We go again following…

…a preposterous 3-week international break so early on in the season.

v Liverpool

Anfield

With Erling Haaland confirmed as fit after a little scare during the break in domestic football and no mention of slight injury doubts to Nico O’Reilly and Antoine Semenyo; I’m going for “everyone fit” and just one suspension in my predicted line-up this afternoon…

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 11/11.

A fluid 4-2-3-1 / / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:

_____________________Haaland(VC)__________________

 

 

__Semenyo_______________________________Ndiaye__

 

______________________Cherki_____________________

__________Fernandez____________Anderson_________

 

Gvardiol____________________________________Nunes

___________Guehi(VC)_______________Dias(C)__________

 

 

___________________Donnarumma(VC)________________

Subs: Rulli, Ait-Nouri, Lewis, O’Reilly, Khusanov, Bouaddi, Kovacic, Doku and Elias.

Gianluigi in goal.

A back-4 of Josko, Marc, Ruben and Matheus.

Fernandez and Elliot possibly as a ‘twin pivot’ for this match, with Rayan-C- being given far more free-attacking licence further forward in midfield as well as the final third.

Antoine and Iliman either side of Erling up front.

Geronimo is reserve keeper; Rayan-A-, Rico, Nico and Abdukodir make up four defensive replacement options from the bench. Reserve midfielders and wingers come in the shape of Ayyoub, Mateo, Jeremy and Allan.

Notable absences:

-       Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

-       Vitor Reis – Not selected.

-       Phil Foden – Suspended for one more match.

Do I agree with Enzo’s (predicted) line-up?

Yep.

Result?

We go into this game against an undefeated side in all competitions but a team who have only won 2 of their opening 5 league matches so far under their new manager. They’ve surprised me a little how underwhelming they’ve started the season…but I’m guessing Liverpool fans aren’t quite so surprised; not after watching their summer transfer window activities closer than I did. They appeared to be largely disappointed.

Still, this is an away fixture…and this is Anfield.

We’re in fantastic form but this is the first test to see IF the charges against us are going to have any baring on our players. I strongly suspect - and expect - our manager will try to shield his players as much as possible whilst they’re at their place of employment. However, there’s only so much Enzo can do amid a world population that is so consumed by social media. 🤞

I’m putting this game down as a draw.

My advice, for what it’s worth…

Players: Expect a…“warm” welcome as your coach approaches the ground on Sunday and, of course, expect to be booed by more than three quarters of the ground every time you touch the ball. Expect that all season, in fact. As for today, try to block all of that out and concentrate, instead, on getting us another win, which would be our 8^th victory ‘on the spin’.

City fans: Expect the all-too-obvious songs and chants which are sure to come your way on Sunday afternoon / evening…and moving forward.

Respond vocally, of course, but focus mainly on supporting our lads on the pitch the best way you possibly can. Be loud and proud.

To both the players and fans: Wear the Manchester City badge with pride – a crest which has existed way before any of our current owners / board members were even born.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Lose

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game, which was my 999^th piece)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Milder, much calmer and a lot dryer than yesterday. 14C isn't too bad either but will perhaps feel a little chilly if shaded under the stands from the occasional sunny interval. Still, it’s dry, and there’s hardly a breeze to speak of. 🥧🍵🍺⚽

🎶“There may be trouble ahead…”🎶

…but while there’s flack coming our way from the stands, the various social media sites and the media itself AND while we’re yet to even find out the result of our appeal; let’s face the music, sing our blue-hearts out and dance.

‘There remain many who want to undermine the momentum of our Club. We will not give them that opportunity’ - Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak – 26^th September 2026

Solidarity

 

City kits – Opinion

As I do most seasons, here’s an opinion piece on how our lads & girls will look in the coming season; whether you’re bothered about the subject matter or not.

Hey, why not I say?

As is often the case with this blog posting, the release date does appear quite late following the release dates of the various kits.

