City must bounce back

The City kit boss and foremr Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport
MANCHESTER City suffered a first Barclays Premier League defeat of the season last night, going down 2-1 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

We got off to the perfect start, with Mario Balotelli scoring within two minutes, but Raul Meireles levelled against the run of play and when Gael Clichy was sent off for two yellows in the second half, it was always going to be difficult.

Joleon Lescott was unlucky to be penalised for handball late on and Frank Lampard condemned us to defeat with a powerful penalty.

It is a shame because we totally dominated the majority of the first half and referee Mark Clattenburg could easily have awarded us a penalty when David Silva was felled by Jose Boswinga in the box.

We must now bounce back, starting with the visit of Arsenal on Sunday.

After a bad start to the campaign Arsene Wenger’s side have turned it around to become one of the form teams in the country.

Robin van Persie is on another planet at the moment. He cannot stop scoring goals and represents a huge threat to our defence this weekend. He is clearly feeling the benefit of an injury-free season. The Dutchman has steered clear of the ankle problem by which he has been hampered over the years.

I am still surprised by the amount of criticism Wenger receives.

When you think of Arsenal you cannot help but think of the French manager and the amazing job he has done since arriving at the Gunners in 1996.

They play some wonderful football and I think they are nailed on to finish in the top four this term.




I HAD a brilliant night at the Pride in Oldham awards. It was a pleasure to be there with my daughter Suzy — I was so proud of her nomination in the sports volunteer category.

She has had an amazing 2011. As well as her Pride nomination she also picked up the coach of the year award at the National Netball Goalden Globes.

This recognition came after Suzy helped guide Northern Thunder to their best ever finish — second place in the Fiat Superleague. She was also nominated in the Greater Manchester Sports Awards.

I enjoyed seeing some familiar faces at Pride, including ex-Athletic and City boss Joe Royle and former Chronicle editor Jim Williams.

Jim’s coverage of Latics in his early days at the newspaper was superbly written and so funny.

I reminded him of some of my favourite quotes at the awards

ceremony, including the time he likened one of Oldham’s performances to “a busload of spinsters — miss after miss after miss”...