A big bowl of pasta please!

Andre Villas-Boas lash out at Manchester City shows he really must be under pressure. City only lost to his Chelsea side only beat thanks to dubious penalty decissions and sirsitting 17 points adrift of.

He criticises City for being an Italian team with an Italian style of play.

Hold on I hear you say - didn't an Italian team smash Arsenal? Didn't an Italian team knock us out of the Champions League and muller Chelsea 3-1? Hasn't our Italian team scored more goals than anyone else in the Premier League and played some wonderful total, free flowing football averaging 3 goals a game?

Bring on the pasta baby and criticise Italian play all you like - our Italian manager gets the Premier League and is playing some wonderful attacking football as well as where necessary grinding out wins.

It is a reflection on how attack minded we are that teams like Blackburn park the bus like they did at the weekend.

Perhaps AVB you wont have to put up with Italian football much longer. Exit the Champions League and fail to qualify and you'll be history.

Mancini oh-oh-oh-oh, Mancini oh-oh-oh-oh, he comes from Italy, to manage Man City.

City 3 - 0 Blackburn - let the numbers do the talking

If you hadn't gone to yesterday's game at the Etihad and just looked at the stats, they'd tell you all you need to know!

Goal Attempts
City 21 Rovers 2

Possesion
City 88 % Rovers 12%

They parked the bus, they were challenged at every opportunity, broken down after 30 minutes and pinned into their own half.

Without Robinson the score line wouldn't have been a flattering 3-0 and it shows we comfortably contained the side that beat United 3-2.

All our strikers (Aguero, Balotelli and Dzeko) scored, so who is this Carlos fella that's back in England.

SHOCKING REVELATIONS

I have to say I'm feeling very disillusioned. On the verge of losing my faith in the game. These shocking revelations will undoubtedly cause a press meltdown bigger than if Ryan Giggs had been caught giving John Terry a taste of his special sausage.

I don't wish to reveal my sources, but I can now state as fact that:

1. Sir Alex Ferguson's head ISN'T made from BACON.
2. Stuart Pearce ISN'T really PSYCHOTIC.
3. Peter Bonetti ISN'T an actual CAT.
4. Steven Ireland HASN'T got the power of flight unless he's travelling on EasyJet.
5. A certain Portugese club's striker ISN'T actually INCREDIBLE.

But of course if you make FC PORTO angry (you dont want to make them angry), knock them out of Europe and react in a witty way to their strikers diving all over the place then they do turn green with jealousy.

Get a sense of humour and stop being so frivilous. Dare to try and say this video is not Porto fans making monkey noises at Balotelli?

INCREDIBLE: Porto consider UEFA complaint over harmless chants by City fans

City Newsround

There's a lot going on at the moment here's just a brief round up...

Micah's Back!

It's thanks to the FA /  Capello fall out and good old Pyscho doing what he thinks is right and not what Capello or the suits at the FA may have done that Micah Richards deservedly returns to England duty. Very pleased for him, but at the same time sorry for Joleon getting cut for this game.

Tevez is back in training

Nice photos here show Tevez back training with Mancini and his team mates. Hopefully the side show will end, at least until the summer.

Vincent Kompany to do live Facebook / Twitter interview

This Saturday after our Premier League game against Blackburn Rovers, club captain Vinny will be hosting a live interview with all questions coming from fans via Twitter. The image / flyer below shows you what to do, but essentially follow Vinny in Twitter and tweet questions to @VincentKompany or @MCFC with hash tag #askvincent. Vinny was asked about the forthcoming interview and said:

“Ask any footballer and they will tell you, when the final whistle rings out, it’s either the best or worst of feelings.  The way the media watch a game is completely to the way true fans experience it. Fans kick every ball, feel every tackle and ultimately win or lose as part of the team, together".

“I just wanted to use social media to give our fans the chance to have their voices heard, instead of shouting at the TV, wishing the interviewer would ask the kinds of questions that really matter to them.” 

Oh and finally Sir Purple Nose of Baconheadshire apparently would relish an all Manchester Europa League Final- I dont think the Romanian police will agree.

0 to 16 in 19 seconds - incredible!

