It's coming true

[BobbyJ1956]

The brighter future isn't far away. The quality of the football at times against Poznan was wonderful to watch. With Carlos playing so well, Silva showing how fine he's going to be, and players who haven't been fit coming back so Mancini can field the team he's been building in his head, it takes the breath away. I've waited decades to see this kind of thing again. There was a moment after Adebayor's third goal when the tv cameras went onto the City supporters in the stands and picked out a laughing twenty-something blonde lass, perfect teeth and altogether lovely. Even the women at City now are beautiful. What a time to be sky blue. Bless you, City, and thank you Sheikh Mansour.

[DoomMerchant]

Don't worry...if Cesc carves our belly open and shows us the black stuff inside on Sunday things will be back to normal.

Do i need to add a wink? Yes i do. But i won't.

cheers

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Don't worry...if Cesc carves our belly open and shows us the black stuff inside on Sunday things will be back to normal.

Do i need to add a wink? Yes i do. But i won't.

cheers

actually, I think I could stomach loss against Arsenal. Things are going better than I imagined at this stage. I think last night was an insight into what we are going to see in the future. It's all coming together now.

[s1ty m]

just keep winning. aside from dominated the snot out of chelsea and scouse 1, it has been patchy; some magic, some ordinary.

yet we sit 2nd, the chance to go 6 clear of the arse (which they will never close). with mario coming back, loarov, etc, things are looking awesome.

so, yeah, wow!

[Ted Hughes]

Don't worry...if Cesc carves our belly open and shows us the black stuff inside on Sunday things will be back to normal.

Do i need to add a wink? Yes i do. But i won't.

cheers

actually, I think I could stomach loss against Arsenal. Things are going better than I imagined at this stage. I think last night was an insight into what we are going to see in the future. It's all coming together now.

Against lesser sides, we should be able to play, at home, with that kind of attacking verve every time from now on, especially with Balotelli coming in. I think though, we need to be careful of making too many changes to the style & personnel in one go especially away from home, as it undermines the work done on the defensive side & makes us look dodgy at the back.

A return to the more 'boring' formation will suit me for the Arsenal game in any case. Hit them on the break & at set pieces.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

No Ted No.
I want Ade, Tevez, Silva and at least one other attacking player starting on Sunday. We can still blow the Arse away.

[john@staustell]

I'm with Ted. Piccs you're getting all nostalgic again! The key thing with Arsenal is to just choke them, stop them playing, block the middle of the park. Let them have the ball and paint pretty pictures, but get nowhere. Then the forward play will take care of itself. If we play too open they will pick us off.

[Ted Hughes]

I'd like to think we can just go out & batter Arsenal but I recon our big chance to do that was at the Emirates last season when they were playing like shite & we played for a point.

I don't think we're quite ready to do that yet against a confident, on form, Arsenal side but I recon if we keep it tight & pick them off, we could end up playing like that anyway; by getting a couple of goals in front & THEN battering them.

[CitizenYank]

I think it will come true the first time we touch silver!!

[david yearsley]

I think it will come true the first time we touch silver!!

Agree - it will be such a huge relief after touching cloth all these years :0

[Ted Hughes]

I think it will come true the first time we touch silver!!

Agree - it will be such a huge relief after touching cloth all these years :0

You're not wrong.

It will transform the club when we get that monkey off our backs. The gates will increase a fair bit too.

[getdressedmctavish]

Well its a dilemna. One thing for sure, Arse will keep the ball and cover space 30 times better than the Poles. I personally have the feeling we may have used up all our luck against them in the last two seasons. However, I'm starting to be impressed with the power of this team. We may brush them aside. I wouldn't normally consider Ade but the Gooners will do a better job of winding him up than Mancini could do. As long as lescott doesn't play. They will shred him, ditto Bridge.

[brite blu sky]

In relation to how to deal with Arsenal ive got a couple of points. One is nothing to do with Arsenal and it is that we are still finding our way in how to stitch the midfield ball control and domination to the attack. So Ted i think has a point that we should tread with care that we build that rather than just try to grab it now. Building it will pay off in the longer term imo.

Second is specific to the Arse.. and it is about winding them up. Just like Chelsea they get knarked when they cant do what they want, cos they are a bunch of mardy clunts. So the way to beat them is concentrate for as long as it takes to get them frustrated, once that has occured it is pretty much set in and they make mistakes and try stuff they dont normally try and it all goes to pot.
Nail them with a goal at that point and they start to look at each other rather than concentrate on the football.

[Mike J]

NDJ will nedd to marshall the fuck out of fabregas, he is an immense player!

should be a good game though, i think we will nick it.

[Crossie]

Some of the play last night when we WEREN'T in possession was fucking brilliant, cutting off all the passing options for the man on the ball, several times caused panic and the Poznan player just wilted and gave us the ball back, we then had men fwd and options all over.

The thing that really impressed me was the team work all over the pitch, and David Silva, WHAT a player, we need a legendary song sorting out to show out love for him already.

[getdressedmctavish]

NDJ will nedd to marshall the fuck out of fabregas, he is an immense player!

should be a good game though, i think we will nick it.

how do you "marshall the fuck" out of someone? You mean kick him, I suppose lol

[colonel_muck]

can i just point out we were playing far better football this time last year and we were all saying the same things about 'its happening now' that said i was well impressed last night but really where would that team rank in the english league?

[john68]

can i just point out we were playing far better football this time last year and we were all saying the same things about 'its happening now' that said i was well impressed last night but really where would that team rank in the english league?

Consider that last night...no Boateng, no Kolarov, no Kolo, no Milner, no Barry, no Yaya (for most of the game), no Tevez, no Kompany...Our reserve team against the Polish Champions...We were never in that sort of position last season.

[Kladze]

There's no doubt at all that you have to take the quality of last night's opposition into account (while bearing in mind that they did hold Juventus at the San Siro).
But we also played a supposedly weakened team last night and, for the most part, 'strolled it'.

What really impressed me however, was the degree of fluency in our game - players in possession always had multiple options available to them - and that, for me, is what has been missing so far this season.

[Beefymcfc]

I'd like to think we can just go out & batter Arsenal but I recon our big chance to do that was at the Emirates last season when they were playing like shite & we played for a point.

I don't think we're quite ready to do that yet against a confident, on form, Arsenal side but I recon if we keep it tight & pick them off, we could end up playing like that anyway; by getting a couple of goals in front & THEN battering them.

I wouldn't say they are on form in the Prem mate as they've only won one of there last 4 and 2 defeats; 1 against Brom. But like you say, they are a quality team who deserve respect and I see their weakness' are in their physicality and poor defensive partnerships, that's where we should be focusing.