SEASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

With the festivities well and truly done and dusted. The days of the turkey butties gone. The mince pies ate and crackers pulled it was down to the real business of what the seasonal break was allabout - football!!. Christmas and New Year, both in your personal life and sporting life can leave you totally deflated and flat on your back. Some of us may have been affected by the dreaded lurgy. Some may have over ate and piled on the pounds, some may have emptied their bank accounts but good old City done good! The boys in Blue piled on the points and continued to keep the pressure on.

This past few weeks has seen a hectic period in the football calendar. Very demanding and a time of great reward or dismal return. Fortunately for us, City had one of their better festive periods. It wasn't perfect, but you don't always get what you want at Christmas. The only disappointment was the home defeat to Everton but we showed great character in bouncing back with TEN points from a possible 12. Newcastle may not be the greatest at the mo, but under new management and a buzz about the place winning at St James's was a great result and kept us up there. When City threw away the opportunity to go top at Christmas for the first time in a very long time (v Everton) doubts could have crept in but Mancini would have none of that. So a win on the road was exactly what was needed. And we didn't fail.

Villa and Blackpool at home were to follow. Villa were a very poor team compared to this time last year - when they looked better than City - and City disposed of them with ease. The enigmatic Balotelli hit a hat-trick to warm the home fans on a cold day. Another three points. Ian Holloway's Blackpool were next at CoMS.  This was defo a game that despite our confidence level you couldn't quite go into being 100% certain you would be rubbing your hands in glee at the end of 90 minutes. City once again did the business. We didn't get all our own way throughout the game. The visitors never-say-die attitude kept us on our toes and we came away grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat! We had maintained our momentum and the good run continues. So without much ado, it was kit bags packed, coach loaded and off to possibly our biggest challenge for a bit, Arsenal at the Emirates. Everyone who follows City knows that this part of the capital very rarely proves to be a happy hunting ground. But what the hell, if we want to move onwards and upwards these are the places you have to go to and do the business.

With the Sky cameras present and pundits predicting an evening of entertaining football, we sat in front of our TV's waiting with bated breathe. And we weren't let down - by Arsenal anyway! For the opening 15-20 minutes we were not at the races in any way shape or form. We were dragged all over the park. Our midfield was over ran. We were ripped open at the back. Things were not looking to healthy. But did we capitulate? No. We stood our ground. We regained our composure. Got our heads together, regrouped and did what we had to. It might not have been to pretty. Maybe we weren't over ambitious but we were the visitors. As the game progressed, Arsenalcontinued firing blanks.Were they inept or were we defending with style? A mixture of both. At the end of the night we were looking the stronger side and with luck could even have snatched an unlikely victory. The nil all scoreline wasn't as boring as it may suggest. With what was at stake it was an entertaining game. It may not have sparkled like a diamond or fizzed like a bottle of champers but we came away with a valuable point. (Reminded me of how George Graham's Arsenal side became champions years ago!) Listening to Mr Wenger and co's moaning after the game - totally berating City for their approach - proved we had rattled them big style. We could see they weren't good enough to beat us on the night because tactically we got it right! Well done Bobby Manc and boys.

Keep plugging away boys. Keep getting the right results and maybe those who can't quite spew out some praise for City from their  Blue or Red mouths will eventually be forced to eat some humble pie!! I can't wait for that day.

Geoff Stevenson

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