It had been pooring with rain all day in Manchester and thanks to both Manchester clubs away in their first legs, UEFA stupidity and local policing factors - we had a 5:00pm kick off against Europa League Holders and Portugese Champions Porto in the competition both City and United would prefer not to be in. The game was also shown live on TV.

Depsite these factors a remarkable 40,000 turned out, most like me arriving just about at 5:00pm, best I could do with work.

As I took my seat, the ref blew and the game kicked off. Literally 10 seconds later I was on my feet to see Yaya Toure slip through to Aguero to take it on and score in precisely 19.12 seconds.

A thoroughly enjoyable 4-0 thumping of the holders, a virtuoso performance from Sergio, Yaya back in action at the Etihad and a date against probably Sporting Lisbon.

Funniest moment of the night singing "You're not incredible" to of course Porto's Hulk. Although it seems that Porto can't distinguish between humerous terrace wit and banter and racist, monkey chanting because somebody's skin is black - pathetic.

Top evening though.

Oh by the way our Mr Incredible - Captain Vincent Kompany will be live on twitter after Saturday's game. If you want to ask Vinny some questions, ask them via Twitter with hash tag #askvincent

Leopards, spots and the hardest word.

They say that leopards don't change their spots. They also say that "sorry" seems to be the hardest word.

Forgive me for being sceptical, but I believe the best way of predicting somebody's future behaviour is to look at their past actions.

I don't think that Carlos is now happy in England, found a third restaurant in Manchester he can eat at, now has a passionate love for rain, is about to become fluent in English or will get rid of his loathesome agent.

I do believe we could be on this timeline...

• First apologise unreservedly in a statement. Done
• Next have a one to one with Roberto Mancini, clear the air and privately apologise again. Scheduled for Thursday.
• Next apologise to your team mates for being an idiot. Probably Thursday or Friday.
• Then apologise to the fans. Probably wear a t-shirt during a game, score a goal, lift your team shirt to reveal a message like "Sorry, 100% City now!". March sometime.
• Score 10 goals to help win us the title. May
• Clear off for £25-£30m in the summer - so long and thanks for all the fish, but the sideshow really did stink.

Anybody care to say otherwise.

Spot the difference

I'm concerned. I'm concerned that there are too many similarities between Rodney Marsh (played for City in the early 70's you young whippersnappers) and Carlos Tevez.

Rubbish! I hear you say - just look at that mullet. OK hair, nationality and 4 decades apart there are perhaps more similarities than you think...

Both flare players, both a little bit of a loner, both at a point of joining or returning to City at a vital time.

Rodney Marsh joined City when we sat 5 points clear at the top of the league and with only 8 games left. We finished 4th!

Carlos returns to Manchester with us top, 2 points clear and 13 games to go.

Rodney destabilised the team and dressing room, we didn't know how to play as a team with him in the side.

I sincerely hope that if Carlos apologises to Sheikh Mansour, the club, Mancini and most importantly the fans and is therefore brought back in the squad he does not destabilise everything. The piece in the Evening News hope he wont do a Rodney.

The pros with Carlos that suggest it wont be a repeat are:

• He always gives 100% on the pitch.
• He'd want to play a part in winning the title to ensure he gets a move.
• He is a grafter as well as a flare player.
• The team seem relaxed about his return.

The cons which suggest we wont get the best from him as see it are:

• He is appealing club fines, indicating he sees no wrong on his part.
• He still publicly criticises the manager and the club.
• He is a long way from match fitness.
• He's only made bit part appearances with the current team.

I'm not sure how I feel about his return. Personally a very public, unqualified apology to the fans would go a long way.

Out played, out fought, out sung

Well in the first half of the Carling Cup Semi Final anyway.

Not at all a good evening, the game against Liverpool. In fact it was embarrassing.

Embarrassing that our fan base wasn't up for it! That showed with the empty seats in the stadium and muted atmosphere. It's a cup semi for crying out loud. Where was everyone? Why so quiet?

Embarrassing that the team didn't seem up for it after the United defeat. Liverpool fought harder than us, we're quicker to the ball, sharper with their passing and even though it was a penalty we good value for their 1-0 half time lead.

The 2nd half was much better and we dominated Liverpool and the ball and were unlucky not to get an equaliser which would have been a fair result.

