Southampton vs Man City - Sat 7th Dec 2013 KO 15:00

Two down one to go, a tough trip to Southampton is the last of three games before the big one against Arsenal, if we win this one we will be ready to make a full blown assault on our title rivals.

Southampton have had a run of bad results recently after starting the season really well, everyone can have a bad patch though as we well know and considering two of their recent defeats have been against Arsenal and Chelsea that doesn't make them a bad team all of a sudden.
I have seen Southampton a fair bit this season and I have always been reasonably impressed, Pochettino has built a strong, well organised, attacking team, unfortunately for them and luckily for us they are struggling with injuries and may not be able to display those attributes against us.

Unlike Southampton we are on a very good run of form, 12 goals in our last 3 league games and only 2 conceded makes good reading. We haven't performed to the best of our ability well we have been winning lately and there is certainly work to be done on the midfield and defence but I suppose it is not worth dwelling on until it contributes to a bad result, right now winning is all that matters no matter how we go about it.

I am looking forward to tomorrows game, if we win I think we will have turned the corner properly and the significance of winning three games on the bounce and twice away from home will be huge for the teams confidence, I just hope that we can do it and its not another false dawn.

Man City Team News:
David Silva and Stevan Jovetic are believed to be over their calf problems but are not expected to risked for tomorrows game, Matija Nastasic is also said to be nearing fitness after also struggling with a calf problem but will not be available for tomorrows game.

Southampton Team News:
Gaston Ramirez is expected to return from illness but Nathaniel Clyne (hamstring), Morgan Schneiderlin (groin) and Jose Fonte (knock) are all doubts for the home side whilst Victor Wanyama, (ankle), Artur Boruc (hand), Danny Fox (hamstring), Guly Do Prado (knee) and Kelvin Davis (back) are all expected to be absent.

Possible Man City Line Up: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Nasri, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible Southampton Line Up: Gazzaniga, Clyne, Yoshida, Lovren, Shaw, S Davis, Ward-Prowse, Lallana, Ramirez, Rodriguez, Lambert.

My Prediction: Southampton 0 - 2 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Fernandinho scores the first goal in a 0 - 2 Man City win @ 115/1.

West Brom 2 - 3 Man City - Quick summary and Goals video

The score line looks close but the game was not, West Brom were gifted two goals through poor defending towards the end of the game.

I have to start with team selection, Dzeko started the game and was involved in the first goal but contributed nothing else, Kolarov started because Clichy was absent and fair play to him tonight, he played a part in two of the goals but he really does need to work on his defending badly. Then there was the decision to play Demichelis, he was leaving big gaps down the middle and kept getting caught wrong side, he was at fault for West Brom's second and just should not have been playing as a left half ahead of Lescott.
I mentioned it in my preview to the game about Demichelis playing alongside Kompany because I knew that Pellegrini would do just that, it was clear from his performance that the manager made the wrong decision again, same goes for starting Dzeko again because he shouldn't be playing ahead of other people who deserve a chance more than he does.

Although everything about tonight's performance wasn't great as I just touched on, we did play quite well as a team, we controlled the game and West Brom were not a bother to us until the 85th minute, I don't even think they had a shot on target until Anichebe scored, we certainly didn't deserve to concede two goals anyway.

The bottom line is that we won and we won away from home, hopefully we can take some confidence from that and go on to beat Southampton before that all important Arsenal game.

GOALS.

West Brom vs Man City LIVE STREAM INFORMATION

Up to now there are 18 stations that should be available to watch todays match against West Brom.

I know a lot of people are familiar with online streaming now but for those that are not, this should help.

If you go to the following link http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=232201&part=sports then you will see the page that will display the links to watch today's game, the links to the streams will not be displayed until one hour before kick off.

Each link will be run via a different type of software, for example, you may just be able to click one that will load on your web browser or there will be some where you have to download software.

Each stream will tell you which software it is being run on, for example, if next to one of the links it says Sopcast then you will need to download the Sopcast player software. All software is available via this next link http://www.wiziwig.tv/software.php?part=software .

The best streams to watch are the ones with the higher Kbps rate, so if one stream says 150 Kbps and one says 2000 Kbps then you choose the latter, this is the best way to chose which software to download, as different streaming clients will run at different speeds.

A little heads up I always find Sopcast the best software to use, so it would probably be worth downloading that in preparation for when the game links are announced.

Hopefully this was helpful and not confusing, I think everyone should be able to understand once you explore the links, it is quite straight forward.

Enjoy, hopefully!

West Brom vs Man City - Wed 4th Dec KO 20:00

The first of two important away games sees us travel to the Hawthorns to play West Brom, the baggies haven't been good at home and we haven't been good away so we could be in for an interesting game.

I have only seen a minimal amount of West Brom this season so I can't give a valid opinion on them, all I can say is that the little bit of them that I have seen, they looked decent. I have studied their results this season and whilst there was fixtures that I would of thought that they were capable of winning, there are others that they have done really well to take points from. A draw at Chelsea, a draw at home against Arsenal and a win at Old Trafford suggest that they have got the ability to compete against the better teams in the league.

As we all know, we haven't achieved the right results on the road this season, but that's not to say our performances have been all that bad when away from home. Our performances against the likes of Chelsea and Cardiff were not worthy of a defeat and then there was the defeat to Aston Villa which was quite astonishing, however reasoning's are only as good as excuses and the bottom line is that we have to start winning away games.

I am positive that we are going to start winning away from home and when we do it is going to spell bad news for the rest of the league. Just winning this game against West Brom would start making teams sweat, our title rivals know as well as we do that if we become consistent away from home that they are going to have a job on their hands to compete.

Good news ahead of the game tomorrow is that Vincent Kompany is back in the squad, whether that means he will play or not remains to be seen, I would imagine it does. I just hope that Pellegrini doesn't try to accommodate Demichelis along side him, he hasn't done anything wrong as such, I just don't want to see him shoved on the left hand side of Kompany ahead of Lescott whose natural position is left half, plus Lescott played well there against Swansea.

Man City Team News:
Vincent Kompany gives us a much needed boost in defence by returning to the side, Matija Nastasic, David Silva and Stevan Jovetic are all still absent from the team with calf injuries.

West Brom Team News:
Youssouf Mulumbu is missing for the home side as he serves a one match suspension for picking up five yellow cards, Scott Sinclair has a hamstring injury but would not have been eligible to play against his parent club anyway, Ben foster is in light training but is not expected to be ready to return to the team.

Possible Man City Line Up: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Nasri, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible West Brom Line Up: Myhill, Jones, McAuley, J Olsson, Ridgewell, Amalfitano, Morrison, Sessegnon, Yacob, Brunt, Long.

My Prediction: West Brom 0 - 4 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Man City win the game 0 - 4 with Sergio Aguero scoring the first goal @ 66/1 or Alvaro Negredo scoring the first goal @ 75/1, also any first goalscorer bets involving Vincent Kompany have good odds, may be worth a quid on the returning captain.

Man City 3 - 0 Swansea City - Goals and Highlights.

Another home game finished, another home win in the bag and another three goals, a perfect result on the face of things but there are certainly still issues that need ironing out.

We started well today, we looked sharp, organised and up for it, when Negredo scored a free kick it was easy to think that we were going to go on and score a hat full again, however we tailed off and to be fair some of that was down to Swansea.

After going one up we seemed to take our foot off the gas, our intricate through balls weren't coming off and we just couldn't take hold of the game. Swansea were also playing a smart game, they knew they didn't have much of an attack due to injuries and instead were happy to sit inside their own half and wait for us to come at them, their midfield was crowding us out and when they saw a chance to break they went for it.
The first half finished with us leading but it could of easily been the other way round, Swansea had some really good chances and if their finishing had been better they could have gone in at the break having scored a couple of goals.

