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Strong Pre-Season For City but Where's Gallagher?

Manchester City appear to be building up a head of steam ahead of the upcoming Premier League season and have put together a series of impressive pre-season performances, however manager Noel Gallagher has been nowhere to be seen.

Yesterday, the blues faced off against Al-Jazira in their final pre-season game, following six previous encounters with sides such as Olympiakos and Mallorca. City were fairly untroubled over the course of the matches and chalked up seven wins from seven without ever having to step out of second gear.



Fans have been encouraged by the teams promising displays in pre-season, but several members of the blues faithful have criticized the club’s new manager, Noel Gallagher, who was not in attendance for any of the club’s warm up matches. Initially, no reason was given for the popstar’s absence from the touchline which saw the club's assistant manager, Brian Kidd take control of the team for the seven games.

It has since become apparent that Noel Gallagher flew to Austria two days before the club’s first friendly in order to complete a line of gigs with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds which has now been called the act’s “farewell tour”, after it was confirmed on Gallagher’s official website that the band had entered an “indefinite hiatus”, allowing Gallagher to concentrate on his new role at Manchester City.

Gallagher arrived back in Manchester yesterday and with less than a week until the Premier League kicks off, he has attempted to smooth over his absence with the fans by assuring them he had constant contact with Brian Kidd throughout pre-season and is fully concentrated and prepared for the team's first game against Southampton on Sunday.


Gallagher will be looking ahead to Manchester City's opening clash against Southampton, with the City fans demanding 3 points.

August

We were originally scheduled to play 3 games in August but our away trip to Newcastle has been rescheduled for September meaning we will only play 2 games this month, hosting Southampton on the opening day before a trip to face West Brom in our second game hoping to secure some early points against two decent mid-table sides.

There we have a couple of injury concerns going into the season but nothing to be scared about, Stevan Jovetic and Matija Nastasic are both still on the recovery from long term injuries and neither is likely to feature this month, Alvaro Negredo is returning to full fitness following an injury picked up in pre-season but will miss the first game, possibly appearing against West Brom later in the month.

Results:

City 4-0 Southampton

West Brom 1-3 City

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September

Preview:

Champions League Group Stage Draw:



In the Champions League we have been drawn in group C which includes the holders Bayern Munich, Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk and Belgian champions Anderlecht. Bayern are obviously our biggest challengers for qualification but Shakhtar and Anderlecht are both good teams also so we will have to be at our best to qualify.

Capital One Cup 3rd Round Draw:



We have also been drawn against QPR in the League Cup and will make the trip to Loftus Road later in the month. Although they were relegated last season, Rangers are one of the favorites to go up this year and it could be an interesting match.

Fixtures:

We are set to play our first full month of fixtures in Septemeber, kicking off with Newcastle at home, a game which was originally scheduled for August but pushed back for TV, we then face a potentially tricky away trip to Stoke, followed by our first Champions League encounter against Anderlecht. We then have Fulham at home and face QPR in the Cup before our biggest game of the season so far when we face fellow title-chasers Liverpool at Anfield.

Injuries:

Our squad is close to being fully fit going into a hectic month of fixtures. With us featuring in 6 games across the League, Cup and Champions League throughout the month, we need as many players fit as possible. The only player currently injured is Stevan Jovetic but he is close to a return and could possibly feature towards the latter stages of the month.

Results:

City 1-0 Newcastle

City XI: (4-2-3-1) Hart, Zabba, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy, Garcia, Yaya (Ferna 72’), Navas (Milner 15’), Nasri, Silva (Negredo 41’), Dzeko

Booked: -

Injured: Jesus Navas (knock), David Silva (2-3 weeks)

Scorers: Javi Garcia (1’) Vincent Kompany (5’), Samir Nasri (11’), Edin Dzeko (22’)

MoM: Matias Suarez (Anderlecht)

City 3-0 Fulham