I extend my best wishes to you in this holiday period.

First of all I want to thank all of my readers, I have a great community of City fans using my blog and it helps what I do to be more than worth it. Just the little bit of time each of you take to read and leave comments/opinions on my blog fills me with total satisfaction. Without you guys the blog that I love to do would not be here, so THANK YOU!!!

Next I would like to thank my fellow bloggers, some people may not believe how strong the relationship between fellow bloggers is behind the scenes. We are all constantly in touch with each other and trying our best to help each other so that our readers experience of our blogs are the best that they can be. In my case I have always been able to turn to a fellow blogger to discuss things and bounce ideas off them, a big THANK YOU goes out to all of them also.

My last thank you goes out to the club, they have really put a lot of effort into helping City fan sites like my own be the best that they can possibly be. In particular I would like to thank Chris Nield who puts an awful lot of time and effort into making sure that we know what we do is important to the club and also very much appreciated by them. THANK YOU!!!

What ever your this seasonal period brings for you I hope that you all have a great time, thank you again to everyone who has supported my blog!

CTID.

Where has he gone?

Over the last few weeks in my close circle of family and friends I have been asking, where is Garrido? I would like to know what his situation is more than ever considering Sylvinho hasn't been very convincing.

Now maybe controversially for a long time I wanted to see Garrido play instead of Bridge, I thought he was quicker, better going forward, a better crosser of the ball and and equally as good at defending. Granted Bridge began to improve a hell of a lot but even then there has been no place even on the bench for Javier.

Garrido started off at City quite well when he arrived but slowly started to find it tough playing every week in the premier league and was taken out of the team, he then got another chance and was visibly improving game by game although he did end up being dropped again.

He has never really had a fair crack at City considering his playing background, he has played all the way through Spain's International ranks up to under 21 level and when we bought him he was being coveted as one of the best young left backs in Spain.

I would like to see Garrido get another crack in our team, Sylvinho is not convincing me at all as a stand in for Bridge, Garrido has surely got to be worth a shot it isn't like he ever did anything particularly bad in the past.

Would you give Garrido a shot or just go out and buy a new left back to place in the team ahead of all our current players who play in that position.

Typical press conference

Roberto Mancini has officially been introduced as our manager at a press conference this evening, the press conference started off however with Garry Cook trying to justify a few things.

Cook said...............

Today’s press conference is about the appointment of Roberto Mancini as the manager of Manchester City.

That said, there has been a lot of conjecture about the process of Mark Hughes’ departure. The Club made a statement about this on Saturday and it reflects our position. However, in light of some of the comments and characterisations of events I will take this opportunity to add a few additional points today:

1. Firstly, I want to put on the record again our thanks for everything Mark and his team did here and to reiterate the respect that the owners and everyone in the Club have for them. This has been a very difficult decision for the Board to make and not one that was taken lightly.

2. At the end of last season we set a target of a 6Th place finish, but following the accelerated player acquisition activity of the Club in the summer transfer window, the new target that the playing staff agreed with the Board for the 2009/2010 season was 70 points. The trajectory of recent results was below this requirement and the Board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change.

3. The owner, Chairman and I all worked to give Mark any resources that he might require to achieve that goal.

4. Some of the characterisation of events of the last two days is particularly disappointing considering the fact that in the last 15 months there have been a number of occasions where Mark’s position has been questioned by people outside the Club. The support that he was shown at those times and the resources that he was given was complete and extensive.

5. The Chairman has been nothing but transparent with Mark Hughes throughout his tenure and had communicated with him regularly over the last several weeks. In keeping with that behaviour, the Chairman got on a plane and came to Manchester to meet with Mark in person to explain the decision. Once the decision to change managers had been taken, the Board felt that the sooner that change was made, the less disruption there would be to the Club and the fairer it would be to Mark and his team.

6. The intention was to tell Mark immediately after the game on Saturday. That would give Roberto and his team a full week to prepare for the next game. Regrettably, and despite our best efforts, rumours of discussions with Roberto Mancini became public before the game.

