The Pride of Manchester!

It's so difficult to describe that it makes it easy! I am of course talking about yesterdays amazing derby! And I mean that it made me so speechless the only way to describe it is "it left me speechless", well not quite, for the first time ever I got to watch a derby with my dad, who supports Manchester City couldn't exactly stay silent could I?

Fortunately for me, my dad agreed, United deserved their victory, or perhaps more they just didn't deserve not to win. Helped by some shoddy City defending yes, but without the shocking mistakes that were at fault for two of City's goals they'd have been well out of it!

Perhaps the point is to look at City after this game more than United! We know what Manchester United are capable of, from Rooney's slick skills and cool finish for goal one, my how he's growing in stature from match to match, we also know that one on one in the box you always want the ball to be at Michael Owen's feet, unless you happen to be Shay Given. But it is City who we learnt most about this weekend.

Hold on City fans your team is about to be complimented! Your players were outstanding, OK the defence might need a kick up the backside, apart from Kolo Toure who looked pretty good other than defending at set pieces. The main thing to look at is the City side of 12 months ago. Would they have lost that match 4-3 with the last kick of the game? No! They would have lost 4 or 5-0, OK they may have got one.

Shay Given was outstanding, if Michael Owen loves playing against him then he's probably given Dimitar Berbatov one or two nightmares, Gareth Barry looks every bit as good as he does for England in his City shirt, Carlos Tevez was at his damn near best and was unlucky not to score himself late in the first half. Of course there was also Craig Bellamy, in the team only because of injuries and suspensions, Mark Hughes nearly ended up grateful for that boot to the face last week, Bellamy was near impossible to play yesterday, helped out slightly by Rio but nevertheless the Welsh strikers performance was over shadowed by only one other- and he really is the Welsh master. I don't know what vintage wine from Wales is like but based on Giggs' performance it must taste bloody good!

Remember aswel City were without two of their superstars, the man who kicked it all off last season Robinho and the man who, according to Sir Alex, is City's best player, Emmanuel Adebayor. How much difference those players would have made on this occasion is debateable but certainly these are players who will make a difference in many matches this season and suddenly City, after two good displays against two of the best in Europe, will have to be taken seriously. Look at another team looking to break into the top four this season, Spurs, they have wilted against both United and Chelsea.

Of course it wasn't all good for City, despite coming along way their defence was still pretty pitiful. I personally thing Wayne Bridge is average at best, and regular readers know my opinion on the overpriced and average Joleon Lescott. Micah Richards had a bad game but if he can get back to the player he once looked like he could be Micah could still find he may have a seat on a plane to South Africa next summer. Another man not covering himself in glory after yesterday was of course Mark Hughes. I can understand his frustration but he must know that the extra two minutes were there for a reason, and not just because they were at Old Trafford and United were looking for a winner. Never mind the fact City also could have used those two minutes to find a winner there's also the fact that "The 4th official has indicated there will be a MINIMUM of four minutes added on time" Nuff said!

As for Sunday League football, well there was none this weekend unfortunately, although that gave us all time to recharge the batteries and watch the derby so no bad thing.

One last note to go with an article that appeared in the Times on Friday! As it said "Birmingham remains the UK’s second city in population alone. In all other respects, next to our kid, it’s bobbins." After yesterdays brilliant derby, Manchester may well just becoming England's first city- in football alone that is!

Excuse My French!

Oh how I laughed! Just a few days after the transfer window closed shut, with not a lot of buying or selling from Chelsea, the shock news was announced on Sky Sports News. Chelsea have been banned from making transfers for the next two windows, meaning no new players for the London side till January 2011. Come on who of you out there, as long as you're not a Chelsea fan, didn't snigger. Mainly because since the Russian revolution down at Stamford Bridge your team has probably either lost your best player to them or lost out on a top player to them. Suddenly that won't be happening for a while and they'll have to make do with their current squad.

OK, I say make do! But let's be honest for a second- Cech, Terry, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Drogba, Anelka- love them or hate them, that's the team as a whole or singular players, they're bloody good!

Back to the issue at hand, no doubt many shared my initial reaction, and then after some thought, many probably also shared my next feelings. These were ones of some shock and slight bemusement. Firstly because the charges towards Chelsea are very serious, the term 'tapping up' is thrown about so often in football, especially round transfer window time. But the use of the phrase 'inducement to breach of contract' is new and seems to hold more weight than mere chatting to an agent. I am of course no legal expert but to me it seems Chelsea are in big trouble. The second reason for bemusement or perhaps worry is a selfish one of course, ie. "If Chelsea have been caught out for this, what about United".

SHOCK! Just a day or so later and United had been accused of the same thing, minus the FIFA ban, United are in the same or certainly a similar position! And behold another French team at the heart of it. Now I'm generally not one for conspiracy theories but I can't help but start thinking something fishy is going on. Lets not forget it's not long ago since Eduardo was banned for two matches for his diving expolits, hardly something that never happens in world wide football yet a ban against a player for an English team. And what's this, now another English team, specifically Manchester City, have been accused of the same thing. I know it's getting a little silly now. Oh yeah forgot to mention IT'S A FRENCH TEAM!

You might be getting the picture here! Mr Uefa, or Platini as he was once known. Used to be a very good footballer, he's probably still better than plenty around today. But that's besides the point! We've already learnt in the past that world class footballers don't always make the best coaches or managers but I'm starting to think they don't make the best administrators either. I'm not soley blaming him for all the accusations but it seems that ever since he's got into power Michel has been on a one man tirade against English clubs. Sorry you're right! Mr Uefa has his pal, Mr FIFA! Yes everyone's good friend Mr Sepp Blatter, how could we forget him. Platini and Blatter doesn't quite sound like a law firm but it does sound like a disaster for our beautiful game.

Down in Sunday League football we don't have such issues, after all a transfer just requires the player, his current club secretary and new club secretary all signing a form and £5 admin fee. Easy! Meanwhile results have been interesting to say the least. Following the opening day loss came a midweek match with Crumpsall, if you've forgotten, this is the team who we usually beat in frendlies only to lose not long after in a league match. So after a 6-3 win in a friendly 8 days earlier I wasn't the only one shocked to see another 9 goals fly in. Although this time all 9 went to Sporting JLGB! Yes a 9-0 victory to make our negative 4 goal difference into a positive one just a few days later. And 6 goals came in the last 25 minutes. Then came the third game in a week and once again Freddy Road to take on Republic of Mancuina, an average team but a beatable one. Although not on this occasion! After the first 43 minutes were 0-0 with Sporting the better side an injury to our goalkeeper and a slip in concentration was pounced on and Mancunia led 1-0 at the break. The added to their lead late on as we looked to find an eqaliser, still though we ended the week with a positive goal difference!

Of course there's always some comparisson with 'real football' and our football! Down in our league it might not be an administrator but certainly one man, a referee, trying to ruin our fun. We had a run in with this ref last year, and despite our team trying to put it behind us this man in black clearly can't. This week he reported us to the league for kicking off 2 minutes late, this man is pathetic! Sorry it needed saying!

Right so I'm off to play some 5-a-side football and tomorrow to watch England qualify for the World Cup by beating Croatia, hopefully Defoe starts! And I'll finish this week by watching the English Premierleague! That's before Platini gets his hands on it anyway!