Blues Aim To Strengthen Euro Top Spot
City take on Juventus tonight, aiming to assert their authority on the group and at the most, could be four points clear of the chasing pack after tonight’s results.
The blues currently top Group A after a 2-0 win in Salzburg while their main rivals for the group, Tonight’s opponents Juventus, could only manager a 3-3 draw at home to Lech Poznan of Poland.
The last time City were in the group stages of the UEFA Cup, they won two and drew one of the four games but have won all three Europa League games so far this season.
After returning to Serie A in 2007, Juventus have struggled to make an impact in the Italian league, despite finishing runners up in the 2008/09 season. Their last league title came in the 2002/03 season and their last success in the Coppa Italia was in 1995.
Team News
Micah Richards could return to the City line up after missing the win over Chelsea with a hamstring injury. Left backs Wayne Bridge and Aleksander Kolarov will miss the game through injury ands Shaun Wright-Phillips is struggling with a knee problem.
Teams:
City (from): Hart, Given, Richards, Zabaleta, Kompany, K Toure, Boyata, Cunningham, Lescott, Boateng, Silva, De Jong, Y Toure, Barry, Vieira, Milner, Johnson, Tevez, Adebayor, Jo, Santa Cruz.
Juventus (from): Storari, Motta, Chiellini, Rinaudo, Legrottaglie, Bonucci, Grygera, Pepe, Sissoko, Krasic, Melo, Iaquinta, del Piero, Manninger, Marchisio, Martinez, Lanzafame, de Ceglie, Costantino, Giandonato, Giannetti
MCB Prediction:
Juventus are a good side but very much a team in transition so I think the blues will come through this latest test.
Prediction: City 2-0 Juventus
What is your prediction? Let us know how you think the match will go.
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Special Team In Six Months, Says Bobby
Roberto Mancini has said he is pleased with City’s progress but admits he needs another six months to mould his team.
The blues sit in fourth place in the Premiership after two straight wins over Wigan and Chelsea and face Juventus in the second round of the Europa League on Thursday. But Mancini says there is a lot of work to do before they can win some silverware.
“I think we can create a special team in six months. We must start winning consistently. That is important,” said the boss as he prepares his team for the home clash with the Italians, who Mancini says he supported as a child. “I was a huge fan for years when I was a child so I have great respect for the club and the players. It will be a special match as it is the first time I am coaching an English team against Juventus.”
Former Juve midfielder Patrick Vieira will be hoping for a game against his former club. The former Arsenal man, who arrived from Juve in January 2009 admits he is frustrated at his lack of opportunities in the first team. “It has been frustrating. Like everyone else I want to play more often and be more involved.”
But Vieira believes City are becoming the team to fear after beating both Chelsea and Liverpool already this season. “That just shows how strong we are. There is still a long way to go but we believe in ourselves. We know how good we are. Now we have to win games week in, week out.”
What do you think? Will Mancini have an accomplished team in six months? Let us know your thoughts.
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Juventus
With Thursday’s Europa League clash with Juventus in mind, MCB takes a look at Juventus, their players and takes in the build up to the game.
History
Juventus have suffered a serious fall from grace over the last few years, but are still the most successful club in Italian football. The club, founded in 1897, have spent their entire existence in the top flight of Serie A, with the exception of the 2006/07 season, when the club were found guilty of match fixing and relegated to Serie B.
Their first European trophy was The UEFA Cup in 1977, followed by their only success in the Cup Winners Cup seven years later in 1984. A year later, they became the first team to win all three European titles when they bet Liverpool in the European Cup. In total, Juventus have six European titles plus two UEFA Super Cups.
Domestically, Juve have 27 Serie A titles, their last coming in the 2002/03 season. In addition, they Coppa Italia nine times and four SuperCoppa Italiana, Italy’s version of the Charity Shield. They have been runners up in Serie A on 20 occasions and the Coppa Italia four times.
Players
Alessandro Del Piero seems to have been around for ever. He has spent 17 years at Juve and holds the all-time goalscoring and appearances record at the club. Other players include former alleged City targets Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini, Alberto Aquilani (on loan from Liverpool) and Milos Krasic, who was an apparent target form Roberto Mancini over the summer.
Managers
Juve have only been managed by one foreign coach since 1974, that being Didier Deschamps for the 2006/07 season. Geovanni Trappatoni has taken charge of the team twice as has Marcello Lippi, while England boss Fabio Capello took control for two years in 2004.
