Keep the faith we WILL get 9 points.

[Uber Blues]

I think the players will come back stronger than ever from this result. The fact is we lost in the last 20 seconds, we were nothing like thumped. We are much much closer to united now, they know it, we know it and so do the media.
No reason why we cant take at least a point at Arse and more likely 3. We must, and i think will, beat villa and spuds at home. I predict a finish for City of 72 points. Even if we lose at Arse (we wont) we can give it a right go at wet spam, who lets face it will be either safe and on the beach, or crapping it going into the last game.
Faith in these last games will see us through..next season is when we get even!!!!!!!!

 

[PSmyth07]

Pride in Battle and all that shit.

I bet this is a first, City fans wanting Utd to win and Spurs fans wanting Arsenal to win.

 

[ancoats]

I think the players will come back stronger than ever from this result. The fact is we lost in the last 20 seconds, we were nothing like thumped. We are much much closer to united now, they know it, we know it and so do the media.
No reason why we cant take at least a point at Arse and more likely 3. We must, and i think will, beat villa and spuds at home. I predict a finish for City of 72 points. Even if we lose at Arse (we wont) we can give it a right go at wet spam, who lets face it will be either safe and on the beach, or crapping it going into the last game.
Faith in these last games will see us through..next season is when we get even!!!!!!!!

what about if spurs win all there games and draw v us
we lost 4th spot now and will not get it back 5th place is ours and a uefa spot
even if scholes did not score we still would have been 5th this morning

spurs are better than us i hate to say that
but when you play at home you should never give the away team the ball and just sit back

 

[vinny123]

i am reflecting in the cold light of day, that if you had offered any city fan at the start of this season ,
1. a top six place
2. europa league next season.
3 a cup semi final.
4 youg players in their prime signing for this club and therfore able to give there best years to us ie AJ and if the papers are to be believed boetang from hamburg

then 99 % would have ripped your arm off, so why despair, we have made massive progress.

if we knick 4th and get champs league, we might draw a top club and fail to qualify for group stage, europe adventure over with a wimper

finnish 5th we are seeded for europa league gaurenteed at least 6 games and could reach knock out stage

vital experience for squad, still able to offer eurpoean footie to prospective signings and high profile nights for club

so hey remember where we have come from and lets get real, 5th will be awesome and next season we will kick on and top 3 is a reality

the future is city and that is what scares sky, bacon face and everyone else

one more season wont hurt, hey weve been waiting since 1970 so come on lets get siging the blues

CTID

 

[Uber Blues]

I think the players will come back stronger than ever from this result. The fact is we lost in the last 20 seconds, we were nothing like thumped. We are much much closer to united now, they know it, we know it and so do the media.
No reason why we cant take at least a point at Arse and more likely 3. We must, and i think will, beat villa and spuds at home. I predict a finish for City of 72 points. Even if we lose at Arse (we wont) we can give it a right go at wet spam, who lets face it will be either safe and on the beach, or crapping it going into the last game.
Faith in these last games will see us through..next season is when we get even!!!!!!!!

what about if spurs win all there games and draw v us
we lost 4th spot now and will not get it back 5th place is ours and a uefa spot
even if scholes did not score we still would have been 5th this morning

spurs are better than us i hate to say that
but when you play at home you should never give the away team the ball and just sit back

It goes without saying we need to beat spuds and villa at home. I think we can do this though. Spuds have had two high profile adrenalin rush derby games at home, they wont keep that rush i dont think. I f anything they will be pretty flat at o.t. i reckon. Its still in our hands 100% though as we stand now.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

I've done my predictions this morning, trying to be as realistic and unbiased as possible, and have us getting 8 points from our remaining 4 games, with Spurs getting 7. I have us missing out on 4th by 1 point. :(

 

[ancoats]

i am reflecting in the cold light of day, that if you had offered any city fan at the start of this season ,
1. a top six place
2. europa league next season.
3 a cup semi final.
4 youg players in their prime signing for this club and therfore able to give there best years to us ie AJ and if the papers are to be believed boetang from hamburg

then 99 % would have ripped your arm off, so why despair, we have made massive progress.

if we knick 4th and get champs league, we might draw a top club and fail to qualify for group stage, europe adventure over with a wimper

finnish 5th we are seeded for europa league gaurenteed at least 6 games and could reach knock out stage

vital experience for squad, still able to offer eurpoean footie to prospective signings and high profile nights for club

so hey remember where we have come from and lets get real, 5th will be awesome and next season we will kick on and top 3 is a reality

the future is city and that is what scares sky, bacon face and everyone else

one more season wont hurt, hey weve been waiting since 1970 so come on lets get siging the blues

CTID

good shout matey

spurs may get 4th spot this season
but in the long term we are going to be there every season and even win it
a couple of times
unlike spurs who will get knock out of the qualifiers and not even get to the groups

 

[Uber Blues]

I've done my predictions this morning, trying to be as realistic and unbiased as possible, and have us getting 8 points from our remaining 4 games, with Spurs getting 7. I have us missing out on 4th by 1 point. :(

us by that point mate!

 

[masterwig]

Will 9 points be enough? Say we beat Arsenal, Villa and West Ham but don't beat Spurs then it wouldn't be enough.

They are 2 points ahead and would be expected to beat Bolton and Burnley (Bolton should be safe by the time they meet and Burnley will be down by that time so have nothing to play for). That gives us 8 points to make up (plus goal difference). If they get a point against us that leaves us with 8 points to make up. If Spurs get anything against the rags or we don't get 9 points then we're looking at best at doing them on goal difference.

This weekend is key. We really need the rags to beat Spurs and to get at least a point against Arsenal to give us greater control over our destiny.