However, not only do I choose to wait until all-3 kits are released but other, more important and often long pieces take priority at this time of year, such as last season’s player ratings, last season’s predictions results; this season’s predictions as well as pre-match blog postings for the start of our season.

Opinion varies…

Some fans simply can’t WAIT for the new gear to come out; some even just buy it regardless of what the kits look like and often get a shirt within minutes of the official first day of sale.

Others wait & see what they look like and make decisions accordingly…while some fans just couldn’t care less – for them it’s more about who wears the kit rather than what it looks like and that’s fair enough too.

Over the years, particularly in my younger days, I have bought loads of tops. So many, in fact, that I once donated a dozen or more old tops to one of City’s overseas charities. However, even then I only ever mostly bought one when I felt that it represented our club / traditions and / or was significantly different, design wise, from the previous one. There were periods in the 90s & 00s where the club appeared to get a bit lazy to me and produced home tops / kits with very little change from the previous season.

That’s where I most-definitely stand now – they have to ‘look Manchester City’ for me…although I buy far, FAR less than I use to regardless of their appearance, I have to say; with price being the main ‘driving factor’. Absolutely crazy prices!

The home kit

Love it. Love the fade-to-white design and the shade of sky blue. Nice simple collar and the white cuffs and sides are good.

It loses a little for me in that it doesn’t have our full-colour badge on; choosing, as they have done instead, a white / metallic-looking badge which is ‘the fashion’ in a lot of our kits these days [to align the badge colour with the kit colour choice].

However, other than that it’s a really good shirt in my opinion.

Nothing wrong here and matches the top well.

I know there are City fans who say it should always be sky blue socks in our home kits. Those who know me might recall that I don’t personally like us in navy blue socks…and that navy blue generally should, for me at least, not be anywhere near our kits; despite there being a history of navy blue socks for the first 57 years of our Manchester City Football Club history from 1894.

However, and for whatever reason, I’m absolutely fine with all-white socks as part of the occasional City home kit and with this one in particular, I think it completes it perfectly.

Altogether, I think it’s a really clean and smart-looking kit.

Marks out of 5? The club’s rating system whenever they decide to send out fan surveys? 4.75/5 - loosing just 0.25 for the badge thing.

The away kit

Here’s what I said exactly 12-months ago during this same blog posting last season about our then-new black away kit:

I don’t usually like us havin’ an all-black (or all-navy) away or third kit – I often think of ‘em as a lazy, ‘Here ya go - it’s got a City badge on it what more d-ya want?’ type of kit.

I went on to say, however, that I liked last season’s away kit; particularly the metallic features on it. It looked classy.

And, for similar reasons, I really like this one too and what wins me over, aside from the fact that it’s another smart one and isn’t garish, is the Manchester bee design. I’m all for kits representing the football club itself but the ‘bee thing’ just does it for me – a great link to our great City. The mainly black top is finished nicely with pastel yellow trimming.

Shorts: Plain, simple with just a small amount of the same tone of yellow.

Socks: Same colour of yellow with a black hoop design (three of ‘em). I do like a hoopy sock design. 👍🐝

Again, they’ve messed with the badge and made it all yellow.

Marks out of 5? 4.75/5.

The 3^rd-choice kit

Smart – I like it. Similar to a City kit from a number of seasons ago with a comparable colour / style stripe; this time down the middle instead of down one side. As a bonus, they’ve not fecked around with the badge on this shirt either! 😊👍

Yep, suits the top perfectly well.

I like ‘em.

Marks out of 5? For not messing around with the badge and with nothing negative to say about this whole kit from my perspective, this gets a full 5/5.

That’s makes this season’s scoring a most excellent, 14.5/15!

Thanks as always for taking the time to read.

Sunderland – “…will be the toughest game…

…since the start of the season". Our manager’s words in the pre-match press conference. I can’t disagree.

They continue to be a very organised and tough side; just as they were last season. They’ve also just registered their first European win after 53 years away.

Game on indeed!

Firstly, a quick look back…

…at last Thursday night.

