A "Kinky" Comeback

Hard luck man! Time to forget about that result and push for the league title!

Saturday 29th September – Manchester City v Aston Villa (Premier League)

MCFC Starting XI – Hart, Maicon, Kompany, Nastasic, Zabaleta; De Rossi, Toure; Nem, Aguero, Sinclair; Dzeko SUBS – Friedel, Lugano, Richards, Barry, Rodwell, Milner, Tevez

Villa Starting XI – Guzan, Lowton, Dunne, Vlaar, Warnock; Agbonlahor, Ireland, Clark, El Ahmadi, Delph; Bent SUBS – Given, Westwood, Bennett, Bannan, Benteke, N’Zogbia, Baker

Man City’s early season fluidity was not on show today as they again had to grind a result out. Plenty of possession and efforts on goal looked again like they’d result in another 0-0 draw but the class of Sergio Aguero snatched the winner in the 75th minute. Yet again a game results in an injury, as City lose Maicon for 4 weeks with a twisted ankle.

Final Score – Manchester City 1 (Aguero 75) Aston Villa 0

MOTM – Joe Hart

Attendance – 46,598

That's more like it! Unlucky with Maicon though.....

Yeah mate, seem to be losing a player a game at the minute but it was 3 points so im happy with that!

Also happy to make it to 900 views, never thought i'd get that many so thank you all

Managers August/September Review

In the Premier League I am obviously delighted with how we have played. We started off with a tough fixture against United but we came through that and got stronger. The loss of David Silva has hurt us but hasn’t cost us any points yet and hopefully his return will see our performances improve as well. I was also runner up to Alex Ferguson in the Manager of the Month for September.

My player of the month has been our captain Vincent Kompany. He has been a rock at the back and even grabbed a couple of goals, he has battled when we’ve needed him to in the tough games and been as cool as ever when called upon.

In the Cup’s I am happy with our performance against Montpellier, for my first Champions League experience it was essential to get 3 points and I felt the experience of a player like De Rossi could make the difference this season. Our exit from the League Cup is a major disappointment to me, the players I chose we’re of a high quality and I expected more from them.

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Wednesday 3rd October – Manchester City v FC Porto (Champions League Group C)

MCFC Starting XI – Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Kolarov; De Rossi, Barry; Toure, Aguero, Nem; Tevez SUBS – Friedel, Richards, Lugano, Rodwell, Milner, Nasri, Dzeko

Porto Starting XI – Helton, Otamendi, Rolando, Maicon, Alex Sandro; Fernando, Kucka, Lucho Gonzalez; Grobkreutz, Atsu; Kleber SUBS – Fabiano, Rodriguez, Rafael, Defour, Kelvin, Abdoulaye, Mangala

Manchester City’s manager, players and fans won’t believe they lost this! All the possession, all the chances and City lost 1-0. A stunning performance from Porto goalkeeper Helton made sure his side walked away from the Etihad with 3 points.

Final Score – Manchester City 0 Porto 1 (Grobkreutz 67)

MOTM – Alexander Kolarov

Attendance – 47,405

Ouch, unlucky man! Your problem seems to be actually scoring goals in games, which I get a lot at City too.

Saturday 6th October – Everton v Manchester City (Premier League)

MCFC Starting XI – Hart, Richards, Kompany, Nastasic, Kolarov; De Rossi, Barry; Sinclair, Milner, Nasri; Aguero SUBS – Friedel, Zabaleta, Lugano, Toure, Rodwell, Nem, Dzeko

Everton Starting XI – Howard, Neville, Jagielka, Heitinga, Oviedo; Osman, Colback, Gibson, Andre Santos; Pienaar, Jelavic SUBS – Mucha, Naismith, Mirallas, Anichebe, Distin, Gueye, Barkley

An embarrassing performance to say the least. We were never in it, Everton who were bottom of the league completely bossed the game and deserved the 3 points.

Final Score – Everton 3 (Pienaar, 4, Colback 18, Santas 36) Manchester City 0

MOTM – Tim Howard

Attendance – 37,379

Seems like you're falling 'back to Earth'. Everton bottom of the league makes me happy though

Definitely mate, was a big reality check! We were awful though seriously, no-one turned up really!

I'm in November at the minute and Everton look likely to sack Moyes they are doing that badly, they sold Baines and Fellaini though so what do they expect!

Sunday 21st October – Manchester City v Chelsea (Premier League)

Another international break has hurt Man City with Yaya Toure fracturing his arm while on duty with the Ivory Coast and likely to miss 4 weeks of action, Gael Clichy also returned to the Club with a cold, but should be fit for the match against Chelsea.

