Man City vs Newcastle United - Mon 19th Aug 20:00pm

A new season is here along with a new manager, first up for us, Newcastle United.

Newcastle should prove to be a decent test for our opening game, they have some good players that are capable of causing us plenty of trouble, I can only see one outcome though and that's three points for City.

I don't want to disrespect Newcastle or any other team we play these days but these games are our bread and butter now and we should be winning them, especially at home. To be honest I very rarely worry about any team we play anymore and as cocky as that sounds, it is not meant to. I don't think its wrong of me to expect that we win this game tonight, the quality of playing staff that we possess are of the highest standard possible and yes for all non City fans the money has made this so, but that is just the way it is.

We still have to be careful against Newcastle tonight don't get me wrong, they have some dangerous players that are capable of punishing us if given the chance.

The player who gets all the press at Newcastle is Cabaye and as good as he is, he is not the Newcastle player that worries me the most, the one to watch for me is Moussa Sissoko. I knew of Sissoko when he was playing in France and I always thought he was decent, but the way he finished the season with Newcastle after only signing in January impressed me. He adapted very quickly and has a little bit of everything to his game, he is capable of causing danger via all areas of the pitch. Yaya had him in his pocket when he came to the Etihad last season and I think he will have to do the same again this time around to stop him.

Now to City, with four new players signed this summer how many will start tonight? I would say two with Navas and Fernandinho  likely to start, leaving Negredo and Jovetic on the bench, unless Aguero isn't risked of course. I personally would like to see Negredo start the game, he has really impressed me in pre season. His touch is second to none as is his sheer bullishness when going at defenders, granted he should of put more goals away in pre season but that will come, I have no doubt about that. Saying that unless you play with three forwards that would mean dropping Dzeko, but it is probably about time for Dzeko to get his chance at City once and for all. He had a good pre season and if he can bring that form into the new season, it may finally help him to cement a place in the starting line up.

Man City Team News:
Nastasic (ankle) will be missing for the opening game, while Sergio Aguero could making his comeback to the team after suffering from a knee injury throughout the pre season programme.

Newcastle United Team News:
New loan signing Loic Remy misses out with a calf problem and Jonas Gutierrez is expected to have a fitness test after suffering from a hamstring injury.

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

Possible Newcastle United Line Up: Krul, Debuchy, Coloccini, S Taylor, Santon, Ben Arfa, Tioté, Cabaye, Gutiérrez, Sissoko, Cissé.

My Prediction: Man City 4 - 0 Newcastle United.

Worth A Bet: Fernandinho scores first goal in a 4-0 City win @ 100/1.

Join the fantasy football league before the season starts!

This season I have set up a fantasy football league and everyone is welcome to join.

The season starts tomorrow, so if you want to enter, then now is the time to do so.

If you would like to join, all you have to do is go and create your team (if you have not already got one) on the Premier Leagues website, which can be accessed by clicking the following link www.premierleague.com

Once your ready to join the league you will need to enter the following code 634945-154213 and that's it your in.

Thanks for reading.

Premier League fantasy football league, join in!

I have created a fantasy football league for the new season and everyone and anyone is welcome to join.

I have thought about doing a league many times in the past, I have always been worried about not having enough people join though.

So I am hoping people will give it a go, the aim is for at least twenty people to join for the league to go ahead.

If you would like to join all you have to do is go and create your team (if you have not already got one) on the Premier Leagues website which can be accessed by clicking the following link www.premierleague.com

Once your ready to join the league you will need to enter the following code 634945-154213 and that's it your in.

Thanks for reading.

Man City vs Arsenal live stream information

There are 33 stations that should be available to watch today's friendly against Arsenal.

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=214159&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 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 and this will also help you know which software to download so you can get the best possible stream.

A little heads up I always find Sopcast the best software to use, so it would probably be worth downloading that in preparation for the new season regardless of what you watch on today.

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!

New away shirt released, what do you think?

The new away shirt has been officially released this morning and as is common these days, it had been previously leaked a little while ago on the internet.

I have to be honest when I saw this shirt on the internet a good few weeks ago now, I had hoped that this would not be our away shirt and on its official release today, I still do not like it.

I was hoping that we would see one of our classic away shirts this season, with a black and red one my preference, it was not to be though.

What do you think of the new away kit?

Tevez going? Who will replace him?

Reports are suggesting that Carlos Tevez will leave the club and sign for Juventus, this in turn leaves us another striker short with the start of the season not that far away.

So, Carlos looks like he is leaving and I am not very happy about it really. I thought that it would of been best all around if Carlos signed an extension to keep him at City for another three seasons, we are still in a transitional period as a club and I think Carlos was needed to help us through it.

If Carlos does head for Juventus then it leaves us looking for two strikers with under two months left until the season starts, in an ideal world you would want any new players in before preseason starts to give them the best possible chance of settling in as quickly as possible.

I suppose the time frame we have is irrelevant now because we do need to bring players in, the question is who?

Firstly and for me most obviously, it has got to be time for John Guidetti to get his chance, he has been in and around the first team, he has been out for his loan experience and coming off the back of an injury it is time for him to have a fresh start at City and show us if he can make the grade or not.

As well as John I do think we need to buy another striker in order to make up a strike force consisting of four front men. I know a lot of City fans who think three would be enough but its to close for me, if one gets injured that's it, all of a sudden we are badly lacking.

So who would you go for? Its tough but there is a couple of players out there who are supposedly available, an obvious solution straight away would be to see if its not too late to bring in Higuain, he has a great goal scoring record and has handled the pressures of Real Madrid well. The rumours regarding his proposed move to Arsenal are gathering pace but I think City would be able to turn his head.