The second half started almost identically to the way the first half did, we had the bit between our teeth and immediately set out to put Swansea under pressure. We weren't spectacular in the second period but we took a hold of the game a lot more than we did in the first half, don't get me wrong Swansea never looked like they were out of the game at any point but we were putting them under a lot more pressure and creating chances. Stepping it up a gear going forward ultimately proved too much for Swansea to handle and two goals from the impressive Samir Nasri were the rewards for putting in a tad more effort.

It wasn't the best performance today, the midfield was being bypassed too easily again, we were untidy and we are still sacrificing possession of the ball in favour of a direct approach far too much at times, but after feeling very frustrated with the team lately, I am quite happy with today's result.

Don't get me wrong I am never going to be happy when there are issues that need ironing out, however the most important thing today was that we won the first out of three games leading up to the Arsenal match, especially with Spurs, Utd and Liverpool dropping points.

I just really hope that Pellegrini can sort out these little problems that the team have and that we can go on and get the away game monkey off our back, if that happens and we get six points from our next two games and then beat Arsenal, I am convinced that no team will be able to get in our way and stop us from winning the title.

Goals and Highlights.

Man City vs Swansea City - Sun 1st Dec 2013, KO 16:10

Can anyone stop us from winning at home? Swansea City are the next team with the task of trying, Swansea are a very capable team but I don't think that we will relinquish our home record to the Welsh club.

Swansea are a decent team, they have a few good players and a very good team ethic, they are one of the few teams in the premier league that I enjoy watching. Unfortunately it is because of Swansea's positive style of football that I am 99% sure that we will beat them, they like to play football and press forward, if they do that against us we will open them up and more than likely have a field day.

As I mentioned, I am quite positive that we will win this game, but there is no doubt that our defending will have to improve if we are to take three points without any scares. Our defending is awful at times without Vinny and teams like Swansea who play good fluent football are more than capable of punishing us, Pellegrini needs to solve the issue because plan A to outscore the opposition is a dangerous game to play.

Today's game could be more important than it seems as it could prove pivotal when it comes to the title, this is the first of three important games before we welcome Arsenal to the Etihad. Winning all three of these games and then beating Arsenal is obviously very possible for a team of our quality, if we can do it then we could be top of the league before the new year and maybe even by Christmas day.

Man City Team News:
Vincent Kompany has recovered from his thigh injury but is not match fit and Pellegrini is said to be edging on the side of caution and is not expected to play our captain, David Silva (calf) and Stevan Jovetic (calf) are both expected to miss out as they continue their recovery from injury, Matija Nastasic is also suffering with a calf injury and will not play. Jack Rodwell is available for selection after recovering from a knock.

Swansea City Team News:
Wilfried Bony (hamstring) and Michu (ankle) are both expected to be missing for the visitor's, Angel Rangel picked up a knock on his calf against Valencia in midweek and is also expected to miss the game, Garry Monk continues to recover from a knee injury.

Possible Man City Line Up: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Lescott, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Nasri, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible Swansea City Line Up: Vorm, Davies, Williams, Flores, Tiendalli, Hernandez, De Guzman, Shelvey, Dyer, Pozuelo, Vazquez.

My Prediction: Man City 3 - 0 Swansea City.

Worth A Bet: Fernandinho scores the first goal in a 3 - 0 Man City win @ 100/1.

Man City 4 - 2 Viktoria Plzen - Dismal - Goals and Highlights

I wasn't expecting much tonight in way of exciting football because of the changes to the team, I did however expect to see a solid performance from the team and a comfortable win, that didn't happen.

I am not happy with our performance tonight I thought it was terrible, but a win is a win and I suppose that will do for me seems as we are already through, I am much more concerned with Pellegrini's decisions.

I am still not convinced by Pellegrini and he certainly didn't endear himself to me tonight, firstly and most importantly I am absolutely disgusted that Kolarov was allowed to captain City.
Kolarov has never played with any kind of fight or passion for City and his performances have been consistently bad for the majority of the time he has spent at our club, with tonight's performance by him a prime example of that. So my question is, how on Earth did Pellegrini see fit to make him captain?
This was a bad call by Pellegrini and I don't feel like he has taken picking someone to captain our club seriously, if you have played football you would be able to imagine the confusion and discontent in the dressing room when the other players found out he was captaining them, terrible decision by the manager.

Then there was Pellegrini's decision to include Aguero and even Nasri for that matter, these guys shouldn't of been playing tonight as far as I'm concerned and shouldn't have to be considering the squad we have. Now I am a person who does not believe in rotation and I think that professional footballers should be able to play as many games as they have to, however when you get a good chance to rest your most important players then I think that's quite acceptable, I feel like Aguero in particular was put at risk of injury tonight when he did not need to be.

I have to finish off my little rant with a few words on Edin Dzeko, if you read my blog regularly you will know I try my best not to persecute players but I have had enough of Edin.
This guy is lazy, he couldn't trap a bag of cement, his shooting is terrible and basically he just does not care about playing for City, for him to score tonight almost felt like an injustice had been done.
I can only imagine Pellegrini kept him on tonight in order to not totally kill off any kind of confidence that Dzeko has, that is the only possible reason I can think of, I know pub teams that would drag him off if he played like he did tonight. He is consistently poor now and I can only surmise that he does not want to play for City because both him and Kolarov alike for that matter do not perform this poorly for their countries, it is time to show these guys the door.

I know I am being very negative especially considering we have just scored 10 goals in two games but sometimes you have to concentrate on the negatives to get to the positives. I think I am so annoyed because the things I have highlighted from tonight's game are traits that we have seen throughout the season so far, poor managerial choices, poor individual performance and a lack of fight, all these things need to be weeded out for us to win trophies.

I think I must have needed to get these things off my chest for a while considering this was not the article I was writing in my head on the way home, no time to dwell on it though and I am already looking forward to seeing our first choice team against Swansea.

Goals.

Man City vs FC Viktoria Plzen - Wed 27th Nov 2013 KO 19:45

How refreshing to be going into a Champions League tie at this stage of the competition without having to worry about qualification, of course we still want to win but it will be nice to sit in the Etihad and watch City without any pressure.

Having just smashed Spurs six nil in the league, we now go on to face bottom of our European group at home, the possibilities are of course endless.

We are not going to put six goals past every team that visits the Etihad but we should be looking at putting a few past Plzen, players are bound to be rested for this game but with our squad being so strong the lads that do play should be able to cruise to a comfortable victory.

Now I know some people who will argue that there is pressure because we want to finish top of the group, I would have to disagree, finishing top of the group would be nice but only for the significance of being numero uno. I keep hearing people saying that its important because it means that we get an easier tie in the next round, that is a load of nonsense, every game after the groups will be tough, if we finish second in our group are the teams that finish first in theirs going to get an easy tie?

The only ones who should feel any pressure tomorrow are the players who come in, the likes of Dzeko, Hart and Richards need to impress when they get the chance if they are to get regular football and these games provide the perfect opportunity for them to do that.

Man City Team News: Vincent Kompany (thigh) was expected to be named in the squad after training with the team but Pellegrini has now ruled him out, David Silva (calf) and Stevan Jovetic (calf) are also not ready to feature. Jack Rodwell is again suffering with a knock but Aleksandar  Kolarov is expected to return from illness.

FC Viktoria Plzen Team News: No information seems to be available regarding injuries but upon seeing their squad sheet for the game it seems that Plzen have no major injury concerns.

Possible Man City Line Up: Hart, Richards, Boyata, Lescott, Kolarov, Milner, Fernandinho, Garcia, Navas, Toure, Dzeko.

Possible FC Viktoria Plzen Line Up: Kozáčik, Rajtoral, Procházka, Hejda, Limberský, Hořava, Horvath, Petržela, Kolář, Kovařík, Tecl.

My Prediction: Man City 4 - 0 FC Viktoria Plzen.

Worth A Bet: James Milner scores the first goal in a 4 - 0 Man City win @ 70/1.

Man City 6 - 0 Tottenham Hotspur - Goals and Highlights

We all enjoyed our home comforts today, the team continue to baffle us after beating a very good Tottenham team six nil.