7. Once Mark was informed, I informed his coaching staff and the players were then informed. That is why Kolo Toure and Shay Given were asked to attend a meeting after the game. There is no player rebellion and the playing and training staff have been going about their business this morning very professionally with Roberto and Brian Kidd.

8. The decision to end Mark’s tenure was a unanimous decision by the Owner, the Chairman, myself and the Board, as was the decision to appoint Roberto Mancini to the position.

9. Like any other business we have plans and targets; and we have contingencies for when those plans and targets are not being met. The decision to look at managerial options was taken only three weeks ago after the Hull game, but I think it is important for people to know that Roberto was only offered the job after the Spurs game; we negotiated on Thursday and finalised his agreement on Friday. He was not in the Stadium on Saturday as has been reported.

With the points that I have just made and the statement that the Club made on Saturday there is nothing more for me to add on the process of change we have gone through. You will find everything I have just said in statement form on the Club website. The Club has nothing further to add and I will not be taking questions on this subject.

I now very much want to focus on the reason that we have called today’s press conference - to introduce Roberto Mancini to you as the new manager of Manchester City. After a hugely distinguished playing career he has gone on to further success as a manager in one of the toughest leagues in the world, becoming in the process the most successful Inter Milan manager of the last 30 years. Because of this track record of success he is just the manager we need to take us to the next level.

I know what your thinking blah blah blah, usual rubbish that we are expected to accept.

Mancini said all the basic things that you say when you take over at a new club, things like he is aiming for top four and that he is a winner whether it be on a training ground, home or away.

We just have to wait and see if his actions speak louder than his words.

There is an interview with Mancini available on the official site now, http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Video.

A thank you to the stranger in the car park.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to a fellow City fan who helped us in the car park at the ground today.

There was a frozen patch of water in the car park which we could not see due to it being covered with frost, we got stuck and could not get the car out of it. It was impossible to get behind the car and push due to the unsafe deep water and ice or so we thought that is. We were stumped, the steward was useless and we did not know what to do until a guy came over and lifted the back of the car up on his own so that we could get out of the hole.

I think this wonderful man proves that City fans are the best in the world!

If you see this I would just like to say a big thank you to you once again, I owe you a drink if I see you at the match again.

Also I would just like to say that considering City charge £5 per car each home game that the car park is a total mess, it needs to be sorted out. Some staff training might be needed also as they were no help at all and even suggested that we would have to pay for a tow truck at one point even though the car parks condition is their responsibility.

Today's goals *Video*

Considering tonight's events at the club I have decided against doing a post match report, seems as we are about to start a new period at the club I think that what we seen today may be irrelevant now. In fact it would be pretty easy to sum up today's performance anyway, poor!

Videos may need time to buffer, sorry for the inconvenience but it was all I could get at the moment.

Goals.

I dub him MANC - CINI!!!!

So Roberto Mancini is our new manager, he has a good pedigree as a manger and was also a very accomplished player.

As a player Mancini has played for Bologna, Sampdoria, Lazio and the most glamorous of all Leicester City.

As a manager he has took charge of Fiorentina, Lazio and Inter Milan.

He won the Coppa Italia in his first and only season in charge of Fiorentina, he then moved to Lazio where he stayed for two years winning one more Coppa Italia. His best period as a manager was at Inter Milan, in four years he won three Serie A titles and two Coppa Italia's. He has also won plenty of top honours as a player which gives us a huge indication that he is a winner.

Although he wouldn't have been my choice I am not disappointed with Mancini's appointment, up until Inter saw fit to replace him with Mourinho he had a growing reputation as one of the best managers in Europe. Although he has only managed for seven years he has an average of one trophy per season, on top of that his reputation may mean he has more pull when it comes to signing players.

Hopefully another good thing about him is that Italians are renowned for defending and the way our defence is playing at the moment we could sure do with his expertise helping us out in that area of the pitch.

We will just have to wait and see what he does now and fingers crossed he will turn out to be a good appointment.

