From the Sunday Express. Some decent points but delivered in a way which clearly shows their hatred for City.
Feel the hatred within the text:
Anything other than victory at home against Roma on Tuesday night will leave England's richest club once again facing early elimination from the Champions League and their greatest ambition crushed.
Forget the recent draws against Arsenal and Chelsea for the team of talents bankrolled by oil baron Sheikh Mansour. Such results are par for the course at the elite level of the Premier League and easily digested through the noisy banquet of a 38-match season.
Failure for Man City at home in the Champions League against strong rivals, especially following the narrow defeat away to Bayern Munich, would be a catastrophe from which there is little prospect of escape.
Dining on the scraps of the Europa League is not why the Sheikh has spent £1.2billion in the last six years. It is a dish that leaves him stone cold.
City's admirable captain Vincent Kompany, by some margin the most influential player in the Premier League, revealed this a few days ago and said he accepts the burden of expectation.
Can his team-mates? It is the billion-dollar question for Joe Hart, Yaya Toure, David Silva and company.
It is the billion-dollar question for a squad with an average age of 28.9 years - for a set of players for whom collectively this is likely to be the last chance.
It is the billion-dollar question for manager Manuel Pellegrini, whose usually sanguine demeanour becomes cruelly frayed when the tension mounts.
For 99 per cent of the time Pellegrini deflects loaded questions about refereeing decisions with a reply that he never comments about officials. He is the epitome of cool, and of how a wise and experienced boss should conduct himself.
At the crunch moments, though, he cannot maintain his calm. The Chilean was banned by UEFA last season when he rapped the Swedish referee as City were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona in the second round.
Earlier this month he shamelessly slated ref Mark Clattenburg after the 2-2 draw with Arsenal. To a growing portion of Manchester City fans he then resembles nothing so much as Arsene Wenger with his moaning - and it is not a comparison they believe is favourable.
Tuesday night at the Etihad will be fraught with tension, the mood a mixture of high hope and extreme fear. The visitors are not one of the mighty clubs like Bayern and Barca who have destroyed City's dreams in the past few seasons.
No, AS Roma are another similar club to themselves of rekindled ambition, the kind that City must dispose of to be considered credible European challengers.
Cole's arrival from Chelsea is an indication of their growing strength under the dynamic leadership of French manager Rudi Garcia. Roma had a 100 per cent record from their opening four matches in the Italian Serie A and thrashed CSKA Moscow 5-1 in their first game of the Champions League.
They have a fortress defence, assisted by Cole's veteran nous on the ramparts. They have an inspirational dressing room leader in Francesco Totti, whether or not he starts matches, and two brilliant midfielders in Daniele De Rossi and Miralem Pjanic.
So, what we have in prospect is the game of the season so far in English football, the night our champions simply must perform.
City have without doubt earned the right to be considered the current No.1 club with two League titles in three seasons and two Cup triumphs.
Yet their growing domestic dominance has coincided with a marked decline in the performance of English clubs in Europe, a trend the opening round of group stage matches in the Champions League only appeared to confirm.
Arsenal were thrashed on a trip to Borussia Dortmund while Chelsea could only draw at home to Schalke 04. Liverpool were fortunate to overcome the minnows of Ludogorets.
This week of fresh games has begun with the Arsenal boss Wenger boldly banging the drum on behalf of England's elite clubs, boasting: "We have all the best attacking players here in the Premier League."
He must know this is tosh. It is an offence against all reason. The list of those elsewhere contains Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Mario Gotze, Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski to name but nine who would walk into any Premier League team.
None of them plays in Serie A, yet the Italian clubs are also beginning to revitalise, as Roma are eager to illustrate with some fireworks against Manchester City on Tuesday evening. It will not be a night for the faint-hearted.
