Manchester City’s past and present personnel combined to brighten Manuel Pellegrini’s immediate future, as his team strives to retain their Premier League title. The Etihad superstars of the here and now duly murdered Newcastle’s visiting Magpies – as they have done for nearly a decade – after the unheralded City youngsters of yesteryear did their former employers a massive modern day favour. A five star showing and a 5-0 roasting […]

Trust, like reputation, is a priceless virtue. A highly valued but incredibly vulnerable commodity, it accumulates over a prolonged period. Conversely, it’s always at risk if new realities crash in and established perceptions are swept away. Manuel Pellegrini now finds himself at a crossroads in his brief, but hitherto highly successful time as manager of Manchester City. The trust and belief in the affable, professorial-like Chilean is under scrutiny like […]

Jose Mourinho has an obvious affinity with large passenger transport vehicles. He is very adept at parking buses and, in his capacity as a coach, the removal of his teeth would ordinarily accommodate 52 seats. But for once – sadly, probably just the once – Jose is keeping his poisonous ‘Norf & Sarf’ shut. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ is in a strop and seeking to perpetuate the myth that his […]

There’s a fat lady in London SW 6 preparing to break into song tonight. If the obese vocalist is moved to belt out a chorus in the wake of a Chelsea win, it’ll mean Jose Mourinho’s team will have to hit some seriously bum notes to allow Manchester City back into title contention. In the lyrics of another football-loving singer, Elton John, ‘Saturday night’s alright for fighting…’ and, metaphorically speaking, […]

Manchester City’s champs became chumps as complacency, sloppiness and fatigue provided an escape route for a battling Burnley to pull back two goals and gain a deserved point. In a pathetic second half display – right up there with the CSKA Moscow debacle – City imploded with an error strewn, lack lustre offering, one that contradicted all the credit accumulated in a nine-game winning streak. The ‘p’ in professional was […]

Resolute, resurgent and resourceful, Manchester City are 90 minutes away from becoming record-breakers as they go seeking a 10th consecutive win in all competitions. Injury ravaged and stripped bare of strikers, Manuel Pellegrini has steered City through a remarkable renaissance over the past 48 days, a period that has seen the points pile up, both home and away in domestic and European competition. Having weathered the winter storms of West […]

A City team led by Mark Hughes could see the blue half of Manchester top of the Premier League table just in time for Christmas. In a bizarre twist of fate, the ex-Manchester City manager could help put his former employers in pole position to retain their title – five years and three days after he was unceremoniously sacked by the Etihad outfit. If Hughes’ Stoke City can repeat last […]

Manchester City’s strength in depth is amply demonstrated in that Manuel Pellegrini could recall Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Stevan Jovetic, Aleksander Kolarov, Bacary Sagna and Frank Lampard for the visit to Leicester City – none of whom started that glorious night in Rome. The City boss is spoilt for choice as injuries heal and suspensions don’t apply, but he has to strike the right balance between fresh legs […]

Manchester City know what they have to do if they are to perform their own version of the Great Escape, and progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League. Despite some illogical mathematically challenged elements of the anti-City media claiming it’s a ‘must win’ game, Manuel Pellegrini’s men know that a score draw will see them through, provided CSKA Moscow lose in Munich. City are in the uncomfortable position […]

‘WE FIGHT ‘TILL THE END, WE FIGHT ’TILL THE END, WE’RE MAN CITY, WE FIGHT ‘TILL THE END’. It’s an impassioned and cherished battle cry from the terraces born from 93.20 minutes on May 13th 2012. It’s sung with gusto and pride but it seems to be falling on deaf ears far too often recently. A total contradiction in terms in Moscow in midweek and, if you flip the chant […]