The current coach is Luigi Delneri
City v Juve Mind Games
Marco Motta has tried to play mind games ahead of the clash by claiming money doesn’t buy success. You’re a little late with that one, Marco. The defender has claimed that “City is proof of how big-name signings and big spending, almost 100million Euros if I’m not mistaken, is not enough to obtain great results.” Yeah I suppose you’re right. Six games and sitting fourth in the league, the Champions of England beaten as well as hammering Liverpool are not great results are they?
Fantasy Football Update
Okay, time for an update on our Fantasy Football.
Still out in front setting a tremendous pace is Lexington Steele FC, who has been at the top of the table since the start. Loco F.C and Mullsters are second and third with Yaya’s Silva Boat and Madchester are still up there.
Of our writers, Brian Roban’s Manchester is Blue are sitting pretty in eighth place, marginally above Jake’s Hartley’s Heroes in 19th. I told you I was on the way back. After sitting at the bottom of the table for a few weeks, my Hinchcliffe 5-1 has finally started to shine. Okay, so I’m second from bottom but at least I’ve moved up a place. Season’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Taking my place at the foot of the table is Vegan FC on 236 points, while our only resident United Fan, United689908 is just above Hinchcliffe 5-1.
In order to try and improve my status, I have sacked off the hooker f***er Rooney and replaced him with United’s in form striker Berbatov. I know what you’re saying but normally what happens is, when I select a striker, they stop performing so in theory, Berbatov should be crap again by this time next week.
Anyway, I’ve attached the full table so you can see it for yourselves.
| 1 | Lexington Steele FC | 41 | 362 |
| 2 | Loco F.C. | 48 | 350 |
| 3 | Mullsters FC | 77 | 347 |
| 4 | Yaya’s Silva Boat | 47 | 331 |
| 5 | madchester | 44 | 326 |
| 6 | Y-Abu- Dhabi-Dooooo | 52 | 320 |
| 7 | Eggs on Toast F.C | 43 | 314 |
| 8 | Sky Blue Dreamin’ | 59 | 312 |
| 9 | weall8redscum | 45 | 312 |
| 10 | Manchester is Blue | 33 | 307 |
| 11 | Manchester1894 | 35 | 302 |
| 12 | Rag Free Zone IV | 44 | 301 |
| 13 | Sky Blue Galacticos | 41 | 301 |
| 14 | Withyskinners | 39 | 288 |
| 15 | Eastlands | 52 | 284 |
| 16 | AFC Falastur | 44 | 274 |
| 17 | Hartley’s Heroes | 51 | 268 |
| 18 | Bootham FC | 28 | 264 |
| 19 | Here Come the Girls | 42 | 258 |
| 20 | EPLdreamteam2010-11 | 37 | 256 |
| 21 | united689908 | 37 | 246 |
| 22 | Hinchcliffe 5-1 | 42 | 243 |
| 23 | VEGAN FC | 42 | 236 |
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If you also want to join our writers team, just send us an email: pete@mancityblog.com
The Good, The Bad And The Paul Merson
While City’s win over Chelsea has been much heralded by all blues fans and, dare I say over in Stretford. But it seems that not everyone is enjoying the fact that City have now beaten two of their major rivals and drawn a third. On Saturday, I spent some time searching for anything related to City’s win to see what the reaction is from pundits and journalists. Here’s a little of what I discovered.
The Good
The News of the World have enthused over City’s win as much as they have over Chelsea’s defeat. Hailing Carlos Tevez, the NOTW describe him as having everything. “Enthusiasm, endeavour and most of important of all, end product.” They describe the midfield as ‘body builders,’ more than a match for Essien and Mikel. Some compliment eh?
For Chelsea, NOTW claim they are ‘on notice, crushed and crumpled after their first league defeat since Tottenham in April.’ I wouldn’t go as far as saying they are crushed and crumpled but they are certainly looking over their shoulders at City now.
The Daily Mail claim it was a “£1.4m drudge match” but praised City by saying ‘Seldom will you see a Chelsea team outmuscled and outfought and even more rarely will you see them reduced to long-range shots from outside the area. Yet City achieved both feats yesterday, with Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure and Nigel de Jong acting like a mountain range protecting their back four. And Chelsea never looked like scaling such heights.’ High Praise indeed.
You can read the full article here:
And if that wasn’t enough, even Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer sort of seemed impressed, but it is difficult to tell when they aren’t talking about one of the big four. “City’s best display so far,” said Hansen and added that we ‘could be a force.’ Shearer described the blues as “solid and resilient,” but Gary Lineker tried to claim Chelsea had an ‘off day.’ There’s always one.