This is not the first of the Mancini family to be associated with City, His son Filippo was at the club on loan in 2008, he didn't stick around for long lets hope that his Father can do a little better.

What do you think? Is Mancini a good or bad choice?

Should Hughes have been sacked?

For me I do not think Hughes should have been sacked yet and I think the way in which he has been sacked shows poor professionalism on the part of our owners.

Sacking a man before the team has a game is ridiculous, then to top it off they had planned to announce it shortly after the game.

I also think that the owners have acted prematurely by sacking him, Hughes has not been the greatest manager in the world by any stretch of the imagination but he was going in the right direction. As well as bringing in a host of new players Hughes has totally over hauled the way the club works as a whole, I have been angry at times with Hughes this season and have thought maybe we should sack him but when it happens and you think about it properly it was not the right decision.

His sacking I have to say has a lot to do with our players, they have let him down with their lacklustre performances. A majority of them should feel bad that they have helped to lose a man his job.

Saying that, we are comfortable in the League and the without a doubt the owners have acted on impulse, so they are to blame for this nonsense as well.

We now have to carry on without the man who was in charge of the team with the least losses in the Premier League this season and more importantly than that without the man who led us to our first semi final of a domestic cup for many years.

Will we ever have some continuity? I just don't know, are you happy to see Hughes go?

City confirm change in manager!

It has now been confirmed by City that Mark Hughes has been sacked, he will be replaced by Roberto Mancini who will be joined by Brian Kidd as his assistant.

The statement from our Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak on our website reads.............

“Prior to the current season beginning, with significant investment in players and infrastructure in place, the consensus between the Board and coaching staff was that appropriate agreed targets should be set for the 2009/2010 season.

“The targets were agreed as a result of the player acquisition strategy of the club being radically accelerated in the summer as a result of very favourable conditions for any buying club. It was also based on the fact that the infrastructure of the club had been overhauled completely at great cost in order to create the best possible environment for the team.

“A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set. Sheikh Mansour and the Board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change. This is a particularly difficult announcement given the personal investment over the past 15 months on all sides and we would like to put on record our respect for and thanks to Mark Hughes and we wish him the best in his future career.”

“Roberto is a hugely experienced manager with a proven track record of winning trophies and championships. His experience and track record speak for themselves. What is absolutely clear is that Roberto believes in Manchester City’s potential to achieve at the highest level and importantly in his own ability to make this happen. My hope is that our incredible fans will join us in welcoming Roberto to the football club.”

I am not very happy about this if I am honest, what do you think?

More reaction to come when I have got my head around it!

HUGHES ON WAY OUT!!!!!!!!!!!

It looks like Mark Hughes is on his way out! There will be a statement at 7:30 pm tonight, we are expected to announce Roberto Mancini as our new manager on a temporary basis.

We will just have to wait and see now!

More reaction to come along with my post match run down.

UPDATE: Mancini was reported to be taking over just for the remainder of the season, it is now being reported he will sign a 3 and a half year deal.

Great news for a change!

City have announced that Vladimir Weiss has signed a new contract!!!!!!

His new deal means he will be at City until at least 2012, Weiss had this to say after putting pen to paper...........

"I have been here for four years now and I came here to realise my first team ambitions. I am delighted to have signed this contract.''

"I am excited about what the future holds and delighted that even with the players that City have got now, the club have given me the opportunity to progress and show that not only the big players can make it.

"The new deal shows that young players from the academy can progress. I am happy that I am one of them.

This is brilliant news, I was beginning to wonder why we hadn't moved to tie him down but City had it covered all along.

Weiss has the makings of a world star and I for one hope that he can realise his potential at City, now we just need Hughes to give him more playing time!!!!!!!

Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 0 Man City (Kranjcar 37',90' Defoe 54')

We were let down again, our biggest game of the season so far and we didn't bother to turn up for it.

Rather than disappointed I am actually angry with the showing we put in last night, it is pathetic for professionals to play the way that we did.

We actually started off well and looked like dominating the game but it wasn't to be, the second half was an absolute waste of time. Spurs were totally bypassing our midfield which took de Jongs influence out of the game, our game plan should have been changed but Hughes obviously didn't see fit to do that.

