Many twists and turns in race for honours

The City kit boss and former Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport
THE race for the Barclays Premier League title is still neck-and-neck after both Manchester clubs won at the weekend.

City secured a comfortable 2-0 triumph over North-West neighbours Bolton at the Etihad Stadium before United’s 3-1 victory at Tottenham. We remain just two points clear of the Red Devils with 11 matches remaining.

Gael Clichy thought he had scored his first goal for the club in the first half, only for it to be deemed an own goal, before Mario Balotelli doubled our advantage.

Mario could have had a hatful on the day but hit the post and saw a couple of attempts narrowly miss the target. It was a thoroughly professional performance, similar to the win against Blackburn the previous week.

People say United have the easier run-in, and on paper that may be the case. But there are always so many twists and turns in a title race and the teams lower down the table often provide the shocks because they are fighting for survival.

It certainly looks like a two-horse race between ourselves and United now — it is a long way back for Tottenham after their weekend loss, and Harry Redknapp will concentrate on claiming a Champions League place.

Next up we travel to Portugal — again. Having seen off Porto in the previous round of the Europa League, we now take on Sporting Lisbon in the last 16. We go into the tie as strong favourites to progress to the quarter-finals, in fact City and United are the two teams most fancied to win the competition.

It will be nice to take in some sunshine — apparently it could be 22 degrees for Thursday night’s contest at Estádio José Alvalade. The ground holds just over 50,000 supporters so we can expect a cracking atmosphere.

Three days later we travel to Swansea in the league, which is bound to be a difficult encounter as they have been superb this season. The Swans like to get the ball down and play some eye-pleasing football, so it could be one for the neutrals to enjoy.

It would come as no surprise if we mix and match the team in the next two games in order to prevent fatigue creeping in as we step up our pursuit of two trophies.