City in good shape for big showdown

FOR the first time in many years, I believe Manchester City will not be wearing the ‘underdogs’ tag in tomorrow night’s derby against United at Eastlands.

On these sort of occasions the form book obviously goes out of the window to a certain extent, but we have also enjoyed a morale-boosting 2-0 win at West Brom, and our captain, Carlos Tevez, is back from injury.

United are still a great side and people have written them off so many times, but they are not playing as well as they would like.

I think in a one-off match, played under the floodlights and roared on by a full house, we are on an even keel.

We have better players than we have had in previous derbies, and hopefully they can do the business.

It was a rollercoaster afternoon for Mario Balotelli at the Hawthorns.

He scored two good goals — his first strikes in the Barclays Premier League — before a second half dismissal for apparently kicking Youssuf Mulumbu.

I didn’t see the incident as I was actually in the dressing room when Mario came in, vehemently denying he deserved a red card.

He is an enigmatic character, but people need to have patience and realise this is a 19-year-old who has been thrust into the limelight.

Overall we put in a very good performance against West Brom. In the first half we were so comfortable.

The return of Vincent Kompany, Nigel De Jong and Yaya Toure to the starting line-up gave everyone a boost.

I made sure I got to the ground at 11am. I always give myself plenty of time to get everything ready before the squad’s arrival, and West Brom is a particularly challenging venue for a kit manager.

The dressing room is fine, but the stairs leading to it are narrow, which slows you down when you have skips full of gear and heavy bags to carry.

PREDICTED Liverpool would overcome the challenge of champions Chelsea at Anfield and that’s exactly what they did, earning a 2-0 win thanks to two goals from Fernando Torres.

I was actually more surprised to see Arsenal go down to a 1-0 defeat at home to Newcastle United.

Both results blow the title race wide open again.

The table did not make for pretty reading from a City point of view after we lost two matches in a row, but our victory at West Brom has put us in the mix again.

We can expect plenty of twists and turns between now and the end of the season.

T was a shame to see Athletic exit the FA Cup after a 3-2 defeat at Accrington Stanley.

I know it is an old saying, but they can concentrate on the league now — and hopefully nail one of those play-off places.