What a win today, to score 6 goals against any team at this level is impressive but to beat a strong team like Spurs by that deficit is ridiculous, not to mention that we still weren't quite firing on all cylinders today.

It was like the team had read my pre match, the Spurs defence were scard to death of Aguero and Negredo and couldn't cope with them, Fernandinho and Nasri won the midfield battle with a helping hand from Toure and Navas and our defence managed to keep out a very unimpressive Roberto Soldado.

Now I won't for one minute suggest that we absolutely pasted Spurs all game today because we didn't, we were very good for large parts of the game but most of all we were clinical when it mattered.

Apart from us being a goal up just seconds after kick off, the first 20 minutes of the game were quite evenly contested. Both teams were playing with a high tempo and both had good chances to score, as the game progressed we started to dictate the pace of the game and take control, adding a further two goals before half time pretty much secured the three points.

We started the second half as we finished the first, putting constant pressure on Spurs with free flowing attacking football. We were relinquishing possession due to our gung-ho style at times but we looked quite happy to let that happen if it meant that we could play with that extra bit of freedom, the team were obviously confident that Spurs were not going to cause them a problem, three more goals in the second period of play finished off what in the the end was a hammering.

We were good today there's no doubting that but I still believe that we can play better, although we won six nil we didn't really play to our full potential, we had just done enough by our high standards.

We were a bit sloppy at times and gave the ball away more than we should, the defence were left wanting on a couple of occasions and we let a few good chances go begging, all these mistakes happening while easily winning the game, which is somewhat mind boggling.

Of course when we play 'good' that is like anyone else playing unbelievably well and although it comes across like I am picking holes in the team after winning six nil, I am not. When the level has been set high then there will always be room for comparison, I suppose the main comparison should be the difference between us winning and losing because when we are capable of beating a strong team like Spurs without breaking much of a sweat, it is hard to believe we can lose games to the likes of Sunderland.

No time to dwell on lost points in games gone by though, hopefully we will kick on again now and go through a period of consistently winning, if we get the away form sorted and carry on winning at home then I am convinced that we will win the league regardless of what any of our rivals achieve this season.

Goals and Highlights.

Man City vs Tottenham Hotspur - Sun 24th Nov 2013, KO 13:30

Premier League football is back and the games come thick and fast from now on, thankfully our first game after the break is at home, because for me it is a must win.

It is rather worrying for me to be glad we are at home, of course I am always happy to make the trip to the Etihad with my dad and my brother, in fact I love it, but this week I am extra glad because it means we don't have to play away, which is a worrying attitude.

I don't like the fact that I feel relieved that we are playing at home and I shouldn't feel like that, don't get me wrong I truly believe we can beat any opposition out there on our day, but right now what we need is three points and as the team have proved, that is probably going to be more achievable at home.

We need to get three points tomorrow but I would say that Tottenham are probably thinking the same, Spurs are certainly a rival for the title and beating us tomorrow would give them a boost and leave us hanging by a thread.

Tottenham are a very capable team and have a strong squad but ultimately they don't match up to us in my opinion, we are stronger in every area of the pitch and there isn't a single player in their team that I would replace one of ours with.
I am not going to question their defence because I think that Aguero and Negredo are capable of running rings around any defence in the world.
In the midfield I think we have the edge, Fernandinho has really settled down now and I am pretty sure he will outshine Paulinho just as he did when he came up against Oscar and Ramires, then there is Nasri who will cause problems for Spurs by defending and attacking, he has been the epitome of hard work and class in recent weeks, throw a decent performance in from Yaya and there shouldn't be a problem.
When it comes to Spurs attacking us then apart from Townsend, I don't see anything to worry about. I rate Defoe and if he was to play then I would be concerned, it is also rumoured that Adebayor may play and as we know he can be dangerous, the striker that will probably play is Soldado and he is the one that I am least worried about facing. I don't think he should cause our defence many problems and in fact I would be disappointed if he did, in my opinion he is a totally overrated player and I was really surprised that the shrewd chairman at Spurs spent so much on him, ten million more than Negredo to be precise but lacks his power, movement and energy. (Cue the performance of his life)

I just hope the team prove me right in my assessment of the two teams because they need to, with Arsenal and Chelsea winning again we could be out of the title race by next week if we don't beat Spurs.

Man City Team News: Vincent Kompany (thigh), David Silva (calf) and Stevan Jovetic (calf) are said to be nearing full fitness but this game will probably be to soon for any of them, Matija Nastasic and Fernandinho are expected to return to the side after recovering from knocks, Guidetti scored a couple of goals for Sweden during the break and may finally make the squad.

Tottenham Hotspur Team News: Christian Eriksen (ankle) and Danny Rose (toe) both miss the trip to the Etihad, whilst Zeki Fryers (groin), Nacer Chadli (hamstring) and Hugo Lloris (concussion) are all available for selection for the visitors.

Possible Man City Line Up: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Nastasic, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Milner, Nasri, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible Tottenham Hotspur Line Up: Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Chiriches, Vertonghen, Paulinho, Dembele, Sandro, Sigurdsson, Townsend, Soldado.

My Prediction: Man City 2 - 0 Tottenham Hotspur.

Worth A Bet: Fernandinho scores the first goal in a 2 - 0 Man City win @ 115/1.

Sunderland 1 - 0 Man City - Not good enough!

Our manager and team should be ashamed of themselves, poor team selection and poor performance saw us defeated away from home, again!

Now I don't want to rain on Sunderland's parade because they did thoroughly deserve to win today, they wanted it more than we did, they worked harder than we did and they defended better than we did, but they are not a side that should come close to beating us, we allowed it to happen.

Our problems started with the team selection today, the pretender that is Kolarov was preferred to Clichy, although lacking game time Richards was picked before Zabaleta and Garcia was played before a number of better players most notably Navas, but why?

There was absolutely no reason why Clichy and Zabaleta in particular shouldn't have played today. Kolarov was awful, at one point I heard someone say that he should be taken down the tunnel and shot, that was how bad he was.
Richards was to say the least rusty, he wasn't his usual self going forward and didn't look ready to start a football match.
Then there was Garcia, he isn't quick enough for premier league football and instead of playing Milner out wide he should of started Navas and put Milner in the middle from the get go.
Most annoyingly about Pellegrini's selection today was the fact that when Zabaleta and Navas came on today they made a difference, we had some energy and width all of a sudden and began to pile the pressure on Sunderland, unfortunately they didn't get enough time to make a difference to the result.

We were poor in the first half today, we were arrogant and looked like a team that had won before the game had started, Sunderland were not doing anything special but they were doing the basics very well, they were working hard and defending well, for me they deserved their lead at the break regardless if it was partly down to our lack of competing.

In the second half we were much better following the introduction of Navas and then Zabaleta, we took control and put Sunderland under immense pressure, they didn't buckle though and when they had to they threw everyone behind the ball and stopped us from making a breakthrough.
Some would say we did deserve something from the game based on our second half performance, not me though, I think Sunderland were worth the win in the end.
If Pellegrini hadn't put a weak team out thinking they were good enough to win and had the team not approached the start of the game to cockily then maybe I would feel differently, but considering Sunderland's persistent hard work and determination, I think we got what we deserved for our poor approach.

I don't normally do a team assessment but after today's game it is the best way to give a run down on the players and I think it is needed because there were players that did try today and others that did not.

Pantilimon - Didn't have anything to do apart from when they scored, some are saying he should of done better and some are blaming the defence, I would say both could have done better.

Richards - Was clearly not ready to start a game, without that reason/excuse backing him up though, he was poor and didn't have any kind of effect on the game.

Demichelis - Not 100% convinced by him yet, he did work hard today though and his experience did show through when keeping calm at the back.

Lescott - Can't fault his commitment and never have, I can only remember thinking 'oh Joleon' once today and he recovered from that mistake straight away, another player clearly affected by a lack of game time.