Chelsea will be out for revenge in this one after the 6-0 defeat in the Community Shield two months ago. Manchester City will be hoping for a repeat of that performance and to gain three points over their title challengers.

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For the first time since the middle of September, Man City can call upon David Silva who has returned from injury and is restored in City’s best attacking midfield threesome, joining up with Aguero and Nasri. An injury to Yaya Toure has led to Gareth Barry being given the call to play in the centre of the midfield.

Chelsea look as strong as they did in the Community Shield but have named Mata in the starting line-up instead of Oscar. At the back there is no David Luiz but Ivanovic is a solid replacement.

First Half –

Manager Georgi Kinkladze would have demanded a response from his City side after a shocking performance against Everton and he got the performance he would have wanted, but not the score line. City dominated the whole half with Petr Cech making saves from Dzeko, Aguero and Barry but City were unable to break the deadlock, and it would cost them. In the 32nd minute, Juan Mata got in the box and his shot was spilled by Joe Hart and the first person to react was Fernando Torres who made no mistake and made it 1-0 Chelsea.

Half Time – Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1 (Torres 32)

Second Half –

The second half was a disaster for Man City. They seemed to lose the flair of the first half and chances were hard to come by, the returning David Silva seemed to get tired pretty quickly in the second half and had less of an influence and again Man City’s inability to take chances cost they when Juan Mata finished off his own mazy run with a cool finish past Hart to make it 2-0 in the 65th minute. City couldn’t come back from that and it got worse in the 81st minute when a David Luiz long throw in was turned in by John Terry.

Final Score – Manchester City 0 Chelsea 3 (Torres 32, Mata 65, Terry 81)

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MOTM – John Terry

Attendance – 47,405

Wednesday 24th October – Basel v Manchester City (Champions League Group C)

MCFC Starting XI – Hart, Zabaleta, Nastasic, Lugano, Clichy; De Rossi, Milner, Nem, Aguero, Nasri; Tevez SUBS – Friedel, Kompany, Kolarov, Barry, Rodwell, Silva, Dzeko

Basel Starting XI – Sommer, Steinhofer, Sauro, Caceres, Joo-Ho; Salah, Cabral, Diaz, Stocker; Kwang-Ryon, Streller SUBS – Valiati, Grether, Schar, Degan, Aratore, Aliji, Muller

Somehow we went in at half time behind 1-0 but an inspired team talk and a brilliant second half performance saw City turn it around for another three Champions League points away from home. Another injured suffered by David Silva will see him miss 8 to 10 days with concussion following a collision that lead to Aguero’s goal.

Final Score – Basel 1 (Streller 18) Manchester City 2 (Aguero 53, Nem 57)

MOTM – Wellington Nem

Attendance – 38,512

Manager’s October Review

October has been a very bad month for myself and the Club, we only played two Premier League games and lost them both 3-0, with the Everton game being a particular low as a poor performance added to the bad result.

In the Champions League, we lost a game we never should have against Porto but ended the month on a high with a good comeback to beat Basel 2-1. This leaves us 2nd in the group behind Porto who have a 100% record but I am confident we can qualify for the knock-out stages.

My October player of the month was a tough one because no-one really shone, but I am going to give it to Pablo Zabaleta for his two performances in the Champions League. He provided us with a threat going forward, as well as doing all his defensive duties to a high standard.

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Saturday 3rd November – Manchester City v Newcastle United (Premier League)

MCFC Starting XI – Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy; De Rossi, Barry; Milner, Nasri, Nem; Aguero SUBS – Friedel, Lescott, Richards, Rodwell, Kolarov, Silva, Dzeko

Newcastle Starting XI – Krul, R Taylor, Collocini, S Taylor, Santon; Toure, Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez; Ba, Cisse SUBS – Harper, Ferguson, Simpson, Anita, Ameobi, Marveaux, Good

An unbelievable match at the Etihad Stadium and Manchester City lose again. From 1-0 up in 37 seconds to 3-2 down at half time, City were struggling again and Joe Hart made two horrible errors that both led to goals. Another inspired half time team talk looked to have led to something spectacular happening when City made an amazing comeback to lead 4-3 but two goals in the last half an hour gave Newcastle the three points and condemned City to their third straight league defeat.

Final Score – Manchester City 4 (Aguero 1, 47, Milner 40, Nem 52) Newcastle 5 (Ba 6, 34, Cisse 38, Gutierrez 65, S Taylor 85)

MOTM – Sergio Aguero

Attendance – 47,405

Good luck mate, I think you'll have to dodge the axe!