The Bad
As with everything positives, there are always negatives. We start with The Guardian’s Paul Hayward, whose match report starts with the title of “Roberto Mancini’s boot-camp regime pays dividends but still lacks style.” A sub title of “The Manchester City manager’s main aim seems to be to make his team fight, not entertain.”
Now forgive me for being a pessimist Paul, but teams like us need to fight. If we went knocking the ball around against Chelsea in an almost arrogant fashion, they could have taken us apart by half time. “What City needed was an earth shaking win,” he says. But hang on a minute, we’re talking about the Champions, who won the league in style with an 8-0 hammering of Wigan, then started the season with two 6-0 wins, but it seems City’s style isn’t good enough for Hayward.
“Sheikh Mansour is still entitled to wonder how £600m can buy so little entertainment.” Maybe if Sheikh Mansour isn’t entertained enough by the fact that City have beaten two top five rivals and drawn against another, he should read more of Paul Hayward’s articles. They’re ridiculously funny. If you want to read this piece of tosh, the link is below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/sep/25/manchester-city-chelsea-paul-hayward
Vital Man United accuse the blues of being boring and label us negative and unattractive. Well, if exciting means throwing a two goal lead away not to not one but two struggling scouse teams, I’d rather stick with boring. I’d post the link but to be honest, it’s not worth it.
The Paul Merson
On Friday, Sky Sports muppet, sorry pundit Paul Merson claimed City had mugged off the Carling Cup, saying if it was good enough for Man Utd, it should be good enough for City. He then went on to claim that City could have been drawn at home to Northampton or Brentford in the next round which I feel is completely disrespectful to the feats these two teams achieved in midweek.
“If they lose on Saturday, they’ll be out of the title race.” Were we ever in it? I know a few of us get carried away sometimes but I still don’t think we’re ready for the title just yet. “This is their first real test,” says Merson, who forgets that more often than not we go to Spurs and lose yet we got a draw there.
But turning to Chelsea, Merson claims they were disappointing in the League Cup. So, by leaving out several key players such as Essien, Mikel, Malouda, Drogba, Ivanovic, Cech, Cole and only allowing Terry and Alex to play a half each, they didn’t ‘mug off’ the competition in the same way City did eh?
“Even with injuries, they’ll be strong on Saturday,” claims Merson, who conveniently forgets that City have a worse injury problem than the Champions. “Chelsea can afford to drop points, but if City want to win the title, they can’t afford to lose. Unfortunately, I think they will.”
But it gets better. Merson’s prediction was a 3-1 away win. “I always fancy City to score a goal but Chelsea are too good for them all over the pitch. Merson then proclaims his “Magic Man” as Didier Drogba. “I don’t know how City are going to stop Drogba, who is almost unplayable at the moment. Kolo Toure always struggled with him at Arsenal and I don’t see how he’s going to do any better now he’s at City. Drogba looks like scoring every time he goes onto the pitch.”
Saturday evening’s meal for Paul was a starter of humble pie, followed by a selection of his own words, with hard cheese and sour grapes for dessert.
City 1-0 Chelsea – Blues Pass Latest Test
Carlos Tevez scored the only goal in the so called ‘Battle of the Cash’ as City ended Chelsea’s 100% start to the season.
City were defending an unbeaten home record against the current Premier League Champions, who had scored nine goals and conceded just one in just two away games so far this season and had to do so without several key players.
Micah Richards was ruled out before the game and he joined Wayne Bridge, Aleksander Kolarov and Joleon Lescott on the sidelines. With such defensive problems, City were forced to field youngster Dedryck Boyata in defence until he was substituted with just a couple of minutes of normal time remaining, to be replaced by debutant Jerome Boateng.
Chelsea, missing Frank Lampard in the middle, didn’t offer too much to threaten City with, although Branislav Ivanovic hit the post in the first half. The blues stifled their main threat, Didier Drogba as the game reached half time at stalemate.
Usually in such a high profile game, the longer the match wears on the likelihood City would concede and they would have done if Joe Hart hadn’t been on hand to tip former blue Nicolas Anelka’s shot away. Spanish World Cup winner David Silva then forced his way into the penalty area and saw his low shot turned behind by keeper Petr Cech.
But then the moment the blues had been waiting for arrived. Under pressure from James Milner, Ramires lost the ball and Yaya Toure fed it to Tevez. The Argentine ran unchallenged from the halfway line and, with John Terry and Ashley Cole backing off him, Tevez hit a shot that went in off the post to give City the lead.
That should have opened the door for Chelsea to flood the City half but the expected surge didn’t materialise and it was City who could have added to their lead. Silva almost reaching Tevez’s cross but for a touch by Alex.
