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.

Everton result is a bad set back

Last nights result was a big blow to us, I should think we would have to win close to every remaining game to claim fourth place.

After last nights game the stats made good reading for City, bags more possession, more goal attempts, better passing percentage and so on.

So why did we lose? Maybe it was because the referee was rubbish or maybe you could just say it was one of those nights. Last night I would have used both of those excuses when I was fuming but after thinking about it when I had calmed down today, we lost because Everton had our number.

Every time an opposition team has us sussed we can't cope, we don't seem to be able to counter act the other teams game plan and to be honest it is getting annoying. I don't know why we can't because the quality we have in our squad suggests we should be able too, they need to sort it out though because otherwise we will slip further down the table never mind getting fourth.

It's not that we shied away from a quite frankly unclassy dirty Everton team last night because we got stuck in back, I just think we concentrated on that side of the game too much at times because when we did play football we were ripping them apart.

It also could have been a slightly different game last night if we didn't start with one up front again, Tevez on his own against two big strong centre backs is certainly not the way I would go. We should be playing two up top and especially at home because it changes the way the opposition think about playing if they have one more attacker to worry about.

I don't understand what Mancini is thinking with his tactics sometimes, one week he gets it spot on and then he changes it for whatever reason. Why would you change a formation that won the week before away from home to bring an out of form Ireland in as support for your striker, I don't know that's for sure.

I am really on the fence now as to what will happen as far as fourth place is concerned, I think we can do it if we want it bad enough but the question is do we want it bad enough?

Everton 2 - 0 Man City (Pienaar 36', Saha 45'pen)

What a totally rubbish performance, we don't expect to win every game but surely we expect the team to try harder than they did yesterday.

The team decided to return to the form that got Mark Hughes sacked yesterday, we were terrible. The whole team were poor but there were also some particular awful individual performances, Martin Petrov and Robinho being the two that stand out most.

Robinho got most of the flack but Petrov was just as bad as him, non of these players looked as if they had played football before and if either of them ever makes a tackle I will probably suffer from shock for a long time! Robinho ran round yesterday like a headless chicken, maybe it was his way of trying harder but what he was doing was pointless. His confidence is obviously low and he needs to sort that out rapidly or he will find himself getting sold because he is not wanted and not because he thinks he is worth a move to a bigger club.

Petrov is the one who is annoying me the most at the moment, a lot of City fans agree with what he says about deserving to be in the team, I don't I have always seen what Mark Hughes saw in him. He is a liability, he doesn't even do what he is good at anymore and run at people and as for his tackling, I have never seen anyone bottle going in for a tackle as much as he does.

I think the thing that annoys me most about both of these players, is that they are clearly talented players on their day. It is just a shame we are not seeing the best out of them regularly.

Now I have got that out of the way I want to be clear that I am not just blaming these two players, I think we also saw de Jong have a bad game for the first time yesterday and Zabbo wasn't as neat as he usually is. In fact the only player who I thought did OK was Javier Garrido, he was steady and did his job well.

I just hope they got the slap in the face they needed before we play United, I mean lets face it if we approached the semi final in this manner then United would have really battered us. So if I am trying to be positive I would say that the defeat may have been a blessing in disguise that will help us pull our socks up on Tuesday!

Everton vs Man City - Sat 16Th Jan 17:30 pm

Arguably our toughest game of Mancini's reign takes place today, Everton have been playing better in recent weeks and will be hard to beat.

I have a lot of respect for Everton's ability, I think a lot of people have wrote them off but I still think they are a strong side despite their bad patch.

I still think that we should win this game as long as we don't become complacent, in recent times we have seen the team take it easy after a couple of wins and expect to win games, if we do that today all our good work of late will be wasted.

I have something a little different in my build up today, my good Evertonian friend Anthony or 'Chunky' thought it was a good idea for him to have a little say on today's game and I agree.

Anthony aka Chunky says.........

''I am looking forward to a good game of football today, I think both teams will be up for it and it should turn out to be a good contest. We are both in form and will both really want to win the game, but I see Everton coming out on top with a 3 - 0 win. City have the best striker in the League at the moment but I feel one man can't take down a team like ours that have a strong team ethic.''

Well if all goes to plan I will be seeing Chunky at the game today and on behalf of us all I will be sure to tell him how wrong he is!