For my records and end-of-season player rating piece, I don’t score players against non-Premier League or European teams. On this occasion, I sort of regret that policy slightly because I witnessed SO many excellent performances right throughout the team against Championship side, Norwich City, in the 3^rd Round of the League Cup.

I’m tempted to mention names but to be absolutely honest, there weren’t many at all who didn’t impress me a lot against side who started the game with some real gusto and as we then started to assert ourselves; threw up two yellow and green walls.

Fantastic performance - 👏👏👏👏👏…

v Sunderland

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11.

A fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-2-3-1 / / 4-3-3:

_____________________Haaland(VC)__________________

 

 

__Semenyo_______________________________Ndiaye__

 

_________________________________Cherki__________

__________Fernandez______________________________

_____________________Anderson___________________

Gvardiol____________________________________Nunes

___________Guehi(VC)_______________Dias(C)__________

 

 

___________________Donnarumma(VC)________________

Subs: Rulli, Ait-Nouri, O’Reilly, Khusanov, Reis, Bouaddi, Kovacic, Doku and Elias.

Gianluigi returns in goal for this league encounter.

A back-4 of Josko, Marc, Ruben and Matheus.

Elliot is our deepest midfielder, Enzo ahead of him and Rayan-C- furthest forward in the middle of the park.

Antoine and Iliman either side of those with Erling up front.

Geronimo returns to the bench after his cup clean sheet in midweek; Rayan-A-, Nico, Abdukodir and the calm, composed Vitor provide defensive cover from the bench. Speaking of calm and composed, Ayyoub is joined by Mateo, Jeremy and Allan as midfielders and wingers in ‘the 9’.

Notable absences:

-       Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

-       Rico Lewis – Not selected.

-       Phil Foden – Suspended for another 2 matches.

Do I agree with Enzo’s (predicted) line-up?

Yep.

Result?

A bit of a weird fact for you:

Of the top-10 sides in last season’s end table, only Sunderland (7^th) had a minus goal difference (-6). They somehow, very professionally I’m keen to add, manage to consistently work their socks off and grind out results. Purely from memory, they were getting a fair ol’ number of 1-0 and 2-1 wins; plus a good number of draws in the first third of last season.

I think what happened then was the loss of so many players around winter time, due to the African Cup of Nations, and that threw ‘em off track. All of a sudden, a one-goal win or a draw turned into 2-0 and 3-0 defeats for a time; hence the minus goal difference. With the help of a strong finish, they made it into Europe and gained a lot of plaudits along the way.

I agree with our manager – I think we’re facing that same resilient side this afternoon. 💪

What more can I say about us other than 6 wins from 6 in 3 different competitions; 15 goals scored, just 2 against and 4-consecutive clean sheets in our last 4 outings.

Going off everything I’ve just said about both teams, this should be a fascinating contest. 😃

I’m going for a narrow City win.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Draw

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Very pleasant. Not exactly The Bahamas but I don’t think you’ll hear too many fans complaining a 16C with part-sunny skies. A slight westerly breeze but that’s about it. And for those of you who live locally, next week is more than decent too; with temperatures possibly reaching 21C at times, which is 70F in old pennies. ⛅😎🍺⚽

A ‘must mention’

Well done to our women’s team who played a vital game in the WSL on Friday night and came out of it 4-2 winners against title challengers, Liverpool.

What an end to the game which, going into the 90^th minute, was standing at 2-2. In the 90^th minute a forced own goal and then a 95^th minute breakaway strike saw us take all-3 points. I watched the highlights and it was a very good game with some terrific goals.

I said that it was a vital game - that result sees us now 3 wins from 3 league games played and, crucially, 5 points clear of last night’s opponents. 👍

That’s it now until 4:30pm on Sunday 11^th October! 😮 All thanks to an extended (3-week) international break.

Oh…great. 😒

Put another way, the next ball we kick in anger will be just 10.7 weeks before Christmas Day. 🤬

Solidarity