Another worth while, possibly simple option could be Mario Gomez, his agent has already said this summer that Gomez is likely to leave Bayern Munich due to falling down the pecking order. I would put an enquiry in about Gomez while exploring our options, he is of good pedigree and a proven goal scorer, simple as that really.

Another option although I personally have never quite been convinced by him, would be Robert Lewandowski. I imagine this would be a hard deal to pull of though with Dortmund taking a tough stance regarding his future.

For my last suggestion and potentially controversial one, Wayne Rooney. I know I know, I do not have to be told but Rooney is still class, if its true that he wants to leave United then I would have a pop at getting him. I know a lot of City fans who will be wondering what I am thinking suggesting that, but I am just not a City fan who dwells on what United are doing until we play them.

Just a couple of suggestions from me but who would you like to see come in up front?

Transfers, who do the fans want?

Ferran Soriano has recently stated that City were at the closing phase with several players and although he also said that it can still take time for the deals to go through, I couldn't help but get a bit excited.

So, I ended up sitting and thinking for a while about what the team needs to improve and to be honest after the season the players have just had, you could say that what is needed is more effort, saying that there is a few positions that I do believe need strengthening.

The midfield was clearly the main area of concern last season and at times was just non existent, although this was sometimes down to just pure laziness, it was also because of tactics. Sometimes certain players in the midfield didn't look comfortable in their positions and to be honest I don't think some of them knew where they were supposed to be playing at times, it was as a whole shambolic at times.

I don't have any major issues with the other areas in the team, although obviously we need to get that fourth striker in and depending on certain players staying or going we may need to replace people, but I am not going to speculate too much on positions already filled because basically there's no point until someone leaves.

DEFENCE

So, I will start at the back with goalkeeper. Costel may be leaving and in such an event it is hard to say who we can get in to replace him, if Costel leaves a good option as back up keeper could be Cristian Alvarez, the Argentine is a competent keeper who has come on a lot in the last couple of seasons at Espanyol and from what I know he is out of contract this summer.

Back four - the starting back four of Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic and Clichy does not need to be changed in my opinion. I think all we are looking for in defence are reinforcements, Kolo as far as I'm concerned has wrongly been allowed to leave and now he needs replacing. Obviously Micah Richards can come in at centre half if needed, but I think we will look to bring a centre half in.

There is quite a few good young centre halves around at the moment but it would mean spending good money on someone to come in and be a fringe player. For the sake of value and sporting reasons I would go and have a look at signing Argentine International Marcos Rojo from Sporting Lisbon, he is a young improving player that can play centre half and left back, he may also be available cheap considering Sporting's financial problems.

MIDFIELD

By far the area of the team that needs improving the most, we need more variation so finally getting linked with wingers is promising, good teams with good width works, you just need to look down the road to see that.

Jesus Navas and 'Isco' seem to be the names in the frame for these positions. Navas I have admired for years, he is a quality winger and should of been playing for a big club years ago, hopefully he can overcome his homesickness and make the move.

 Isco, I have only seen this lad a few times and sometimes he has looked decent and sometimes he hasn't, but like I said not really seen enough of him to give him a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Other players I would be looking at in these positions would be Iker Muniain, Pedro and Marco Reus. Muniain is young but has been very impressive for Athletico Bilbao, I think he is good enough to make the move to City and he can only get better.

Pedro would be a slight long shot, I don't think Barcelona would particularly want to sell him, but having spent big on Neymar, I think a cheeky enquiry would be worth while for such a talented player.

Marco Reus, well this guy is absolute class, more an attacking midfielder than a winger I know, but he can play anywhere along the front line and would be a brilliant acquisition. He works hard, he is skilful, he can score goals and he is young, he would be top of my list this summer.

STRIKERS

We only have Aguero whose future at the Club seems clear after signing his new deal, as for Dzeko and Tevez who knows what's going to happen.

What I would like to see happen is for Tevez to sign a new deal and for Dzeko to stay put. Tevez is quality it is as simple as that concerning him, he seems more settled now, so get him sat down and on a new deal.

As for Dzeko, he frustrates me so much, he has a lot more to offer than he does at times. He can be very lazy and too casual but when he looks interested and works hard he looks the business, I wouldn't be gutted to see him leave but considering he does still score goals and for the sake of not unsettling the team even more, I would keep him.

So if all that were to go to plan then we still need a fourth striker, but who? Cavani is the main name being talked about at the moment and you certainly can't argue with his stats. Problem for me is that he has declared that it is his dream to play in Spain, so I would tend to leave him where he is rather than spending a lot of money on someone who doesn't really want to be at our club.

There isn't going to be a vast amount of quality strikers available this summer but there is a couple of decent players that I think should be considered. My preference would be Stephan El Shaarawy from AC Milan, El Shaarawy has made the transition from midfield to a forward and is now on his way to being classed as a striker. He has scored 19 goals this season and at 20 years of age I think he would be a great investment for the present and future.

Alternatively, Gonzalo Higuain has just announced that he is leaving Real Madrid and if a deal with Juventus isn't already signed, I would think about making an enquiry. I know a lot of people who don't rate Higuain that highly but I have always thought he was a good striker and more importantly he scores goals.

We may however already have a striker at the club that is good enough, especially just to fill the fourth striker spot. John Guidetti, it is about time John got a chance in a City shirt, he is of an age where it needs to be decided if he is good enough or not and I personally would like to see him get a chance at the club.

So that's just my opinion on some of the players that I think would be good additions to our squad, I am aware, that there are many more options than I have listed and maybe better options as well, but that's what my blog is about, the opinion of the fans. So, WHAT DO YOU THINK?