 

[Uber Blues]

Will 9 points be enough? Say we beat Arsenal, Villa and West Ham but don't beat Spurs then it wouldn't be enough.

They are 2 points ahead and would be expected to beat Bolton and Burnley (Bolton should be safe by the time they meet and Burnley will be down by that time so have nothing to play for). That gives us 8 points to make up (plus goal difference). If they get a point against us that leaves us with 8 points to make up. If Spurs get anything against the rags or we don't get 9 points then we're looking at best at doing them on goal difference.

This weekend is key. We really need the rags to beat Spurs and to get at least a point against Arsenal to give us greater control over our destiny.

As it stands we have that control! we must beat spuds end of. If thats the case and spuds win their other fixtures we finish 4th. Its well do-able!!!!

 

[Bellamy's Caddy]

All we can do is take it one game at a time, I know its a cliche but its true. Spurs recent run of form does make them look the most likely to get fourth but nothing is guaranteed.

Another cliche but every game is now a Cup Final starting at Arsenal, they're coming off the back of two terrible results and with four of their first team out injured we have to go there and look to take advantage. We haven't won at Arsenal since the 70's, they'll be the favourites even with injuries, so lets go there and take the game to them.

When Wigan attacked them they caused them real problems even before they scored their first. Our front four can do the same. We really need to be positive in this game, so we lose? We're not expected to win anyway and I'd rather we went took the game to them and went out with a fight than tried to keep it tight and get sucker punched and lose 1-0. Our strength is in attack, not in containing teams.

 

[simon23]

I hope you are right but again RM showed that against a strong team he sets up too defnsively.....against the likes of burnley our basic attacking style is good enough to break these teams down well.....but against good teams we dont.....

One shot in the whole first half (from a free kick) says it all....our central midfield pair of barry and dejog (who defended exceptionally well) rarely ventured beyond the half way line...neither did either fullback and bellamy spent far too much energy in tracking back

Mancini needs to adapt his tactics and team shape from the very basic 4-4-2 that he constantly uses.

the team selection for the derby was fine (though i would have played swp over jonhson as as good as jonhnson has been, evra is a class apart from anything he has come up against before and he wasnt ready for it....and that was shown)

However he set it up as a back 4 with then 2 cntre mids 5 yds infront of them and with bellers and jonno in similar poitions out wide.....leaving ade and tevez isolated.......what should have happened was tevez dropping into a 5 man midfield (now im dont know if this is what mancini wanted and tevez just didnt do it or what(.......but this left ade and tevez completely isolated....bellamy nor johnson could get up there quick enough to help out....

if it wasnt for the superb kompany,(along witht eh rest of the defense and de jong)... we would have lost by a lot more)

RM against the better teams need to adapt his tactics. Our attacking football isnt good enough to break better teams down.....great against the likes of burnley, birmingham....but we will struggle against the likes of utd, spurs and villa (though on yesterdays villa perfomance they look to be struggling again)

Mancini cannt play the way he wants at present with the players at his disposal.......he needs a box to box midfielder and 2 attacking fullbacks to play the system he wants......none of which we have....therefore against better teams he mush move away from his rigid 4-4-2...its so basic i see more inventive football being played at school boys level....it just goes side to side donw one wing, back inside, the occasional cross which gets nowehere.

We socre goals when the likes of tevez ade bellers create something....not when our midfield do (most of the time anyway)

we are too easy to defend against...uts just doubled up on bellamy and ade and tevez were completely isolated

I know people will again slate me for criticising Mancini over this. I will fully admit he has done an awesome job in terms of the defensive nature oft he tema but he is sevelry lacking in attacking ideas (either he or Brian kidd)

 

[colinbellsboots]

i honestly think we can draw with arsenal, beat villa, beat spuds and beat west sham , arsenals season is over, they have nothing to play for, ade will be well up for it. villa and spuds will be hard matches , but this is like two cup finals at home my moneys on city.
west ham will with a bit of luck be clear of religation and have nothing to gain, they dont like spuds so would rather us than spuds get 4th.
even if im wrong, we can push on from ere win europa league and take off from there its a WIN WIN senario...BLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

 

[Wrighty Wrexham]

Its going to be tight an I would like Liverpool to draw tonight to finally put them to bed and make West Ham abit safer!

Must keep an eye on Villa too though I dont see them doing it!

 

[Bellamy's Caddy]

Simon 23- Thats a really good post, pretty much agree with everything you say. In particular about us having to rethink against the better sides. We're not guaranteed anything out of Arsenal or the Villa match but for argument sake if we are still in the running against Spurs when they come to Eastlands it worries me that we will line up the same way we did against united. Spurs have shown how well organised they are and deserved to beat Arsenal and Chelsea.

I'm intrigued to see how Mancini sets out the team against Arsenal but we have to get Adebayor and Tevez in shooting positions and that just didn't happen in the derby.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Pride in Battle and all that shit.

I bet this is a first, City fans wanting Utd to win and Spurs fans wanting Arsenal to win.

Just to make us smile!

 

[schumey04]

we never react well after a derby defeat

 

[mcfc83]

Spurs are understandably being touted as favourites (and always seem to be flavour of the month with these guys) after their two big wins but I honestly reckon Arsenal are there for the taking, things change every week so we shouldn't be too down after the United defeat. Then it will all come down to the game with Spurs in May. If we back the lads we can win that no problem. Yes the derby defeat hurt, but I reckon the lads will bounce back.

 

[Balti]

3 points and we we will finish 4th imo but a point against Arse could prove absolutely vital too

Will Mancini go one up front and look to contain and hit them on the break?

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

we never react well after a derby defeat

Absolutely true, I still feel sick to the stomach. Next up we face Arsenal who we last beat away from home when I was 16 years old (1975). So another weekend of woe in the offing! Come on City we need cheering up!