Man City 3 - 1 Blackburn Rovers (Caicedo 27' Robinho 34' Elano 45'(pen), Andrews 66')

I knew we would win today, we weren't amazing but luckily for us Blackburn were a very poor side, either way another important three points for us.

We started slow today and Blackburn had a lot of the ball in the opening minutes of the game and surprisingly to me they were knocking it around quite well. Once we settled a little the game became more even, City were not at their best and were probably edging being the better of two poor teams. City went ahead through a close range Felipe Caicedo goal, Robinho then added a second with a nicely placed finish and our third was scored by Elano from the penalty spot after Gael Givet was penalised for hand ball. Blackburn also scored from the penalty spot. Diouf had the initial penalty saved, unfortunately after some great goalkeeping from Shay Given, Keith Andrews managed to put the loose ball in the back of the net.

I was a bit disappointed with our performance today particularly the first half showing, we could of really battered a very poor team but our players did not take the chance and strolled through the first half. The second half was better, we stretched them at the back more and looked a little more like our usual attacking self. There isn't really anymore detail to go into about the performance today, we weren't terrible but at the same time we didn't play anywhere close to our ability levels and will not get away with playing like that against better teams. There is a straight forward conclusion, we need to be much better than we were today in our remaining games if we are to grab 7Th place.

I did pick out some positives in relation to certain players performances from today's game. Firstly the job that Kompany and De Jong did today was really good, they go about what they do in a very quiet but very effective manner. I don't think people who aren't City fans realise how good these two guys are when you talk about them, the way they quietly go around the pitch picking pockets and disrupting the oppositions play is class, Hughes certainly made two fantastic signings when he brought them in. The other player I was really impressed with today was Wayne Bridge, his defending seemed to have improved by 200% over night. He was intercepting, tackling, his positioning was a hell of a lot better and his forward runs were excellent. I have been a big critic of his but for good reason, I hope he continues to play as well as he did today because it will be a welcome boost to our charge for 7Th.

To round up, we didn't play our best, we took three points and the race for 7Th is still on. They say its the sign of a good team to win when playing badly, hopefully the bad performance is behind us and we will be at our very best next week.

Last minute deal on the cards?

There is reports coming out in the last few minutes that it may still be possible that we will sign Roque Santa Cruz from Blackburn, watch this space........