We were crying out for width and I thought Hughes should have gone for it and brought on both Petrov and Weiss, I would have took Adebayor and Barry off for those two and played Robinho across the front line behind Tevez and used him as our creator. I don't know why Hughes didn't do something along those lines because the way Adebayor and Barry were playing it could not have got any worse.

Hughes at least could have made a tactical change so that Robinho was brought into the game more, he got a lot of bad press about his performance last night but for me we were not using him. When he did get on the ball he looked up for it, although I do think he gave up bothering in the second half and there is no excuse for that, I just think he got frustrated with not seeing any of the ball.

The performance as a whole was basically all round poor, players at this level diving in and turning their backs on the ball is damn right pathetic, there is players at the club at the moment that I do not think are fit to wear our shirt and that includes some big money players.

Yet again we are looking at getting back on track at the weekend, if we don't then I think Hughes should fear for his job, maybe I will apply if that does happen because I am sure that I could do a better job than him at times.

Send your loved ones a Christmas Message!

The club are providing a great service this year which helps you to send your love to the important people in your life this Christmas.

If the people you love are going to be out of your reach this Christmas then City have got you covered, get down to Eastlands this Friday and record a video message for them free of charge!!!

Your message will then be put onto the official site - www.mcfc.co.uk on Christmas day.

If you want to record a special message you need to be at Eastlands this Friday! Recording will take place at 10am until noon and then again from 3pm-5pm.

I think this a great idea, I am lucky and have all my loved ones near by this Christmas but if I didn't I would definitely take advantage of this wonderful gesture from the club.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Man City - Weds 16Th Dec 20:00

Our midweek trip sees us take on a strong Spurs side, after a disappointing result against Bolton we could really do with winning this game.

With us having a game in hand over Spurs who are just one point ahead of us in the league, I would say that this is our biggest game of the season so far.

If we are to fulfill our top four aspirations then I feel we have to win games like this one. Spurs are certainly in the race for top four, so to finish above them I feel we have to be good enough to beat them. Spurs have been in good form this season and will prove a very tough test for us, I think if we are to beat them then we have to fight fire with fire.

To echo Mark Hughes, Spurs are an attacking team and like to play football, if we are on song and they try to attack us I think that we could open them up. We have become one of the best counter attacking sides in the league over the last couple of seasons and should be able to take advantage of Spurs when they attack us, saying that Spurs can break quickly to so our defence will have to be on top form.

I am praying that Nigel de Jong will be fit for this game tomorrow, it looks like he is set to travel but I am not sure what capacity he will be used in. I think we missed him badly against Bolton, he does the work of ten men in the midfield and is really important for us. He injects fight and determination into the game and when you get past his rough and ready approach he is also a very good ball player, he plays the percentages and makes sure his pass goes to a blue shirt. I really hope he can start!!!

Man City Team News:
As I was saying Nigel de Jong looks to have got over his swine flu and is due to travel for the game, Wayne Bridge may also return early from a knee injury. SWP is out with an ankle injury and Michael Johnson is out for the rest of the season. Craig Bellamy is banned after being ridiculously sent off against Bolton.

Tottenham Team News:
Ledley King (Hamstring) and Jonathan Woodgate (Groin) are major doubts for the home side, Carlo Cudicini is still recovering from a motor bike accident and Jermaine Jenas is facing a late fitness test.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Sylvinho, Ireland, de Jong, Barry, Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Tottenham Line Up: Gomes, Dawson, Corluka, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Palacios, Huddlestone, Defoe, Keane, Lennon.

My Prediction: Tottenham 2 - 4 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Tevez and Ireland score in a City win.

Bolton 3 - 3 Man City (Klasnic 11',Tevez 28', Cahill 43', Richards 45', Klasnic 53', Tevez 77') *Video*

I feel embarrassed and I hope that our players do as well, our performance was poor and at times we even made a worse side in Bolton look decent.

