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There are some tough games coming up for various reasons, a couple of key ones at home though which may help a little.

Blackpool A - playing well, bit of an unknown quantity but we should be stronger than them. Kolarov could be back. Ade to start?
Lech Poznan H - Europa dark horses ? We will need to rest some players somehow but get a win. Ugly?
Arsenal H - Balotelli might be able to play a part, Ade should be up to speed.. We should at least be up for this.

Next up are 3 tricky away games.. these are really important for us to try and get going in. Kolarov and Balotelli could be back in the side and we could be at our strongest since the start of the season. These 3 take us to the Derby and are all away games so in some ways they give us a difficult challenge to try and get it together before the rags visit. All 3 are well difficult imo.
Wolves A -
Lech Poznan A - If we win the home tie we could sit back a bit in this and try and hit them on the break.
West Brom A - I hope we are getting it together under Bob's preferred system by this game.

The Poznan tie is the key to our group, win that and you also fancy us to beat Salzburg at home which would give us 10 pts and see us through. Make a town halls of the Poznan game and we then need to get something away again, a situation we dont want to be in.

Yeah and the Poznan home game is only a few days before Arse.. so even though it is super important Bob will have to make some changes. We could be a bit stretched depending who is back and who is out.

Cant see Mancini compromising on the Arse game though.

The focus has to be on the Arsenal match.

Well the focus might have to be on both at the same time.. ish. As Goaters suggests nailing Poznan in the home game makes the whole group a lot easier and that wont be lost on Bob or the players. Arsenal no doubt will get a full strength team to deal with for sure, but there might be a bit of juggling going on when it comes round.

I hope Balotelli is fit enough to play a part v the Arse.

However boring it sounds the focus should only be on the next match. Where we are and especially where we want to be every match is a tough game and one we need to win.That's the mentality I hope we have. The games we have had already this season show just how tough every game is.

I'd settle for..

Blackpool A - Win
Lech Poznan H - Draw (compromise squad for next game)
Arsenal H - Draw
Wolves A - Win
Lech Poznan A - Win (all guns)
West Brom A - Draw (Toughy this and I'd settle for a draw. However I would expect the team to be playing better by this time and Balottli could be back).

Get through the Europa and 8 out of 12 points in the league is ok.

Want a win v Arsenal. We have it well within ourselves to beat that lot and they know it. We have to start performing after euro games if we really want to challenge.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:However boring it sounds the focus should only be on the next match. Where we are and especially where we want to be every match is a tough game and one we need to win.That's the mentality I hope we have. The games we have had already this season show just how tough every game is.

Im all for the next game mentality.. but i doubt very much that Bobby will take any chances against Arsenal. There are 4 full days between Blackpool and Poznan, but only just 3 then to Arsenal. Ultimately we will be going to try and win all 3 games, even with that in mind you can see Mancini making as sure as possible he has who he wants for that game as rested and fit as possible.

As i say i hope that we have a few more options by then as it would make a bit of difference.

All games are tough games and sometimes it is good to look at the run coming up. We are essentially a work in progress and imo the 3 away games will before the Derby will give us a stern test going into it and essentially will be good for building the team.

If the injured players like Boateng, Kolarov, Bridge, SWP, Micah and Balotelli return then we may have the numbers to field 2 strong teams. Hope Yaya Toure is OK as well

We couldn't do this for WBA and Chelsea

Blackpool A - Win
Lech Poznan H - Win
Arsenal H - Win(Line it up, need this one above all else)
Wolves A - Win
Lech Poznan A - Draw
West Brom A - Draw

West Brom away is a harder fixture than it seems on paper, they have a good recent record against us as well. Didn't they beat us once without having a single shot on goal?

Slim wrote:Blackpool A - Win
Lech Poznan H - Win
Arsenal H - Win(Line it up, need this one above all else)
Wolves A - Win
Lech Poznan A - Draw
West Brom A - Draw

West Brom away is a harder fixture than it seems on paper, they have a good recent record against us as well. Didn't they beat us once without having a single shot on goal?

I no boro did that one year nit sure about west brom

Lees Alter Ego wrote:

Slim wrote:Blackpool A - Win
Lech Poznan H - Win
Arsenal H - Win(Line it up, need this one above all else)
Wolves A - Win
Lech Poznan A - Draw
West Brom A - Draw

West Brom away is a harder fixture than it seems on paper, they have a good recent record against us as well. Didn't they beat us once without having a single shot on goal?

I no boro did that one year nit sure about west brom

Maybe it was boro, the goal was a Richard Dunne shin from outside the area, IIRC which isn't usually the case.

Key for me would be to be ahead of utd on the table before we clash:-) Agree that WB away is gonna be tough, Wolves I think we'll manage well (not that different from how they were last season are they?), EL games will end up as they do, I prefer Mancini resting guys but our 2nd string team should be able to win enough points for a qualification.

Come on City!