Blues must reign in Spain

TOMORROW’S Uefa Champions League clash with Villarreal in Spain is a must-win game for Manchester City.

Anything other than three points would make qualification from the group stage an almost impossible task when you consider we still have to go to Napoli and entertain Bayern Munich.

The majority of the kit was loaded on to a van yesterday, with the rest of the gear — mainly boots — coming with us on the flight this afternoon.

We go into the match on the back of an important 3-1 victory over Wolves in the Barclays Premier League.

I think it was arguably one of our biggest challenges of the campaign simply due to the expectancy levels at the Etihad Stadium, which increased no end after our 6-1 win at United and the 5-2 defeat of Wolves in the Carling Cup.

We showed good character, which was needed when referee Stuart Attwell dismissed skipper Vincent Kompany for his last-man foul on Kevin Doyle.

I had no argument with that decision but Attwell did make a number of mistakes throughout the game which bemused both dug outs.

He is only human — everyone makes mistakes — but it did make life harder.

However, we came through this latest test of our title credentials and even added a goal despite being down to 10 men, Adam Johnson joining Edin Dzeko and Aleksander Kolarov on the scoresheet.

Kolarov looks like a different player this term. He was up and down last season, but he now seems to have found some consistency.

Squad rotation dictates that he won’t play every week, with Gael Clichy breathing down his neck, but every time Aleksander is called upon he delivers and the extra competition is probably spurring him on.

I am delighted for him because he is a great lad. On the pitch he is a warrior and off it he is funny and personable.

I LOOK out for my former club Oldham Athletic’s results every week.

Despite losing their three-goal lead at Carlisle and only coming away from Cumbria with a point, Latics are playing some good stuff and are still not far away from the top six.

Saturday’s showdown with Bury at Boundary Park promises to be a great occasion and a positive result for the hosts will put them right back in the race for the play-off places.