Three times we went behind today and three times we equalised but that winning goal was just beyond us. I cannot believe that we did not win against an extremely poor team, it was all down to how we played and not what Bolton did. Tevez scored two and Richards the other to help get us a point, Goals below.

The whole team did not play well today but I was mostly disappointed with our defence, I thought that as individuals that they all did OK but as a unit they were all over the place at times. I don't think it helped that Nigel de Jong didn't play today, he takes so much pressure off the defence usually and I just don't think they could adapt to him not being there today.

I also was not pleased with Hughes leaving it so long to bring Robinho on today, we were crying out for some creativity but Hughes thought best to leave him on the bench for longer than he should have. I think Hughes could have also stopped Craig Bellamy getting sent off today in a way, he did absolutely nothing up until the point the ref wrongly sent him off and should have been replaced earlier in the game.

You know I could pick at our faults all day long actually but I am not going to, I am feeling really deflated after this result. We should have won it and that is the bottom line, but it was typical City again today I am afraid. We thought that we could win the game at a canter and it backfired, another typical thing that we didn't do today was take advantage of the results around us, when will it stop I just do not know!

We have a massive game coming up now at Spurs, we have to win it to get our top four aspirations on track, if we don't win then I fear that we will look back when the season has finished and see another mediocre finish.

Goals.

Bolton vs Man City - Sat 12Th Dec 15:00 pm.

Not far to travel tomorrow as City take on Bolton, for me this game should be a walk in the park for us.

Not a lot to say about this fixture, Bolton are not a good side at all. We should be able to win convincingly tomorrow, I am talking four or five nil. It should be a nice easy game for us where we come strolling home with three points in the bag, I know that sounds arrogant and I am not trying to come across that way but the form book certainly suggests that an easy City win is what should happen. All we have to do is keep playing the same way that we have been in our last couple of games and we will not be troubled by Bolton.

Man City Team News:
Micah Richards, Craig Bellamy and Stephen Ireland are all struggling with knee injuries and may miss out, Wayne Bridge is out for a few weeks with a knee ligament injury. Michael Johnson looks set to be out for the rest of the season after picking up a knee injury in training.

Bolton Team News:
Kevin Davies returns from a one match suspension but Joey O'Brien and Sean Davies will both miss out with knee injuries. Gavin McCann and Johan Elmander are carrying knocks but should be available for selection.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Sylvinho, Wright-Phillips, de Jong, Barry, Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Bolton Line Up: Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, O'Brien, Cahill, Samuel, McCann, Cohen, Gardner, Taylor, Elmander, Davies.

My Prediction: Bolton 0 - 3 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Robinho scores in a 3 - 0 City win.

EXCLUSIVE Joleon Lescott interview!

Thanks to the club wevegotrobinho has got an exclusive Joleon Lescott interview, the interview was taken and recorded by the club and sent on to me.

I would like to thank Chris Nield and everyone else who works at City for constantly making sure that independent City fan sites are well looked after, to be able to publish an exclusive is great. Thanks guys!

View more great videos from City at our official site, www.mcfc.co.uk.

Joleon Lescott interview!

Man City 2- 1 Chelsea ( Adebayor 8' (og), Adebayor 37', Tevez 56', ) *Video*

Well I will be going in to work tomorrow and asking everyone what they were saying about us having no chance against Chelsea, that is for sure! What a great performance and a great day, our players really came through for us and sent a big message out.

We went behind yesterday after a great Shay Given save hit Adebayor on the back and went in to the net. We brushed ourselves off though and Adebayor pounced from inside the box to give us a much deserved equaliser, then Tevez sent us into the lead with a good free kick. Goals and highlights below!

We played brilliant yesterday and took the three points we deserved, people have to give us credit after this victory. I have to say that I think Mark Hughes is a big reason behind our last two great performances, he has had us playing as a team and his tactical plays have been much better. I have also noticed in the last couple of games that Hughes has not sat down, he has been on his feet orchestrating from the sideline.

I can't believe how much of a unit we looked yesterday, it is a dramatic transformation from the team of individuals we have been watching. Every player worked hard for each other and it payed off, the team now has no excuses not to play like that every week!