It shows how much Kompany, Silva and Yaya Tour make our team tick. We can handle the loss of one, but three is too much. This is the time Milner, Johnson and others really have two step up.

One final thing Glen Johnson's two footed tackle was way worse than Kompany's, no reaction from City, not even a yellow.

Still, it's only half time.

F*%#ing A*#%holes

Isn't that what the FA stands for? Utterly ridiculous decision. Every neutral fan I've spoken to says Vincent Kompany's tackle during our FA Cup 3rd round game against United was even in the worst case a yellow and most just a fair challenge.

I was at the game of course but have watched the replay about 30 times from a variety of angles. You can see very clearly that:

- Vincent Kompany's body was in contact with the ground - at no stage did he leave the ground
- the tackle got all the ball
- the tackle got none of Evra - he didn't even notice, he didn't jump out of the way, he simply carried on playing
- the tackle was at low speed and he sort of scooped the ball. Vincent didn't run 50 yards across the pitch to lunge in. He went for and got the ball.
- the tackle was very close to the ground, studs down with his feet only rising slightly after the ball has been won

We all know a dangerous tackle when we see one - studs up over the top of the ball - that wasn't one.

The FA only seem to see common sense when it suits them or uphold appeals if referees admit to errors or it suits the national team. Rooney knowing and deliberately kicks out in an international, setting the kids of this nation an appalling example, is red carded, yet the FA back an appeal and he gets a 2 game ban! Hypocrisy!

With this latest farcical sending off and ban Roy Keane, Robbie Savage, Paul Scholes, Billy Bremner, Tommy Smith, Joe Jordan would have never got a game they have dozens of reds a season.

I think Vincent Kompany may be right when he say red cards will increase.

Chris Foy has too many cock ups and likes the limelight far too much himself. Respect has to be earned, not enforced!

Cruising to the Top

City cruised passed Aston Villa with one of the most comfortable victories I've seen so far this season, to sit on top of the Premier League after the rags drew at Anfield.

I thought the unbeaten Villa would provide a tough opponent, but no - they were pretty poor.

City started without the services of injured Aguero, or benched and rested Dzeko, Nasri, Silva and were still embarrassingly too strong for old boys Given, Ireland, Dunne and co.

The ex-City players were warmly welcomed back by the home fans, but the gulf in talent between City now and in their era shows how far the team have progressed.

Two hot babes at the game with me

I was at the game with a load of friends from "The Sarf", one of whom has seen City a few times never expect anything less than 4 goals.

Fortunately a beautiful overhead kick from Mario Balotelli, a peach of a shot from Milner and goals from Johnson and Kompany meant that City well and truly delivered for him again.

The villa old boys, Milner and Barry had good games, although there were not so warmly greeted by the travelling Villa contingent.

Kompany's post match interview

Steve even got a personal wave from Vincent Kompany as we left the empty stadium.

Later that evening we hit the beer festival and WAG hotspots Living Room, San Carlos and Panacea where we bumped into football players and celebrities a plenty including Mario Balotelli in the white jacket and earrings.

I have to admit to being a bit star struck like a teenage girl meeting a pop idol.


Kempy and Balo in San Carlos

A great weekend and a great win, tees us up nicely for the Champions League and the derby at the swamp.

Leaders in Football

David Bernstein (City fan and Chairman of the FA)

I've been attending the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge the last two days. Fascinating stuff from owners, governing bodies, referees, players and anybody involved in the game and it's promotion professionally.

I met David Bernstein, Vicky Kloss, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianni Infantino, Mark Hughes, Ray Wilkins, Damon Hill, Sammy Lee, The Qatar World Cup Bid team, Jamie Carragher, Niall Quinn (ex Chairman of Sunderland), Peter Coates (Owner Stoke City FC), Bruce Buck (Chairman Chelsea FC) and a whole lot more.

Thought you might be interested in these video snippets (Ray Wilkins and Jamie Carragher's views of the"Tevez incident") and part of an interview with Tevez' representative  Kia Joorabchian (in my opinion he really should sell snake oil).

Enjoy, I think, and apologies for the average quality and loud laughing at Ray Wilkins comments.