Man City Team News:
Shaun Wright-Phillips (ankle) and new signing Patrick Vieira (calf) are both said to be fit but may not be rushed into the team. Joleon Lescott (knee), Nedum Onuoha (calf) and Stephen Ireland (hamstring) are all expected to be missing, Wayne Bridge may feature on the bench. Kolo Toure is at the African Cup of Nations and Emmanuel Adebayor is still recovering from that terrible attack on the Togo team bus.

Everton Team News:
Sylvain Distin returned to training this week after coming back from a hamstring injury but is not expected to make his first team return today. Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Joseph Yobo are on African Cup of Nations duty and Lucas Neill looks set to play his last game for Everton before moving to Galatasaray.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Kompany, Garrido, Petrov, De Jong, Barry, Bellamy, Benjani, Tevez.

Possible Everton Line Up: Howard, Heitinga, Neill, Baines, Neville, Cahill, Fellaini, Pienaar, Osman, Donovan, Saha.

My Prediction: Everton 1 - 3 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Nigel de Jong and Benjani score in a City win.

Joleon Lescott finally signs!!!!!!!!!

City have finally completed the signing of Everton defender Joleon Lescott on a 5 year deal, the dragged out transfer is now finally over.

I can't say Lescott would have been my first choice when buying a new centre half and we have payed way to much for him, he is a good player though and I am sure he will add some more quality to our squad.

I can't see Lescott getting into our team straight away, for me Dunne and Toure are playing well enough at the moment to justify their place.

Who would you drop to fit Lescott in the team, that's if you would drop anyone at all? I have a feeling I know who most of you will say!

Everton 1 - 2 Man City (Robinho 35' Ireland 54', Gosling 90')

If you watched us today you would never have guessed that we have struggled away from home this season, we played well today and beat a very good Everton team.

City's first goal came when a superb pass by Elano was picked up by Robinho who then put the ball through Tim Howard's legs and into the back of the net. We made it two nil when goal scorer turned provider, Robinho putting Ireland through to slot the ball home. Dan Gosling pulled one back for Everton late on but it wasn't enough and City won the game.

We had a fantastic win today and proved a lot of people wrong, almost everyone had us down to lose. There is certain people that will get picked out from our win today particularly Robinho and Elano who were both fantastic, I wanted to praise our whole team though. I think as a team we were much better today, we kept our shape, we held the ball, we worked hard and we didn't give up.

I don't want to make it sound like we were better than we were today, but there was never really a point in the game where I was worried about Everton scoring. When Everton had possession today our team seemed very comfortable in letting them have it, City gave you the feeling that they were in total control and it was probably the least nervous I have been whilst watching City all season.

Now I have to mention Robinho and Elano, these two players are different class when on form, today they were both big reasons why we won the game. Robinho was playing with confidence and had the Everton defence rattled, any time he was near the ball he would pull at least two Everton players towards him, his goal and assist were well deserved. As for Elano he seems to be getting his act together, he hasn't been close to the Elano that we seen give us dazzling performances last season, but that looks like it might be changing. A hard working display was topped off by a wonderful ball to send Robinho on his way to scoring a goal.

I also have to give credit to two other people from today's game. First of all I have to say Mark Hughes got everything right today, his tactics were spot on and I think by asking Elano to drop back and cover the right back position after Richards went off injured showed that he isn't afraid to make bold decisions. Another man from today's game who deserves some praise is Wayne Bridge. If you read my blog regularly you will know that I am not a fan of his because of how poor he has been, but I am not one to get on someones back for the sake of it and I have to say that he played very well today. His defending was much much better and going forward he is getting more confident as games go by, he also made a couple of important interceptions today and was for the first time an asset to our team, I hope it continues.

Lets hope that we can keep up the good form and maybe just maybe we will snatch 7Th place.

Everton vs Man City - Sat 25Th Apr 15:00pm

City face the tough task of going to Goodison Park this weekend and in an ideal world need to come away from the game with at least a point.

With us still chasing 7Th place Goodison Park is not a preferred destination at the moment. Everton are certainly in the running for the best team I have seen come to Eastlands this season, so for City to come away from Goodison Park with a result will be difficult.

If you have watched Everton this season then you will know that they are a very very good team and if we are to get anything from the game I think we will have to focus on work rate. Everton work very hard and we will have to at the very least match them in that department, if we don't then as far as I'm concerned it is certain defeat.