Kolarov - Terrible defending, terrible going forward, lazy and an all round waste of space, he had looked decent at times earlier in the season but seems to have reverted to form, he never plays badly for his country which suggests to me his heart isn't in it at City, needs to go.

Milner - I'm a big fan of Jimmy's but in the first half today he let me down as he was very poor, he did redeem himself in the second half and was pulling the strings when moved in field.

Garcia - Feel a bit sorry for Garcia, he isn't a bad player, I just think the tempo of the prem is too quick for him and maybe the way we play football is to, perhaps a player to save for European football.

Toure - Yet another poor performance by Toure today, he was poor earlier in the season but when Fernandinho started to get better Toure seemed to do the same, I have pointed out in the past how much work Ferna puts in to help Toure and without him there to hold his hand today he didn't perform.

Nasri - Nasri has been in good form lately and he played well today, he was trying his best to get the play flowing but he was constantly having to go and help Kolarov defend, which he did well, good hard working performance overall.

Negredo - Not his best performance today but he didn't have a lot to work with either, there wasn't a great deal of supply to the forwards.

Aguero - His usual self buzzing around up front trying his best to create or score a goal, just didn't come off for him today.

Subs.
Navas - Got 45 minutes and made a real difference, he was direct and was only interested in getting the ball into the box, he made a few good deliveries that someone should have been on the end of.

Zabaleta - Only brought on in the 71st minute but made a noticeable contribution, he was going forward well and supporting Navas, having an attacking full back gave Sunderland something to think about, something that Richards didn't pull of before being replaced.

Dzeko - Dzeko was also brought on with just 19 minutes to go, had a decent shot at goal and that was about it, wasn't given enough time to make a decent impact to give him a bit of leeway.

To sum up, I am just glad there is a break before our next game, Pellegrini needs to sort out a range of things, some of them are big things like players that earn so much money not pulling their weight for him and some are little things like maybe practising in swinging corners instead of ineffective out swinging ones, whatever the problems may be they all need ironing out and quickly.

Sunderland vs Man City - Sun 10th Nov 14:05

Our next game takes us to the stadium of light to face Sunderland, Sunderland have been poor this season and shouldn't prove to be much of an obstacle.

Today's game should be an easy win by rights, unfortunately for Sunderland they are a very poor team at the moment.
I just cannot figure out why Paolo Di Canio was ever allowed near the managers job at Sunderland, he has shown himself to be an absolute idiot in every possible way over the years, so why would you put him in charge of a football club?
He sold Sunderland's best player in Sessegnon, then signed a load of mediocre rubbish, then got sacked and that is all he did whilst at the club. It is a shame because Sunderland haven't been shy of spending a few quid over the past few seasons and at one point they looked like they were progressing well, Di Canio has left them in a right mess.

Sunderland wont be looking forward to playing us today, we are winning games in first gear and scoring plenty of goals in the process. We have scored 20 goals in our last 6 games and have done it without having to play to the best of our ability, the team are flowing and playing with confidence.

Our only worry at the moment seems to be with injuries, of course Kompany has been out and now it looks like we are going to be without Silva, who has been on fire this season, for at least 3 - 4 weeks. There is also doubts over Nastasic, Fernandinho and Garcia, whilst Jovetic is still recovering from a calf problem. We need to get a bit of luck concerning injuries, every time an important member of the squad suffers one they seem to be out for a minimum of a month, if we pick up any more it could really start causing us problems.

Man City Team News: Vincent Kompany (thigh), David Silva (calf) and Stevan Jovetic (calf) are all ruled out, Matija Nastasic and Fernandinho are doubtful after suffering knocks against CSKA Moscow, Javi Garcia is expected to undergo a late fitness test.

Sunderland Team News: Ondrej Celustka had a knock but is expected to shake it off in time to feature for Sunderland, Emanuele Giaccherini is a doubt with a back problem, ex City youth Keiren Westwood is expected to return to goal after recovering from concussion. Lee Cattermole and Andrea Dossena are both suspended.

Possible Man City Line Up: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Nastasic, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Milner, Nasri, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible Sunderland Line Up: Westwood, Celustka, Cuellar, O'Shea, Bardsley, Johnson, Ki, Larsson, Giaccherini, Fletcher, Altidore.

My Prediction: Sunderland 0 - 4 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Samir Nasri scores the first goal in a 0 - 4 Man City win @ 100/1.

Man City 5 - 2 CSKA Moscow *GOALS*

Seven goals, two penalties and a hat trick, you could be easily led to believe that this was an exciting game but it wasn't, we are through the group stage though and that is all that matters.

It was an easy win tonight, almost boring at times because we were just going through the motions, CSKA are not a good side and only managed to score two goals because of our poor defending.

We played some beautiful football at times tonight, you just have to look at our goals for examples of that, but it wasn't an outstanding performance by any stretch of the imagination but to be fair it didn't need to be.

Sorry for the brief post match, I have to be up for work very early unfortunately, to be fair I have pretty much covered the details of the game in those short paragraphs anyway.

GOALS.

Man City vs CSKA Moscow - Tues 5th Nov 19:45 pm

The Russians are in town for our next champions league encounter, this is an important game for us because if we win then I would imagine we will get out of the group.

All the headlines are about Hart not playing and the racism row from the away leg, a shame really considering that a win for us would probably mean getting past the group stages.

I am looking forward to the game tomorrow, firstly it has got me out of going to any bonfires (miserable so an so I know) and secondly I think we are going to hammer them and put one foot into the knockout phase.

CSKA come to the Etihad in slightly better form than they were in when we played them last time out, they have won their last two games scoring seven goals in the process. Does that mean that they are going to come to the Etihad and perform against us? No it doesn't, CSKA are a poor side and they just don't have the quality in their team to match our abilities.

As for us, we are in good form at the moment and look confident with it, this leads me to believe that CSKA are going to be the next team to get a hiding at the Etihad. We have far too much ability to do anything but win this game, couple that with playing on a good  pitch and I think we will see a much larger scoreline than we did in Moscow.

Man City Team News:
Vinny Kompany remains sidelined with a thigh injury and Stevan Jovetic will also miss out due to a calf injury, Joe Hart will take up a place on the bench for the second successive game.

CSKA Moscow Team News:
Vasily Berezutsky (knee) and Alan Dzagoev (hamstring) are both expected to miss out along side Aleksandrs Cauna who has a toe injury.

Possible Man City Line Up: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Nastasic, Kolarov, Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri, Silva, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible CSKA Moscow Line Up: Akinfeev, Nababkin, A.Berezutski, Ignashevich, Schennikov, Elm, Wernbloom, Tosic, Honda, Zuber, Doumbia.

Worth A Bet: David Silva scores the first goal in a 5 - 0 Man City win @ 80/1.

Man City 7 - 0 Norwich City *Goals Video*

68.5% possession, 27 shots, 772 passes, 100% of tackles won and 7 yes 7 goals, what a performance by us today, Norwich were lucky it wasn't much worse.

Firstly I feel disappointed with Norwich, so how Chris Hughton feels is any ones guess, we were quality today but Norwich were very poor, they are a much better team than they shown. Their downfall today was that they didn't consolidate and settle for defeat, they kept trying to play against us and that was a very bad idea.

Barring five or so minutes early in the first half where Norwich passed the ball well, they didn't get a look in, we chewed them up and spat them out with ease.

We were just on a different planet to Norwich today, it was almost like watching under 10s play against men at times. As a team we didn't even really exert ourselves today, everything we did was precise and effective, every player did their job and did it well.

The first players to take a bow in our team today should be Silva, Nasri and Aguero. Silva and Nasri were pulling all the strings in midfield, Norwich couldn't get near them and when they did they got turned inside out. Whilst they were busy cutting through the Norwich midfield Aguero was running the defence ragged, they couldn't deal with his movement, they didn't know whether to come or go and when they did decide to make a move on him he was already out of sight.