 Ray Wilkins, Jamie Carragher and Fabio Cannavaro talk about Tevez and England.

Next poor quality video is 10 minutes of an interview with Kia Joorabchian talking utter rubbish, claiming there's a huge row between Mancini and Dzeko in Munich that confused poor little Carlos and MCFC trainers.

 Snakeoil Salesman Kia Joorabchian 

Just total nonsense, but watch the answering without answering political spin from this unregistered representative who owns 3rd party rights to over 50 footballers - now there's a motive for moving people on every two years.

Kia trys and fails to act as an apologist, saying Carlos has played in pain for City, has a special affinity for the club, has played with swollen feet and he always gives a 100% on the pitch and the usual he misses his family etc. 

Ray Wilkins called it right - "there was no misunderstanding - he didn't want to play!"

A tale of two Managers...

A lovely day in Blackburn

After my pre-match interview I won't be giving up the day job - I was expecting a Champions League hangover and a very tough game after the events in Munich.

Instead I'm leaving Ewood Park, with the deafening support ringing around the stadium for Roberto Mancini and a mini protest to get rid of under pressure Rovers manager, Steve Kean.

 A day of protests at Ewood

I didn't really expect:

• a 4-0 win
• bullet headers from Savic
• Nasri and Silva pinging the ball around the Blackburn box for fun
• Mario Balotelli putting in a superb performance and scoring a classic
• a peach of a goal from Adam Johnson.

I got all the above and more in an incredible second half, after an understably sluggish first half in which Rovers defended deeply and in numbers - did they have a shot on goal?

Dzeko was rested (or perhaps punished for his toys out of the pram behaviour), Tevez was rightly nowhere, but boy oh boy the team delivered.

Fun in the sun

A great day out in the sun with 7000 City fans - well done all. Roberto we love you!

Blackburn Rovers Preview

I was in a pub car park in Blackburn drinking cider. No I've not hit skid row, it was just he pub overflow for 1000s of City fans.

I was interviewed by the guys from Winkball.com. Here's my thoughts on the game and Tevez...

Tevez is a tramp! (Similar anyway)

What's the difference between a tramp in your local park and Carlos Tevez? £200,000 a week!

What's the similarity - neither of them will get of the bench!

Carlos, what were you doing? Did Kia advise you to behave like that?

All I can do is thank you for deflecting attention from the very poor display from City. A performance that appeared tactically naive. Although, perhaps if the stone wall penalties were given it may have been a very different result.

The poor performance though, was totally overshadowed by Tevez' behaviour. If it is found to be true that Tevez refused to play then I for one want to see the back of him.

Thanks for a great season last year, thanks for all the goals, thanks for helping get to another level, thanks for helping win the FA Cup, but for tonight - thanks for nothing. My patience is out.

It doesn't always rain in Manchester!
Manchester has more than 2 restaurants!
Family reasons!
Manager fall outs!
Captaincy!
Record salary!
Transfer requests!
Slimy representatives!
Cookgate!

You've pissed the fans off Carlos, I don't see how you can play for us again with apologising to everyone and publicly committing to honour all 5 years of your contract.

Your refusal to do your job when you are in such a privileged position is selfishness in the extreme. You have let yourself down, you have let City fans down, you have let your team-mates down, you have let the manager down, you have let the club down, you have let Sheik Mansour down.

Souness was right for once - you epitomise everything the man in the street detests about the modern day footballer.

In the words of Alexander Kolarov and Spanish translators - "you're an idiot" and a greedy, badly advised one at that.

By the way I withdraw the offer of a night with my good lady should we win the Premier League.

Tricky Toffee Puddings

The blue part of Liverpool proved a little tricky to over power at first, but were eventually shown to be puddings.

Today's game started with the Goodyear Inflatable hovering overhead, but there were no inflated egos on display from City today in a workman like display.

Everton were always going to be difficult to break down and their well organised back four, man to man marking of David Silva and robust approach certainly frustrated City.

Moyes, the master tactician, obviously thought that if he was able to stifle Silva then City's midfield would stutter. The strategy worked to some degree.

City dominated possession, "reducing" tackles went in on Silva and Tim Howard kept our attack at bay.