The ineffective Drogba was replaced by Daniel Sturridge to a chorus of boos from the home fans but he was about as effective as his predecessor.
With normal time up, the fourth official added on four additional minutes, but the blues weathered anything Chelsea could throw at them and, for the third successive game, inflicted defeat on the Londoners.
So City pass their latest test and now look forward to Thursday’s Europa League game with Juventus.
City v Chelsea – Preview and Predictions
City look to put the minor disappointment of the midweek League Cup defeat at West Brom behind them as they Chelsea visit Eastlands.
A win for City will the champions 100% start to the season and further emphasise their ambitions to join the top four elite and consolidate their position in fourth place. But defeat will no doubt be met with derision from pundits everywhere, claiming City are nowhere near good enough to challenge at the top.
Chelsea will be looking to avenge last season double as the blues came back form a goal down at Eastlands to win 2-1, before that result was doubled at Stamford Bridge as City ran out 4-2 winners.
The Champions also lost their League Cup clash with Newcastle on Wednesday and the fact that they rested several key players for that game, saving them instead for Saturday, is a clear sign they see the City game as more important.
Team News
City have big defensive worries ahead of the clash, with Jerome Boateng, Wayne Bridge, Aleksander Kolarov and Joleon Lescott all out injured and Micah Richards is doubtful with a hamstring injury. Shaun Wright-Phillips is struggling with a knee injury, while Mario Balotelli is still out.
England midfielder Frank Lampard, who missed a penalty last season at Eastlands, will miss the game through injury, while Soloman Kalou, Yossi Benayoun and Gael Kakuta are all doubtful to make the match
Teams
Manchester City (from): Hart, Given, Richards, Boateng, Zabaleta, Kompany, K Toure, Boyata, Wright-Phillips, A Johnson, de Jong, Vieira, Barry, Y Toure, Milner, Silva, Tevez, Adebayor, Jo, Santa Cruz
Chelsea (from): Cech, Turnbull, Ferreira, Alex, Terry, Bruma, van Aanholt, Cole, Ivanovic, Malouda, Mikel, Ramires, Zhirkov, Essien, McEachran, Drogba, Anelka, Sturridge, Kakuta
Predictions:
Pete: With both teams losing in midweek, each team will need to win to justify the team selection so I think they will cancel each other out and play out a draw.
Prediction: City 2-2 Chelsea
Brian: Chelsea are looking strong so far this season unbeaten in the league. Beaten twice by City last season I’m sure Chelsea will be out for blood. Like City, Chelsea also were knocked out of the Carling Cup this week. Like City, Chelsea were watching the game at the weekend and considered by both mangers a much more important game. I’ll be totally honest I’d love to see City winning 2-0, I’d be happy before the game with a 1-1 draw, my worst nightmare is probably nearer the truth I think Chelsea will win 3 – 1 kills me to think it but I’m not to sure how the game will unfold. Positive thinking and support will help on the day so I’m going say 1 – 1 piece due to injuries on both sides. Looking forward to it all the same even if a bit nervous, not so looking forward to a 6.30am flight in the morning.
City 1 – 1 Chelsea
Real Mancs Are Blue: It’s obviously going to be a tough game on Saturday. Chelsea look are like an unstoppable behemoth and we are in the midst of a true injury crisis. That being said I think ‘typical city’ will ring true once again and we will either draw, or if Balotelli starts we may win. Our defence is going to be the major issue.
My prediction City 3 Chelsea 1
Jake: We couldn’t have had a tougher game than Chelsea, after being knocked out in the Carling Cup on Wednesday. Chelsea have conceded just five goals and scored a massive 54 in their last 13 Premiership games. With the blues very light on fit defenders for this 12:45 kick off, I’m afraid I will have to go with my head over my heart and go for a draw. Mancini has transformed our leaky defence under Mark Hughes into a formidable backline this season, so I don’t expect Chelsea to bang in as many goals as they did against Blackpool and Wigan. But, we are playing against the Premiership champions and that’s always going to be a tough task for anybody.
Prediction – Manchester City 1 – 1 Chelsea (Goal scorer – Carlos Tevez)
Callum: My prediction is 1-1. I think we will take the lead through Yaya Toure, David Silva or James Milner and then Carlos Tevez will miss a penalty, then they will get another penalty which Drogba scores
Prediction: City 1-1 Chelsea
Meanwhile the ‘experts’ have had their say. Mark Lawrenson has us down for a 1-1 draw, while Sky Sports has Chelsea down for a 2-1 win. Jamie Redknapp doesn’t think City will get beat but doesn’t commit to a score while Paul Merson believes Chelsea win will 3-1 and City will be out of the title race.