The whole team were exceptional today, they played like they had been told to go on the pitch and just enjoy themselves. It was a refreshing performance to watch, there was no hangover from the defeat to Chelsea, we looked confident and assured, breezing through the game.

There is a worry that has come from today's game, not a worry for us but everyone else. I have just seen Pellegrini's post match interview and he was asked if it was our best performance under his management, he said no and I have to agree. Of course we were out of this world today but it was easy and we didn't have to put maximum effort in, if we had of played like we did against Utd where we put everything we had into the game, we would of scored double what we did today.

Hopefully this quality of performance will continue, we have become more consistent lately and look more confident, if we can keep it up we will soon catch Arsenal and then leave them behind.

GOALS.

Man City vs Norwich City - Sat 2nd Nov 15:00 pm

Norwich City are our next opponents at the Etihad, it seems like an eternity since we last played at home, hopefully home comforts will play a part against Norwich.

So our opponents, Norwich currently sit 18th in the table and have conceded quite a lot of goals lately, surely this game will be a walk in the park? Well actually not necessarily, I do expect us to beat Norwich but it may not be as easy as their position and results suggest.

For starters 18th can quickly turn in to 9th with three points, so their position in the table is quite irrelevant at the moment and the goals they have conceded have been against Chelsea, Arsenal and Utd, in games where I actually thought Norwich looked a good side.
Particularly against Chelsea I thought Norwich were going to win the game at times, they passed it well in the Chelsea half and were trying to get the ball in the box at every opportunity, they work hard and look an all round good unit.

Having covered my bases in relation to Norwich being able to cause us problems, which I honestly believe they are capable of, I still think we will comfortably beat them. We are on a good run of form at the moment, we have won four of our last five games and when we did get beat by Chelsea it was undeserved considering the way we performed.

It is important that we keep this good form going, if we drop anymore silly points we could end up trailing the league leaders by 8 or 9 points in the blink of an eye and at such an early stage in the season that would leave us playing catch up for a while.

Man City Team News:
We are likely to be missing Stevan Jovetic who suffered a calf injury against Newcastle, Vincent Kompany is expected to miss out again having not fully recovered from a thigh strain.

Norwich City Team News:
Robert Snodgrass suffered concussion against Utd and Nathan Redmond picked up a hip injury in the same game, both are expected to under go late fitness tests. Alexander Tettey is definitely missing for Norwich with a knee ligament injury and Ricky Van Wolfswinkel (foot) and Elliot Bennett (knee) are also expected to miss out.

Possible Man City Line Up: Hart, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Nastasic, Kolarov, Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri, Silva, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible Norwich City Line Up: Ruddy, Martin, Turner, Bassong, Olsson, Howson, Fer, Johnson, Snodgrass, Hooper, Elmander.

My Prediction: Man City 4 - 0 Norwich City.

Worth A Bet: Fernandinho scores the first goal in a 4 - 0 Man City win @ 125/1.

Newcastle United 0 - 2 Man City - *Highlights* Leicester drawn in the next round

Goals from Negredo and Dzeko in extra time were enough to secure victory at St James park, the win has set us up for an away tie to Leicester in the quarter finals.

The game was quite poor to watch tonight, we were lacking creativity and desire, we looked like we were playing a training game at times. When we did produce some good movement and passing we scored two goals and it took us until the 99th minute to do that.

As far as Newcastle are concerned they didn't put in a good performance either really and looked very unconvincing, they did create a few chances though, some were poorly executed, some well defended and some just unlucky, I would certainly understand their fans going away from the game thinking that they should have scored a couple of goals.

The best way to describe the result is 'job done', there wasn't really any positives to take away from our performance apart from maybe Pantilimon's decent showing in goal, which included one really good save to keep us in the game.

Most important thing is that we are through to the quarter finals and only a few games away from a final appearance, although to get there we will have to play a lot better than we did tonight.

Apologies for the quick post match, work beckons in the morning unfortunately.

Highlights.

Newcastle United vs Man City - Weds 30th Oct 19:45 pm

The games are coming thick and fast, our next game takes us to Newcastle to face the magpies in a league cup tie.

The league cup is generally viewed as a nothing competition these days, managers will give players that have been sitting on the bench for a while a run out and throw in the odd youngster here and there. I am half way when it comes to this because although I like to see a youngster or a fringe player coming in to an extent, I still think it should be taken seriously because any trophy is an achievement when all said and done.
Luckily for us rotation means replacing class players with more class players, so we do have the luxury of being able to rest key men, it is still important that whoever does come into the team is eager to impress because there is a quarter final of a cup beckoning.

There were easier ties that we could have been handed than a trip to St James park, however I am not overly concerned about the threat of Newcastle and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, I just think our squad is strong enough to compete and perhaps win the game.

Tomorrows game could well see a hangover from the league, we were beaten in a game that we deserved something out of and Newcastle lost to their rivals. I am sure there will be a lot of frustration within both camps that will need to be relieved, which is what I am most worried about. Newcastle do have some really good players that can hurt teams and in front of their own fans they will want to make amends for the defeat to Sunderland, I just hope that we also want to prove a point and perform well because I really want us to win this competition.

Man City Team News:
Vincent Kompany is our only notable injury concern, he is said to be training again after suffering with a thigh injury but it is doubtful he will play a part against Newcastle.

Newcastle United Team News:
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa is available after missing the game against Sunderland because of suspension,  Coloccini (groin) and Steven Taylor (hamstring) are doubts, Gutierrez may still be missing for the home side due to personal reasons and Ryan Taylor will miss the game after undergoing a knee operation.

Possible Man City Line Up: Pantilimon, Richards, Demichelis, Lescott, Kolarov, Milner, Navas, Fernandinho, Lopes, Dzeko, Jovetic.

Possible Newcastle United Line Up: Krul, Debuchy, Williamson, Yanga-Mbiwa, Santon, Gouffran, Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Cisse, Remy.

My Prediction: Newcastle 1 - 3 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Stevan Jovetic scores the first goal in a 1 - 3 Man City win @ 45/1.

Chelsea 2 - 1 Man City *Goals and Highlights*

Well we have seen some bad away results this season but this has to be the worst considering the manner in which we lost, we played well today and it would have been deserved had we won the game.

I will start with the mess up that lost us the game, with the game at 1-1 a harmless ball over the top somehow ended with the ball in the back of the net. Nastasic was running on to the ball watching it come over his shoulder with Torres on his tail, as long as Hart was stood in his area the danger would be averted, for some reason Hart wasn't stood in his area. Instead Hart decided to charge out of his area towards the ball when all he had to do was stand still and wait for Nastasic to nod it back to him, Nastasic did indeed head the ball back but past the on rushing Hart, leaving Torres to run on and score.

I have heard many different opinions on who was at fault already, I am sticking the blame firmly with Hart. It was easy to see what was going to happen all he had to do is wait for Nastasic to head it back. I think the people blaming Nastasic are wrong to do so, it looks like he could of changed where he headed it when you watch it but it happens a lot quicker than that and he would of been more concerned about not missing the header whilst expecting his keeper to be waiting to receive it.

As well as that mistake I wasn't pleased with Chelsea's first goal, Clichy was beaten far too easily and it was too simple for Schurrle to trick Demichelis with his movement as well. Well I am talking about Clichy he hasn't been himself for some time now, he looks sluggish and easy to beat, he was integral when we won the title and I am a really big fan of his, I think he is a victim of rotation and I hope he returns to full form soon.

Back to the game, apart from the horrific mistake at the end, we were superb. We controlled large parts of the game and man for man we were the better team. Pellegrini made the right decision by putting extra men in midfield although he put one to many in there for me, because I think with two up top we would have had the game sewn up, that is by the by though because we did play well enough to win the game regardless of that.

We played really well as a unit today, everyone was playing for each other and out working the opposition, the midfield particularly were better than I have seen them for a long time, with the stand out performance in my opinion coming from Fernandinho. Three Brazilians were on show today and Ferna was the one that stood out, he never stopped running from front to back, he was getting stuck in and constantly cutting short Chelsea's momentum. He has been getting better and better lately and if he continues he will justify his price tag.