Because everyone played so well yesterday I am going to rate them individually because they all deserve a mention.

Given - This man has to be the best keeper in the league by a mile, he made some great saves yesterday and a penalty save summed up his quality. My rating 10.

Richards - Played very well and seems to have gone back to basics a little, which is what he needed to do. I can only remember one mistake when he did a silly header. My rating 8.

Toure - Brilliant defending, made no mistakes and beat Nicolas Anelka for pace. Superb game for him. My rating 8.

Lescott - Well I am finally starting to see why we spent so much money on him, along with Toure he had Drogba and Anelka in his bin all game long, flawless performance. My rating 9.

Bridge - Had a good game before going off injured, handled the Chelsea attack well and was also great support going forward. My rating 7.5.

SWP - He finally looks like he is returning to form, he had a great game yesterday and worked extremely hard, the Chelsea defence could not handle him. My rating 9.

Barry - He had a decent first half but really improved in the second, he was moved to left back and did a really good job for us. My rating 7.5.

de Jong - I have nothing to say about this man except for UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! Out classed all of the Chelsea midfield. My rating off the chart!

Robinho - Didn't see much of the silky skills from him yesterday but he did a good job sitting in the midfield creating and helping to break things up. My rating 7.5,

Tevez - This lad was absolutely knackered at the end of the game his work rate is second to none, he scored the winning goal and thoroughly deserved to. My rating 10.

Adebayor - He worked a lot harder than in recent times against Chelsea and caused problems for their defence by running the line extremely well, his goal got us on our way to winning the game. My rating 8.

Man of the match: Nigel de Jong.

This man was amazing yesterday, he won every single tackle that he went for, he was simple but effective with his passing and he stopped the Chelsea midfield single handedly. He covered every blade of grass on the pitch and I am going to say that he was not the main reason but the reason that we won the game! The performances that he has been putting in have got to have this guy right at the top in the race for player of the year.

It was an all round great performance yesterday by the playing and coaching staff, I hope that we can continue with this form now and if we do then it will not be 4Th place that we will settle for it will be higher!

Goals and highlights.

Man City vs Chelsea - Sat 5Th Dec 17:30 pm

Our toughest game of the season is up next, in my opinion Chelsea are by far the best team in the league and this will be a tough game to take anything from.

If I said definite defeat tomorrow hadn't gone through my mind then I would be telling fibs, Chelsea look very good this season and at times have looked unbeatable. I have to say that more than anything, I am looking forward to this test tomorrow. If we can give a good account of ourselves it will give us some more much needed confidence and it will also send a renewed message out to the rest of the league that we are opposition to be taken seriously.

So what do we look to tomorrow to help us take something from this game? That is an easy one for me, our defending is key. Chelsea are very strong going forward, Drogba is in great form and then when your not worrying about him you have to keep your eyes on the likes of Anelka. I should imagine that if our midfield do not play a little deeper than they have been lately Chelsea will run us ragged, on top of that Toure and Lescott will have to be on their game to handle Drogba's bullying style of play. We can score goals against anybody I believe, so the defending must be put first by Hughes tomorrow.

Luckily for us coming into this game some of our players have started to return to form, in particular SWP, Lescott and Bridge have started to play a lot better than they have been. Two of those players are ex Chelsea players so hopefully they will have something to prove, Chelsea never really gave SWP a fair crack so hopefully he will be on the top of his game to prove them wrong. Bridge should also want to prove something not just to Chelsea but to Capello considering Chelsea will feature England's first choice left back Ashley Cole.

I really wouldn't put it past City to spring a surprise on a lot of people tomorrow and beat Chelsea and although Chelsea are a great team it is not impossible for us to do exactly that. This is yet another game where we will see just how much some of our players want to help us to be considered as a top team.

Man City Team News:
Craig Bellamy and Stephen Ireland might both miss out with knee injuries, Vladimir Weiss is struggling with illness and may also miss out. Martin Petrov is fit again and should make the squad, Robinho and Nigel de Jong are ready to come back into the squad after being rested in midweek.