What do you think? Let us know your predictions
The Opposition – Chelsea
The champions have set about defending their title in good style and sent a message to the rest of the Premiership that they don’t intend to surrender the title easily.
Five wins out of five games sees Chelsea sitting at the top of the Premiership table, having cored an incredible 21 goals in the process. An opening day 6-0 thrashing of West Brom at Stamford Bridge was followed by the same scoreline at Wigan, meaning Chelsea had scored 12 goals in the opening two fixtures.
But the West London have yet to face any of their main rivals and Saturday’s game will be their first big test of the season.
Chelsea have won the Premiership title three times and have been regular contenders in the Champions League, a competition which remains elusive to the West London club.
Manager – Carlo Ancelotti
The Italian came to England and won the Championship in his first season and his team has already sent a chill across the rest of the Premiership. Ancelloti has said that the City game will be a big test for his squad, but the game will also be a test for the blues.
Ground – Stamford Bridge
Stamford Bridge opened in 1877 and originally began life as an athletics track. But Chelsea move in after Fulham refused the offer of playing at the stadium. At one point, the ground could house 100,000 spectators, but that has now been reduced to 42,450. Stamford Bridge has hosted three FA Cup finals between 1920 and 1922, all of which ended 1-0.
City v Chelsea – Stats and Facts
City and Chelsea meet at Eastlands for the 13th time in the Premiership and the blues will be looking to record only their third ever win over the West London side in the Premier League.
City’s win at Eastlands last season was their first over Chelsea since October 2004 and stopped a run of eight consecutive defeats.
But in thirteen Premier League games played in Manchester, City have won just two as opposed to Chelsea’s ten. The Londoners also have a high scoring record at City, knocking in 20 past the blues while the Chelsea defence has been breached just eight times.
It was a different story in the old First Division though. From 48 games played, City won 25 to Chelsea’s 8, with the blues hitting 82 goals past Chelsea, conceding 51 in return.
City’s Home Record Over Chelsea
| PL | W | D | L | GF | GA | |
| Premier League | 13 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 20 |
| Old First Division | 48 | 25 | 15 | 8 | 82 | 51 |
| Old Second Division | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| New First Division | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New Second Division | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LEAGUE TOTALS | 65 | 28 | 16 | 21 | 93 | 77 |
| FA Cup | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| League Cup | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Europe | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Others | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| War | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| OVERALL TOTAL | 70 | 30 | 16 | 24 | 96 | 81 |
Rather Meaningless Facts
City have only won three games against Chelsea in 24 attempts.
Chelsea have won ten Premier League games at City.
Former City midfielder Gary Megson scored only his second ever goal for City against Chelsea in 1991.
Carlos Tevez has scored five goals in his last four games against Chelsea
Former City and Chelsea Players
Some of the most notable players who have appeared for both sides include Shaun Wright-Phillips, Nicolas Anelka, Wayne Bridge, Tal Ben-Haim. Anyone got any more?
The Carling Cup.
I as a City fan didn’t feel to down after the loss to West Brom on Wednesday night. To be honest looking at the City line up, It was clear Mancini like many other top flight managers was out to give the young up and coming players shot. The average age of the defencive line up was 19 years old, They many of had an off night or West Brom were simply just better on the night either way why I’m writing this article is to point out one thing.
The Carling Up is a funny one, When the bigger clubs crash out it ONLY the Carling Cup. When they win it the fans will tell you its still a Cup !
“Sheikh Mansour’s £1bn investment in Manchester City was unable to save the Blues from an embarrassing Carling Cup defeat to West Brom’s second string at the Hawthorns.Even with an estimated £100m of talent on the pitch at the final whistle as Roberto Mancini threw on James Milner and David Silva, City were unable to force an equaliser.”
The above was written by the Evening Echo. I’m pasting this up because it has become the typical anti City crap that we see the rags daily. It got worse as it went on.
There was a lot of upsets in the Carling Cup last night for big teams however I did notice, very very few first teams players from any premiership side, Begs the question how much does the Carling Cup mean ?
The young players that started the match and went a goal ahead didn’t finish the job, but its football and this is the Carling Cup and they have years ahead of them to learn from the mistakes made last night . City between The Europa League, The F.A. Cup, and most important above all less is a top four finish in the premiership the Carling Cup can wait there’s bigger fish to fry this coming Saturday in the form of Chelsea. Chelsea who are undefeated so far in the Premiership were like City beaten last night in the Carling Cup. No shame it that as there beaten by Newcastle another Premiership Club. Come Saturday two completely different teams from the one that played last night will walk on to the pitch at Eastlands.
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