It was a frustrating encounter at times, but Nasri stepped up and Silva was eventually too much to handle.

It took the introduction of Balotelli to break the deadlock. He scored just as Cahill who had injured himself in a bad challenge for which he got booked was making his way past us. Boom, lovely.

Then we stroked the ball nicely, Silva coming close and hitting the post within seconds of Mario giving us the lead.

As Mancini locked thing down by introducing Milner, it proved another excellent substitution as Milner tucked away our second to make 2-0 and a miserable visit to the Etihad stadium for the toffees.

Champions League next...

Beware of the Bogeyman

I hope City don't come unstuck at home in our match with the Toffees today.

Everton have won their last four visits to Eastlands, and did the double over us last season - they certainly have been a bogey team for us in recent times, surely not this time!?

That said, both games last season were highly one sided in our favour, we dominated possession, shot counts and even comfortably lead at Goodison. We lost concentration and let Everton snatched it on both occasions.

Hopefully the slip at Fulham will be a timely reminder that the game lasts for 90 minutes and we need to be ruthless.

Also, Everton have lost key players and unfortunately their lack of funds for new is a matter of public record.

That said no City fan will be complacent about this one, the history is there to show that Everton regularly humble City, Chelsea, United and more.

David Moyes is a brilliant manager and gets huge team performances from often a meagre squad.

I'm just thankful Nedum Onuoha didn't go on loan - he would have come back and haunted us that's for sure.

So today City are stronger and unbeaten.

Lawro predicts a win, every bookie is given City odds on to win. My prediction, 2-1, gulp, I'm not convinced.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Still that was a terrible miss from Torres and City shouldn't blow 2-0 leads to draw 2-2 with Fulham.

Not the end of the world, a long season ahead.

Not sure what players Mancini is still short of, apart from a fit Nigel De Jong.

No excuses - Fulham played in Europe on Thursday too! let's learn and move on.

Location:Slipped on the Cottage Floor

Guardian doesn't support Tory Party shocker!

I missed this drivel from The Guardian around the Nasri signing, but I'm not going to let it lie.

Whilst I expected jealousy after our owner invested his money and we signed some great players - I'm getting to a point that I'm finding the City bashing very boring and extremely lazy and shoddy journalism.

Perhaps the club should follow Alex Fergusons lead and ban certain papers from the press conferences.

Anyway, does anybody feel like dashing off a letter to The Guardian for it's partisan left wing editorial and the lack of content supporting the Tory government?

How about writing a tongue in cheek article criticising their content then - accusing the Guardian in a marginally humorous fashion of being clandestine, driven by Soviet Masters and a global communist agenda.

What? Still not interested - you think it perfectly reasonable that The Guardian serve the needs of a left of centre readership, of which I am one.

Hmmm, bizarre, so do I.

Thus when City creat behind the scenes videos, for the signing of Samir Nasri or Kolo's return, etc.

Why does Scott Murray think it amusing or appropriate to attribute motives which aren't there, contrive a story that doesn't exist, refer to high quality videos (given away free to fans) who watch it on the MCFC site in their 100s of thousands as well as YouTube as a shoddy, mafia style attempt to act big.

Here's just a taste of the axe grinding:

"An epic sequence was soon in the can, then up on YouTube, where it became an internet sensation viewed by tens of people. In one lengthy, tightly choreographed take, Nasri enters the building for the first time, climbs a flight of stairs..."

The video has had over 542,000 views hmm - yep that's 10s of people in Scott's dire tribe - mathematician he ain't.Or put another way, viewed by 542,000 people more than double the Guardian's 260,000 entire readership.

The videos are great, loved by City fans, watched in numbers that The Guardian can only dream about

• Most clubs charge for their video - City give it away,
• most club's video is cheesy - City's is insightful (a real fly on the wall),
• most clubs production is average - City's are produced to a high standard by Endemol,
• most clubs don't ask what their fans want to see - City do through Social Media and more.

A truly pathetic, inaccurate and unfunny piece, but at least topical in so far as it is "don't let even a whiff of facts stop you having a pop a City". I'm just waiting for yet another "red tinted glasses" piece about Liverpool - the personal bias is transparent Scott.