We will also need someone to stand up and lead us and organise us against Everton. I think a big reason for our poor defending lately is that there is nobody constantly organising the team, Dunney should be the man leading by example but he just doesn't do it. At the same time though good teams are built on teams of people who want to take control, so it would be nice to see a few other members of our team open their mouths.

Ever the optimist, I do believe if we put the work in that we can get at least a draw from this game. I know that all season we have all been saying City have the quality to win these kind of games and it might be getting boring to hear, but it is true. I don't think it would be wise to underestimate what we are capable of, when we attack in full flow there is not many better than us in the league. I think if we can find that balance between hard work and good attacking football tomorrow, then we could come away from Goodison Park happy enough.

City team news:
Bellamy (knee), Wright-Phillips (ankle) and Zabaleta (hamstring) are all definitely out of the game. Nigel De Jong hasn't trained all week due to a thigh injury and a decision on whether he is fit enough to play will be made on the day of the game. Bojinov is expected to return to the squad after playing for the reserves in midweek, Micheal Johnson is also in contention after he also played for the reserves in midweek.

Everton team news:
Tony Hibbert, Phil Jagielka and Marouane Fellaini all look set to return to the starting line up after being rested in midweek. James Vaughan and Louis Saha are both in contention to start up front for Everton, with Jo not being allowed to play against his parent club.

Possible Man City line up: Given, Richards, Onuoha, Dunne, Bridge, De Jong, Kompany, Ireland, Elano, Robinho, Caicedo.

Possible Everton line up: Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines, Osman, Neville, Fellaini, Pienaar, Cahill, Vaughan.

My prediction: Everton 0 - 0 Man City

Worth a bet: The game finishes a 0 - 0 draw, a 1 - 0 City win is also well worth a bet at 9/1.

Jo reminds Merson of Dennis Bergkamp

Today in his first game at Everton since he started his loan, Jo had a superb game and scored two goals. This is not a suprise as its obvious he has the potential to be a top goal scorer, but to score two goals and then for Paul Merson to compare him to a master of football such as Bergkamp what magic potion has Moyes got him drinking?????

Will letting Jo go be worth it?

When I found out Everton were interested in Jo I thought this was a really good opportunity for him to go and learn about the Premier League, which can only benefit City.

But the more I have been thinking about it since the deal actually went through I am not happy that we have let him go out on loan.

Firstly at £19 million if he is going to be good enough surely his class will show through at City and he will force his way into our team, and then even if he can't absolutely force his way into the team I think he should have been kept around to have in the squad.

With us being inconsistent in the League and having a European Trophy to go after I just feel the more body's around the squad the better.

Round up from transfer deadline day

Well it seems there is no deals going to happen now although it is possible due to an extension if dealings were affected by the snow, but it isn't going to be the case for City if sources on the news are to be believed.

So on deadline day at City our 19 million pound Brazilian Jo has headed out on loan to Everton and we have rejected an 8 million pound bid for Michael Johnson from Newcastle.

I am frustrated that we did not bring another player into the club, I think we did need a big target man up front and feel we have wasted alot of time on trying to sign Santa Cruz.

I'm not a fan of his and was not convinced he was worth the fee we were offering, I was surprised we did not pursue Mario Gomez from Stuttgart, Hughes is known to be a fan of his and he would have been for me at this moment in time a better signing than Cruz as he is scoring goals and can also hold the ball up.

Brazilian heads out on loan

Jo has today moved to Everton on loan until the end of the season, it is understood there is no agreement to make the move permanent.

I personally dont think Jo has had a proper chance well he has been at City but this move can only benefit us and him, with no option for the move to be made permanent it seems he may have a long term future at City.

Tal Ben Haim leaves Man City?

Reports today suggested that our central defender Tal Ben Haim was in talks with Sunderland and it seems that is the case according to Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia who says he is going to sign.

"The one we've done is Tal Ben Haim. I think he's going to be done some time today," the Black Cats boss revealed to Sky Sports News.

"We need a defender and he's a very good defender, and I've worked with him previously so I know exactly what I'm getting.

From what I have seen of Ben Haim whilst playing for City I would say Sunderland are getting a below average central defender who always seem to be in a panic and I am not bothered one bit he is going, the fee is likely to be in the 3 - 5 million pound bracket if the transfer is permanent although it is possible it will only be a loan deal.

Meanwhile we can expect another departure with Jo looking likely to sign for Everton on loan for thegh. rest of the season, more to follow if Jo's proposed transfer goes through.