Mr Makaveli

City were lucky to beat arsenal and to not get utterly hammered by utd. we beat utd twice last season, chelsea too... we can do it again. everton? who are they

We're a bloody good team and we played well against chelsea. We could have done better yes and ok we've lost 3... we have utd coming up... even sunderland could be a slip up. We have some tough games ahead because a reaction is needed... but I don't see us missing out on a top 4 finish in a million years.

Wow! I was quite passive towards this tool but my god has he just underminded Rafa again. Put yourself in Rafa's shoes.... you'd be bloody fed up of this s*** by now. i think it's time that a promenent figure came out and got behind Rafa and at the same time seriously blasts the owners for undermining the manager yet again. I think this is where Gerrard steps up and tells the owners to shut up (using those actual words would really do the trick) A strongly worded press release showing solidarity between the players and the manager is all that is needed.

Is it just me or is it about time we won the CL again? ...........I'm just sayin

Our entire attack was nullified for almost the entire game. We had the ball a lot and defended well enough for most of the game but we couldnt carve a way through them at all. I hope Aquilani can offer us a bit of a cutting edge.

As sensational as it is, it's probably not a million miles off.

Stop it ffs. Most of the team were poor today.. Chelsea are a tough team to play at stamford bridge but 2-0 was unfair to us I think. we lacked any cutting edge and that changed when Benayoun came on. Big mistake by Rafa to not play him but he'll surely have learned by now that benayoun is one of our best players? anyway don;t get all panicky people, we've a great team who will murder all around them when they kick into gear.

1 Skrtel by a mile (delighted to see the others agree, think he hada great game) 2 Benayoun (if he'd played longer then he'd have made more of an impact) 3 Johnson.

I think we have as good a chance at the league as we've ever had... The next month will tell a lot though... we'll need some luck (people underestimate the luck factor).. We need to kick into a higher gear against the real teams now and it looks like we're approaching it after a poor start. Defensively we have to improve ... even though we've only let in one from open play , we were lucky it wasnt more and also the while set piece thing will be a bloody nightmare against both utd and chelsea... only thing is... we now pack more of a punch going forward than any other team in england. Only team better on the attack than us now is Barca in my view. Real may prove to be great too but they've got to prove it over time..

I'm delighted for Lucas as he has showed nothing but good manners and a positive attitude from day one... as for Babel, well it's good to see him putting in more effort on the pitch and good luck to his efforts. Most importantly though, let Lucas's development continue... it seems that Mascherano may still want that Barca move and like Alonso, if he doesn't want to play here then let Lucas be the one to point him to the door ;P Having asid that.... I hope this Mascherano story is blown out of proportion by the papers... He had a great attitude when he joined us... I was rather shocked to hear that he wanted to leave after all that Rafa and liverpool did for him... I mean , let's be honest... there have been times when he wasnt exactly setting the world alight...

we lost 2 timea and didnt win the league.... the team that does better than that does not have a poor season by any stech of imagination.

he's a b****x but i think that Hicks and Gillet, although only in it for the money clearly (and entitled to be so) are trying to make things better.. they have both sold other businesses in order to solidify their financial status, so they do at least see more potential in us, which cant be a bad thing once we start to see more money coming in... it'll take time lads. until then I think we'd be better off focusing our efforts at the positives rather than giving sky something to gran on to. You know the second there is another murmur of off the field issues, sky will jump on it and things will just get worse. Just to be clear.. I'm not happy about the situation either but things could be worse! We've a great manager and a great team if you ask me. Let's focus on that.

They should certainly give him a few penos then. At least in agmes where we have already won... Let's give him the chance to make history. it'll be great for the spirit of our team and fans and also it'd give sky something positive to say about us.

by making less seats available (corporate boxes are far more valuable), the seats will then be desired more so I wouldnt at all be suprised to see them raise the ticket prices then... 8% sounds a bit high though. this is all part of the Americans way of paying for the club which isn't really fair on the fans but if i were to take some kind of positive from this, it may mean that Rafa will get money to spend as a resault of this kind of venture plus the new sponsership deal. whatever about the first subject, you have to hand it to them for getting in a new sponser... As nice as Carlsberg looks on our shirts, we're now going to be getting almost 3 times more per year... Now i had always wondered over the years why we seemed to be lagging heavily behind the other top teams when it came to shirt sponser revenue... Now I don't. by this time next year the global recession will be under control (I hope) and we will have a much stronger financial ground to base another loan (yes sorry but its true) for the new stadium.

Well done Insua. Let's hope he gets a few minutes of pitch time. Argentina are going through a bad phase at the moment so you never know, Maradonna might be looking to make some serious changes. Delighted for the lad.

jesus christ, what's wrong with these people? that's f***ing sick.

The Fiorentina game should be good. only 2400 seats allocated to us? the travelling fans are great though and Im sure they'll let themselves be heard regardless of being massively out numbered. I'm not sure about fitness but a few players to watch on their side are Pazzini (so I hear, havent seen him in ages myself), Montolivo (decent attacking midfielder type) and maybe Vargas (battling winger/wing back). the Italian league might not be what it was but they do certainly have players who could cause us problems... if we can beat them away though, we'd really be pissing it away to not go on to qualify then. for me, this is the most important match in our group.

I myself am quietly looking forward to Aquilani but i do think he should be brought in as slowly as possible. I tihnk that Gerrard, Johnson, Kuyt and benayoun have stepped up to the plate when it comes to the creativity that we thoguht we would miss with Alonso leaving. Add to that the improvement of Lucas and the change in style of play from Mascherano(which for me is far from complete and I'll be keeping an keen eye on this)... I think we're in pretty good shape really. We need to stop letting in goals from set pieces but then having said that, we havent let ina single goal from open play in the league yet ... so, I think the future is bright for us and I wouldnt write us off for the league yet at all.

There is an interesting thing developing with the role that johnson plays. For one he is finally getting his game regularily at a top club with players of quality all around him... But on the right side of midfield, it often looks like we have 2 wingers... and for me Johnson is far more dangerous cause he really can storm forward.. The key to his sucess in attacking for me is that he can fly past defenders on the outside and then belt in a lovely cross, or he's equally good at cutting inside and taking a long shot with his other foot.. If you watch, defenders don't know how to deal with him. they back off and hope for the best. Now, the point I was getting at is that, this kind of player who comes from so deep is practically impossible to defend against. You can't keep a man on such a dynamic a wing back surely? well without leaving a gap in midfield... Look, maybe I'm wrong cause it's only been a few games but I really do think that the addition of Johnson will cause problems to other teams all over the pitch. If you have to soemhow shut down the other teams defence who are coming at you then you're going to leave spaces for the others to take advantage of. Defensively this may cause problems against the better teams but we will have to see i guess.

lay off the drugs benzo.

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Would be nice to see us sign someone big but I've a horrible efeeling that at least half of the Alonso money will never be seen again. I think we can count ourselves possibly lucky that Rafa is in complete control over transfers now... maybe in future he should consider dealing in player plus cash deals... the few he has done before, he's made a profit from later on.

In general Benayoun deserves his place in the team.

yet again I point back to when I was called all sorts of names for saying that the americans may attempt to asset strip. They've sold Alonso and are no refusing to give rafa the money he thought he'd have for transfers. Thanks for being c**** lads but yet again ive been proved right here so you can suck my balls I guess.

Agreed. How Yossi is not a starter every time is a joke. He's been mocked by everyone but last season he showed his class and its a disgrace that he wasnt started yesterday. he has the heart and the ability to carve his way through defences.