Palace palaver anything but Crystal clear

City’s roving reporter writes every week for Chron Sport
WITH the Manchester derby now just days away, I admit I’ve found it remarkable that City head into this weekend behind United in the league table.

City’s dip in form has come when United have picked up some good results, so it really is going to be a difficult game at Old Trafford.

There’s a whole new vision of the game now and City, despite being the current champions and having such a good recent record against the Reds, will no longer be favourites to win.

It’s been a slightly bizarre run for City. I can’t quite put my finger on what has gone wrong, but the stats from the Crystal Palace game the other night said a lot. City had the most possession ever in a Premier League game for a team that went on to lose. It’s certainly spiced things up ahead of Sunday, but I wouldn’t like to predict a winner. We all know form goes out of the window in derby games, so anthing could happen.

I was sad to read about the death of former Latics goalkeeper Harry Dowd the other day. I didn’t really know him well as we weren’t at Latics together, but I’ve spoken to him several times and he was a lovely man.

I’m at a funeral today of one of my former Huddersfield Town colleagues. Jimmy McGill was a great player back in the 60s and 70s - in fact he was the best tackler I ever saw, unbelievably tenacious and a fierce competitor, someone I really respected.