Then there is Sergio Aguero, apparently his weakness is his left foot, for him to play as a lone striker was a worry, what a load of rubbish! This lad is phenomenal, defence's cannot live with him, he has everything a world class striker needs and he is improving all the time, for me he is easily one of the best three strikers in the world. I would give him another new contract now because he is definitely an important part of our future.

To sum it up, we were solid today and for me we deserved at the very least a point from the game, the performance was encouraging and if we continue in this vein of form we will soon have made up the six point deficit, keep the games coming CTID.

Goals and Highlights.

Chelsea vs Man City - Sun 27th Oct 16:00 pm

Following a cold away day in Moscow, our next away trip sees us travel to London to take on fellow title contenders Chelsea at the bridge.

This is going to be a tough game for both sides tomorrow, both teams have very talented squads and both are in good form, it is going to be a testing game for us but a test that I think we can handle.

This is an important game tomorrow regardless of what Pellegrini and Mourinho have been saying, these are the games that can be the difference when it comes to winning the title. If we were to lose tomorrow then we would be 6 points off Arsenal at the top of the league, of course it wouldn't be the end of the world if that were to happen, but I also don't think that we should be allowing gaps that big to appear at any point in a season when we are challenging for the title.

I have kept a very close eye on Chelsea this season and they are a good team but I have never sat back and thought 'wow' after watching them, they are quite similar to us in the sense that I don't think they have consistently reached a top level of performance as yet.

I think where Chelsea have been better than us this season is in midfield, man for man I think we have the more gifted individuals, as a unit though Chelsea have the edge. Chelsea are a lot more organised and compact than us, usually playing with three in the middle of the park. Us on the other hand only have two in the middle, one of them (Toure) seems to have the license to roam, whilst the other (Fernandinho) is left with the task of doing the job of two players. Our midfield has been an issue for some time now and it is more recognisable when Kompany isn't playing behind them clearing things up, I think we will have to tighten things up to compete with Chelsea in this area of the pitch.

Where I think we can cause Chelsea trouble is the final third, they have big strong experienced defenders but I think they lack the pace to control our attackers. The beast that is Negredo will be able to compete in a physical battle against them, whilst Aguero and Silva buzz around causing them problems with pace and finesse.

We are on a decent run of form at the moment and confidence should be quite high, we have been playing some good football and we are steadily becoming more consistent, I still don't think that we have seen the best of us yet though. There have been times that we could of gone through the gears and hammered teams but instead we have been quite happy to win at a stroll, hopefully against Chelsea we will hit top speed and if we do, we will beat them as far as I am concerned.


Man City Team News:
Vincent Kompany was expected to return to the side according to reports last week, he has however been ruled out as he continues to recover from injury. Martin Demichelis is not expected to be risked either after recently overcoming a knee injury, however Jack Rodwell is fit again after suffering with a hamstring injury.

Chelsea Team News:
Ashley Cole is expected to return for Chelsea after being out with a rib injury, Marco van Ginkel has a long term knee injury.

Possible Man City Line Up: Hart, Zabaleta, Garcia, Nastasic, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Milner, Silva, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible Chelsea Line Up: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole, Oscar, Ramires, Lampard, Hazard, Torres, Eto'o.

My Prediction: Chelsea 1 - 2 Man City.

Worth A Bet: David Silva scores the first goal in a 1 - 2 Man City win @ 75/1.

CSKA Moscow 1 - 2 Man City *Goals*

A poor match on a poor pitch against a poor team was matched by a poor performance from us, we did however secure the all important three points in Moscow.

Lets start with the pitch, it was terrible and it definitely effected our game, how UEFA passed it is beyond me. Now I am not someone who thinks that the players need the luxury of the perfect pitch, I do however believe the pitch in Moscow was unplayable, particularly for a professional match at this level. The fresh lick of paint that they gave it didn't cover up the fact that it was lacking grass and that the grass it did have wasn't sown. I have qualifications which I gained just a few years ago in regard to this area of expertise and my minimally experienced eye could see that it wasn't playable, so I would love to know who the guys are that carry out the inspections.

Whilst the pitch didn't compliment our fluent style of football, it couldn't be blamed for our all round poor performance. I will start with Pellegrini's decision to play Garcia at centre half again, the lad just isn't suited to that position, he is not quick enough and does not read the game well enough to be a centre half, Pellegrini needs to give Richards his chance there because he wants it and it makes sense.

The defending was bad all round tonight, the midfield was lacking again and left us exposed, it did improve in the second half with Yaya and Ferna getting more involved but it was by no means up to the level that we expect, I think Pellegrini needs to realise that sometimes we need that extra body in the middle to pick up some of the slack.

We weren't playing a good side tonight, they were poor and as bad as we were, we still looked very comfortable at times against them. I think all things considered, the bad pitch, cold temperatures and the makeshift defenders, this was a very good result away from home. Obviously we can play much much better than we did tonight but the most important thing was the points, which just to mention were kept safe by Joe Hart who made a brilliant save right at the death.

To round up, if we can play below par and win, it will do for me. Following the victory tonight I would think that a win at home against CSKA will see us through the group stages.

Goals.

CSKA Moscow vs Man City - Wed 23rd Oct 17:00 pm

The trip to Moscow to play CSKA has been somewhat spoilt so far with news coming out suggesting that the pitch will not be playable, Pellegrini himself has made his thoughts known on the issue and his opinion is that it should be postponed.

Obviously I am hoping that the pitch is playable and we can get the game out of the way, if it isn't ready then we have made the journey to Russia ahead of a league game against Chelsea for nothing. There are various sources reporting that the pitch is in a terrible condition, so it baffles me how it passed a UEFA inspection in the first place, typical incompetence on UEFA'S part again and it just so happens that an English side is involved in their bad decision, enough said.

Right, to the game, CSKA are the current champions of Russia so they are clearly a decent team, if you were to ask me if I was at all worried about playing them though, the answer would be no!

They just don't match up to us in the slightest, if you were to pick out any danger men in their team then you would look to the over rated Keisuke Honda and their star striker (in mediocre leagues) Seydou Doumbia who has just returned from injury. They have not won a league game since the 14th of September and have drawn 1 and lost 4 since then, we should paste these regardless of what condition the pitch is in.

As far as we're concerned, we have been in good form of late and things are looking promising again, our performance against West Ham was somewhat blown up in the media as something really special, in reality it wasn't in terms of what we are capable of, we are just better than them and we shown it by strolling through the game, we have so much more to offer yet.

I am really angry at the uncertainty surrounding the game tomorrow, the fact that we are probably going to have to play in poor conditions is not good enough, both CSKA and UEFA have made this the case and I am just hoping that the players will also feel incensed and take it out on them on the pitch.

Man City Team News:
Vincent Kompany (thigh) has not travelled to Moscow, Martin Demichelis and Jack Rodwell have also stayed at home as they continue to build up their match fitness after returning from knee and hamstring injuries respectively.

CSKA Moscow Team News:
Seydou Doumbia returned from a hamstring injury for their last league game and is expected to be involved, Goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev (knee) and Alan Dzagoev (hamstring) are doubts, while Latvian midfielder Aleksandrs Cauna (toe) is likely to miss out.

Possible Man City Line Up: Hart, Zabaleta, Garcia, Nastasic, Kolarov, Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri, Silva, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible CSKA Moscow Line Up: Akinfeev, Nababkin, A.Berezutski, Ignashevich, Schennikov, Elm, Wernbloom, Tosic, Honda, Zuber, Doumbia.

My Prediction: CSKA Moscow 0 - 4 Man City.

Worth A bet: Toure scores the first goal in a 0 - 4 Man City win @ 155/1.

West Ham Utd 1 - 3 Man City *Highlights*

Two goals from Sergio Aguero and one from David Silva helped us to a comfortable victory away from home against the Hammers.