Chelsea Team News:
Salomon Kalou is set to miss out with a thigh injury and Jose Boswinga is also out with a knee injury. Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka are all expected to come back into the starting line up.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, de Jong, Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Chelsea Line Up: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Carvalho, Ashley Cole, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Deco, Drogba, Anelka.

My Prediction: Man City 2 - 1 Chelsea.

Worth A Bet: Wright-Phillips scores in a 2 - 1 City win.

Man City 3 - 0 Arsenal ( Tevez 50', Wright-Phillips 69', Weiss 89' ) *Video*

We finally got to a semi final and it feels great! We have disposed of Arsenal and now I am genuinely looking forward to playing United.

Our first two goals were absolute crackers, Tevez banged his in first followed by SWP, our scoring was completed when Vladimir Weiss scored from inside the box after Bellamy ripped Arsenal apart. Goals Below!

We played great last night but as is the way because the young Arsenal team finally lost, we only beat kids according to almost everyone who isn't a City fan. I am not buying it, we can only beat what is put in front of us and we carried out that task superbly.

Our whole team last night played as a unit and it was great to watch, there were also certain individuals who stood out. When I tried to think about who was my man of the match I found myself saying 'SWP played well but mind you so did Bellamy' and so on. If I was to pick a few out it would have to be SWP, Bellamy, Lescott and Tevez, SWP and Bellamy absolutely terrorised Arsenal's defence all night long, then Tevez was working extremely hard up front and definitely deserved his goal and then there was Lescott, I thought he was superb last night and would say it was his best game for us so far.

I think the main thing that our team should take from the game is that if you actually shoot it can work wonders, to often we try to walk the ball in but last night has hopefully shown them that they do not have to walk the ball into the net to get a goal.

If I am honest I am still on a buzz from the result last night and I still haven't been able to gather my thoughts properly, but what I do know is that I am not afraid of playing United in the semi's, on top of that it is better to play them now than in the final because none of us want that long journey home having got beaten by them.

Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goals.

Man City 3 - 0 Arsenal

I will do my match report tomorrow afternoon, I have to get to bed for work in the morning now. Feel free to leave comments on what your feeling like after getting to the semi final and on getting United!

For now all I have to say is wooooooooooooooooooooo bring on Man United!

Man City vs Arsenal - Wed 2nd Dec 19:45 pm

So we have the chance to progress into a semi final, for some reason I am not as excited about this game as I normally would be. I just don't want to get my hopes up about getting to the semi final because then I start to dream about getting to the final!

The question is can we beat Arsenal and the answer is of course we can! We have beat them once this season and considering they will probably have a weakened team out this time around it is more than possible. Mind you, when I say weakened it will still be a very talented team, we all know about Arsene Wenger's young stars and what they are capable of.

If there was ever a time we needed our players to stand up and be counted it is tomorrow, we have had enough heartache and it is time we got some kind of payback and getting to a final of a cup would be a good start that's for sure, I know the final is two rounds away but if we beat Arsenal we are a lot closer to going on a trip to Wembley.

One thing is for sure, win or lose we will see how much our players care about our club tomorrow. If we see a slack performance then there has to be some questions asked about the commitment of our squad.

Man City Team News:
Petrov is out with a knee injury, Toure and Adebayor both look to have shook off niggles and should start the game. Gareth Barry may miss out with a groin injury.

Arsenal Team News:
Van Persie misses out with an ankle injury, Kieran Gibbs will miss the game due to a broken metatarsal in his left foot, Gael Clichy is struggling with a back problem and Nicklas Bendtner is out with a groin injury.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, De Jong, Wright-Phillips, Robinho, Ireland, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Arsenal Line Up: Fabianski, Silvestre, Senderos, Traore, Eastmond, Gilbert, Ramsey, Merida, Eduardo, Walcott, Nasri.

My Prediction: Man City 1 - 0 Arsenal.

Worth A Bet: Lescott scores in a 1 - 0 City win.