Tino's World

Blue Sunday

“Are you a Manchester United fan?”

This irritating question has been asked of me any number of times, either by those unfamiliar with any other EPL teams, much less the “other” Manchester, or friends looking to get a rise out of me. It works, of course. But it doesn’t fully explain why I ran through my house screaming like a lunatic when Sergio Aguero worked past four defenders, took a perfectly weighted return pass from a fallen Mario Balotelli, swung his right leg through the ball and ended 44 years of frustration for City.

Just going to keep looking at this while pretending I didn’t spend my night watching the Giants game. That’s healthy, right?

# we suck more apparently

Have to say, Ryan Babel posting this photoshopped image of referee Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt has to be Liverpool’s highlight of the season thus far.

There isn’t much to say about today’s match other than that City ran rampant over an awful looking Villa side. They’ve responded well since losing at home to Everton and, after United blowing a victory in the closing minutes at Birmingham, picked up two points today on the leaders. Balotelli had a hat trick and David Silva, who’s becoming a huge force in the EPL, absolutely shredded Villa, and all of it with Tevez sitting out. A good day, all told.

You know who I don’t give enough props to in this space? Vincent Kompany. This guy is quietly one of the best centre backs in the EPL and probably the world. He’s been an absolute beast since he’s arrived at City and he saved a goal against Bolton this weekend when Joe Hart couldn’t hang onto the ball. He, Nigel De Jong and Kolo Toure have been the backbone of the team all season.

Looking at the past few results, it’s hard not to be excited about City only a few weeks after everyone was talking about sacking Mancini. They could have and should have scored far more against Bolton but controlled the game and even held on after Aleksandar Kolarov (another guy I’m enjoying watching) got a dubious second yellow card. Goalscoring has been an issue but with Mario Balotelli and his insane talents rounding into form and Carlos Tevez being Carlos Tevez, things are looking up there also.

With all that going for them, and despite some of their early season hiccups, Manchester City is only three points behind Arsenal, two behind United (who play Arsenal next week) and one behind Chelsea. The race is on.