I was slightly mythed at the team selection before the game today, leaving Zabaleta out and playing Garcia at centre back instead of Richards seemed a little bit strange, of course I am guessing the CSKA Moscow game was in the back of his mind and fair play Pellegrini pulled it off.

It didn't take long for the team to rid me of any nerves I had after seeing the team selection, we were in control from the start. We were by no means playing at full throttle today but we were comfortable, passing well, working hard and organised, with Aguero's first goal after just 16 minutes well deserved.

Throughout the first half we were creating plenty of chances and should have gone into the break at least two or three goals ahead, it didn't worry me that we had wasted chances though, we looked so assured that you could see that we were likely to score again and that is what happened.

At two nil up West Ham equalised and went on to have a good ten minute period where they were pressing us at a fast pace, the game was end to end as both teams played with a high tempo and even after our dominance throughout the game, the sense of needing another goal started to creep in, with ten minutes to go Silva put our minds at rest with a well taken and well deserved third.

We played well today and in the end when I look back at the game, we ambled through it, something which could cause us problems in the future. It is great if you can win games without playing at your full potenital, but when West Ham pulled a goal back today all the chances we had wasted were running through my head, we just need to step up a gear at times and finish games off.

There were some good performances on show today, Aguero and Silva particularly stood out but I want to mention Fernandinho. I was someone who thought his signing had looked a mistake at times, he wasn't doing anything to suggest he was a good player, but credit where it is due because he is improving every week now it seems. His defensive awareness has really improved, he is working hard tracking back and plugging holes, his passing has improved and when he is venturing forward he is starting to look dangerous. Maybe he just needed time to settle and time to understand the role Pellegrini wanted him to play in, whatever the reason he needs to keep pushing on now and if he does I am sure he will start forcing his way into the Brazil side and more importantly than that, into the City faithful's hearts.

So, another good win chalked up against another decent premier league side, hopefully we can keep it going now and make up the three point deficit at the top of the league sooner rather than later.

Goals and Highlights.

West Ham Utd vs Man City - Sat 19th Oct 17:30 pm

More travelling is on the agenda for our players after the International break, though this time it is just a short journey to London we have to make to face West Ham Utd.

The International break came at a bad time for us really, we had just recorded a good victory on the back of two defeats and then we got stopped in our tracks, as did West Ham to be fair, lets just hope we can keep some momentum going at Upton Park.

I can't really analyse West Ham or what they may be capable of properly because I simply have not seen enough of them this season, when I have seen bits of them here and there, I have always thought that they look a fairly decent side.

West Ham will surely be full of confidence after sticking three past Spurs away from home and if you couple that with our dodgy away form, the hammers will certainly believe that they can win this game. Do I believe that West Ham can beat us? Well it is possible of course, however I think that if we are organised and play reasonably well, we will win.

West Ham are short up front at the moment for starters and I just don't see how they can cause our defence any serious problems. Then there is their defence, in my opinion they do not have a particularly strong defence, they have a couple of decent defenders but I don't think they are good enough to keep out our world class players.

As for us, if we were consistent it would be easy to put us down for a win every week, unfortunately though, we just haven't managed to do that yet this season. The win against Everton was a very good one and we just have to hope we can continue in that vein, if we do then I can't see a problem in taking three points more often than we have been at times this season.

Man City Team News:
Vincent Kompany is expected to be out with a thigh injury,  Martin Demichelis played for the development squad this week but he is expected to miss out due to a lack of match fitness, Jack Rodwell also played for the elite team this week and has declared himself as fit.

West Ham Team News:
James Collins (hamstring) is out after picking up the injury on International duty,  Andy Carroll (heel) and Alou Diarra (knee) will also miss out, new signing Carlton Cole is lacking match fitness following his recent move to Upton Park.

Possible Man City Line Up:  Hart, Zabaleta, Nastasic, Lescott, Kolarov, Toure, Fernandinho, Milner, Silva, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible West Ham Utd line up: Jaaskelainen, Demel, Tomkins, Reid, Rat, Morrison, Noble, Nolan, Diame, Downing, Vaz Te.

My Prediction: West Ham 0 - 3 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Alvaro Negredo scores the first goal in a 3 - 0 Man City win @ 45/1.

Man City 3 - 1 Everton - Goals and highlights

We had to come from behind against a very good Everton team today, goals from Alvaro Negredo and Sergio Aguero helped to secure all three points.

City and Everton both contributed to a good a game of football today, as I thought Everton came to win and were very positive in their style of play, we played well though and were just too strong for them in the end.

I just want to get something out of the way, I am seeing a lot of comments online about the referee handing us the game, whilst I do not dispute the ref was shocking, both teams were on the receiving end of his poor decisions. In the case of the penalty that was awarded, Zabaleta bought it there is no denying that but it was there to be bought and I don't think Everton fans would mind if their player were to do the same.

Six changes were made to the starting line up today and rightly so, the likes of Milner and Negredo add a much more hard working, competitive edge to the team. These are the kind of decisions I like to see from a manager, Pellegrini wasn't scared to drop certain big names and make a statement that if you don't play well then you don't play, I haven't quite warmed to Manuel yet but fair play to him on this one.

The first half of today's game was quite an even affair, we were playing reasonably well and so were Everton. The visitors took the lead when Lescott made a mistake to let Lukaku through on goal, we didn't deserve to be behind and fortunately for us it was only 90 seconds before Negredo equalised. As the half wore on we could of quite easily been out of sight, Aguero the main culprit for missing a host of chances, our little Argentine did put things right though and scored right before half time to send us in at the break 2 - 1 up.

The second half of the game was totally different to the first, we were playing very well and dominating the game, our third goal came on the 69th minute from a Sergio Aguero penalty and that was the game pretty much sown up. Throughout the second half we dominated the game for long periods and were running a very good, unbeaten Everton side ragged at times, we looked confident and well assured.

There were some good individual performances on show today and I just want to highlight a few of them. Kolarov who normally gets a lot of negative press was influential up until the point where he had to go off with an injury, Negredo was working very hard up top and was a handful for the Everton defence and Fernandinho had probably his best game for us, he was weighing in with tackles, his distribution was good, he was filling the gaps and tidying up in midfield.

On a constructive note, I did think that the midfield was still a little bit slack at times today and yet again it had to be put down to Yaya. He is to lazy and constantly frustrates me because with a bit more effort we all know what he is capable of. He doesn't work hard enough to get back and impose himself on the game, Fernandinho was mopping up for him all day today and made him look better than he was, it is almost like he is the senior player out of the two so he has the right to let Fernandinho do all the dirty work. He has been found out a lot recently and it is time he started pulling his weight more, of course it is great when he threads a quality pass like he did today for Negredo or bangs a free kick in but these are just bare minimum contributions from such a talented player who has a lot more to offer.

To sum up we were good today and had to be against a good Everton side, saying that I believe we can be much better. As a team and individually we can certainly improve, I think it is just a matter of Pellegrini working out his best team and helping certain players understand what he wants from them, if he can do that then we should have a good season, there isn't many teams better than Everton in the league, so if we can beat them with six changes then with some tweaks the possibilities are endless.

Goals and highlights.

Don't miss 'The Minx' on City square today! *Video*

The face of Dr Martens 'The Minx' are playing live on City square after today's game against Everton.

'The Minx' are a top band and are currently lighting up the British music scene, I wouldn't normally plug a band and I haven't been asked to this time round either, but my mate (Andy Evans) is the drummer, so with him being an absolutely quality guy, a fellow City fan and part of a quality local band, it was only right that I did.

This is a good opportunity to get to see 'The Minx' for free tomorrow, these guys are way up the ladder on the music scene, so stick around after the final whistle and I am sure you will enjoy it.

Check them out on the video below for a little taster,  if you like what you hear then 'The Minx' songs are also available to download on all leading music download sites.

Man City vs Everton - Sat 5th Oct 12:45 pm

Our next premier league game sees Everton make the short trip to the Etihad, Everton have made a good start to the season under new boss Roberto Martinez and will surely prove to be a tough test.

