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.