CSKA Moscow vs Man City - Preview

        CSKA Moscow vs Manchester City
      Tuesday 21st October, Arena Khimki
                         Kick Off 17:00
                     Referee: Istvan Vad

The games are coming thick and fast, next for us is a trip to a very cold Russia in the UEFA Champions league.

There isn't a great deal to say about this game apart from that we need to win it, this game must be the start of taking our destiny back into our own hands.

So, what kind of team are we facing? Well CSKA have won their last five league games, scoring 19 goals and conceding just 4, however in the middle of their fine league form they have been beaten twice in the Champions League, conceding 6 goals and scoring just 1.

So what have we learnt from that apart from the clear fact that the Russian league is a terrible standard of football? Well it does not matter what kind of opposition you have been beating in football, as long as you are winning then your confidence will grow and having confidence can help to win football games, so I think that we should be conscious of that.

I am obviously expecting us to win this game and I am expecting us to smash them without breaking a sweat, teams like CSKA need to be our bread and butter in the Champions League, they are no where near as good a team as us and I think that we need to use them to send a message out to Roma and Bayern.

I also feel like we have been disrespected by Ahmed Musa in the build up to the game with the striker stating the following, "As you can see, they are very weak this year. We are going to use that advantage against them.
"In a couple of games they haven't been that good. They are very weak in the defence, so we are going to do our best to work against that.
"I think we are going to have a great opportunity because of the quality of the players we have. I think Tuesday is going to be a very good game for us."
Is this guy for real, we are the current champions of England which is arguably the best league in the world, plus if we are 'very weak' then I have not noticed, it has really got my back up and should have done the same to our players, hopefully it will give them extra motivation.

Man City Team News
Samir Nasri remains out with a groin injury, Eliaquim Mangala has been training with the rest of the team in Russia and should return to the the squad, Frank Lampard misses out with a thigh injury.

CSKA Moscow Team News
Dzagoev and Wernbloom are suspended, Elm (stomach), Panchenko (knee) and Vitinho (ankle) are expected to miss out.  Fernandes (elbow) and Doumbia (thigh) are possible doubts for the home team.

Possible Man City Line Up
Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Mangala, Clichy, Milner, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Silva, Dzeko.

Possible CSKA Moscow Line Up
Akinfeev, Fernandes, V Berezutski, Ignashevich, Schennikov, A Berezutski, Tošić, Natcho, Eremenko, Milanov, Musa.

My Prediction
CSKA Moscow 0 - 5 Man City.

Worth A Bet
David Silva scores the first goal in a 0 - 4 Man City win @ 120/1 or you could go with Yaya Toure first goal and  0 - 4 to City @ 100/1.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW - BAYERN MUNICH - AGAIN!

The draw for the Champions League has just finished and we have ended up in what I would say is a tough enough group.

We have been put in group E alongside Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow and A.S. Roma, of course we know we can beat both Bayern and CSKA after drawing them last year at this stage, Roma finished second in Serie A last season and will surely be a decent test for us.

Not a group we would have asked for I don't think but we should be able to get out of it, they are all going to be hard away trips and I think our home games will be key.

I suppose it doesn't matter really who you get because in a competition like this there are so many good teams and in the end you have to beat the best to be the best, it is also easy to forget at times how feared we will be by the other teams.

Exciting trips ahead!

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.

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.

Champions League Group! Your thoughts?

The Champions League draw has just been completed and we have been drawn against, BAYERN MUNICH, CSKA MOSCOW AND FC VIKTORIA PLZEN  in GROUP D.

I like getting the top teams as soon as possible because it is a dream that we get to play against these famous clubs, something unimaginable a short time ago.

This time round we have managed to get the current champions in Bayern Munich, one of Russia's top teams in CSKA and current champions of the Czech Republic FC Viktoria Plzen.

Brilliant draw for us this time, we get to test ourselves against the current champions and we have a couple of weaker teams in there to give us a good chance of going through, couldn't of asked for anything better in my opinion.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?