Everton always like to put in a good performance against us and tomorrow will be no different, I can't really predict if I think we can beat them because we may play well and get beat, we may play poor and win or vice versa, we are just so unpredictable so far this season it is becoming impossible to say.

I have seen some mixed Everton performance's at our ground down the years, mostly I have seen them come and play very negatively but I think they will certainly come and have a go tomorrow, Martinez has them playing some good football and there is no reason why they shouldn't come to the Etihad with winning the game in their minds.

I am disappointed that Gareth Barry wont be eligible to play against us tomorrow, he should never of been allowed to leave City and he is proving that via his solid performances for Everton, in a way it would of been nice to see him show Pellegrini what he let go.

We are going into the game on the back of a defeat, a defeat that has been made to seem less negative because we were playing Bayern Munich and although we were indeed playing a very good Bayern Team, we were still poor.

Our midfield is lightweight and that was also the case when Roberto was here, so I don't really understand why it hasn't been spotted by the pros and sorted out. We have been getting out foxed in midfield all season, effectively we only have two players playing in the middle of the park, one of them very rarely plays to the peaks of his ability, whilst the other looks like he doesn't know what role he is supposed to be playing in. Pellegrini has got to address this problem, we either need an extra man putting in there or we need to replace the first choice's with hard working players like James Milner.

The other problem position is goalkeeper, I said after the Bayern game that Hart should be dropped and although I do believe this would be a valid decision, I am not so sure it would be the best thing to do long term. I know we can't wait to much longer for Hart to return to form but I do think that will happen sooner rather than later, I also think that he does deserve our support. Joe has saved us many more times than he has made mistakes, Joe Corrigan said that he must go back to basics, I agree that is exactly what he needs to do in terms of goalkeeping and his ego.

I hope we turn up tomorrow and win the game because otherwise we could end up 7 or 8 points off top spot, leaving a mountain to climb at such an early stage in the season.

Man City Team News:
Jack Rodwell will miss the game against his former employers because of a muscle strain, Martin Demichelis is still out with a knee injury.

Everton Team News:
Darron Gibson (knee) and Kevin Mirallas (ankle) are doubts for Everton and Gareth Barry is ineligible.

Possible Man City Line Up: Hart, Zabaleta, Nastasic, Kompany, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Silva, Navas, Aguero, Negredo.

Possible Everton Line Up: Howard, Coleman, Distin, Jagielka, Baines, McCarthy, Naismith, Mirallas, Barkley, Osman, Lukaku.

My Prediction: Man City 3 - 0 Everton.

Worth A Bet: Alvaro Negredo scores the first goal in a    
3 - 0 Man City win @ 45/1.

Man City 1 - 3 Bayern Munich

All the headlines are about how good Bayern were tonight and rightly so, we didn't help ourselves though and made it easier for them than it should of been.

It is always a pleasure to get to watch great teams like Bayern and that was certainly the case tonight, they shown us why they are the champions of Europe, they totally outclassed us.

Whilst Bayern are obviously more than capable of beating the best teams regardless of their opponents form, we did help to make it look a lot easier to roll us over tonight, we didn't even try and compete at times and the tactics were all wrong.

The evening started with confusion as to why Micah Richards was playing ahead of Zabaleta, I am a Richards fan but he has been out far to long for him to return in a game against Bayern Munich, Pellegrini's first mistake.

Then the game started and it was immediately obvious that Bayern were far stronger than us in midfield, they always had an extra man and for some reason Pellegrini did not address this, his second mistake.

We went in at half time just one nil down and with the game still there for the taking it was time for Pellegrini to replace some of his under performing players, but for some unknown reason it did not happen, third mistake.

The second half started and considering no changes were made at half time it was the same scenario, badly lacking in midfield and a lot of below par players still on the pitch. It took Pellegrini 70 minutes before he brought on Milner, finally we had someone willing to work hard on the pitch but it was to little to late, this change could of easily been made after 20 minutes.

So basically from that brief run down of Pellegrini's mistakes you can see I am putting a lot of the blame on him and I think deservedly so. He should of counter acted Bayerns formation, everyone in the ground could see it apart from him, for me this guy is no better than Mancini. I am not calling for his head or anything and he does need time, but regardless what direction the team takes under his guidance, I  don't think the powers that be should have got rid of Mancini.

Now to the players, things need to change, we cant keep flipping between being a great team to be being a mediocre team all the time just because certain players decide they can't be bothered, if it doesn't change then we can forget about any success this season.

Hart, Nasri, Toure, Fernandinho and Dzeko in particular were terrible. Hart needs dropping it is that simple, his mistakes tonight ultimately lost us the game, it is happening far to often now. He needs a reality check in a big way, he needs to forget about his shampoo adverts and worry about regaining the form that led him to being our countries number one.

Nasri reverted back to his effort lacking, tackle dodging, uninterested self again tonight and contributed absolutely nothing.

Toure as I have pointed out before is one of the most laziest players I have seen, he frustrates me like no other player ever has, he has proven he has quality but far to often he is missing in games and it is about time he started getting the finger pointed at him more often.

Fernandinho, admittedly I don't think this lad knows where he is supposed to be playing or what his role is in the team and that is the managers fault, saying that though nothing about him suggests he is worth close to 30 million.

Last to get picked out tonight is Dzeko, this lad does not care about wearing our shirt, he is a big lazy fairy. I really wanted to see Dzeko come good but it doesn't seem like it is ever going happen, he strolls around the pitch looking totally uninterested, he doesn't chase down defenders, he doesn't commit to tackles and in general just does not care, not to mention he has got a worse first touch than most 6 year olds. This lad needs a real dressing down and if he doesn't like it then he needs to be sold, we can't carry these prima donnas anymore.

It is unbelievable to me that the likes of Milner can't get in the team ahead of some of these guys, not to mention that Barry wasn't even deemed good enough to stay at the club, maybe Pellegrini doesn't like honest, hard working players or maybe they are just not big enough in terms of names for him.

All in all it was an all round bad night for us, everyone can take some blame, even us as fans because we were rubbish. At the moment it is not panic stations as far as the champions league is concerned, the big picture though would suggest that we need to get consistent immediately or we can forget all about any trophies.

Man City vs Bayern Munich - Wed 2nd Oct 19:45 pm

Time to take our minds of the league again and look forward to the challenge of the champions league, current holders Bayern Munich will surely be a tough test but also an exciting one.

 My day at work tomorrow will be a total write off, I will be watching the clock until its time to set off to the Etihad. I get really excited when it is time for a champions league game, but then again who wouldn't?

I know most people wouldn't have wanted to draw a team like Bayern in the group stages but I am glad we did, I love the privilege of being able to watch City play Europe's finest, plus if you want to win these competitions you have to play the best teams at some point.

We had a good start to the group stages by winning away from home and if we can bag three points in our first home game against Bayern then I think we would already be well on our way to getting out of the group.

Bayern are a class team and are clearly tough opponents but so are we, I don't think we should be nervous about playing them, I have a lot of belief in the ability of our team and on our day I think we can beat anyone.

Man City Team News:
Sergio Aguero and David Silva both return to the squad after recovering from injury, Demichelis (knee) is still unavailable for selection.

Bayern Munich Team News:
Thiago Alancantra (ankle), Javi Martinez (groin) and Holger Badstuber (knee) are all missing for the visitors, Mario Gotze is expected to return to the squad after recovering from an ankle injury.

Possible Man City Line Up:  Hart, Zabaleta, Nastasic, Kompany, Clichy, Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri, Navas, Aguero, Dzeko.

Possible Bayern Munich Line Up: Neuer, Rafinha, Boateng, Dante, Alaba, Lahm, Kroos, Robben, Ribery, Muller, Mandzukic.

My prediction: Man City 2 - 0 Bayern Munich.

Worth A Bet: Sergio Aguero scores the first goal in a 2 - 0 Man City win @ 85/1.