Newly appointed England manager Roy Hodgson announced his 23-man squad today for the upcoming Euros in Poland & Ukraine. The squad is as follows:

GK: Joe Hart, Robert Green, John Ruddy
DEF: Ashley Cole, Leighton Baines, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Joleon Lescott, Glen Johnson, Phil Jones
MID: Ashley Young, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Theo Walcott, Gareth Barry, Scott Parker, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Stewart Downing
FOR: Jermaine Defoe, Wayne Rooney, Andy Carroll, Danny Welbeck

Obviously it is great to see Hart, Lescott, Milner, and Barry make the squad as they deserve to. However, a number of Hodgson's selections seem puzzling. As far as City goes, Micah Richards and Adam Johnson should probably be there. Stewart Downing has had a nightmare season at Anfield with 0 goals and 0 assists, and yet he's been selected. I have more faith in the Blackburn chicken to patrol the left wing than I do in Downing. 18-year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has also somehow made the team despite having no prior international experience with the senior team. Others have been calling for Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, and Daniel Sturridge to be included on the list, among others.

England face France, Sweden, and Ukraine in the group stage.
Thoughts? Who do you think doesn't deserve to be on the list, and who do you think got snubbed?
(Do check out the poll after the jump)

Wow, what a match. City grab the lead over our, dare I say, 'noisy neighbors'. Danny will get the 5 Thoughts up later, but for now, leave your thoughts here for any post-match discussions and celebrations.

30 minutes til kick-off of what might just be the most important Premier League match of all-time. Lineups will be up shortly.

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Not entirely convincing, but enough. Boosted by the unexpected news of a United draw against Everton at Old Trafford, it was City's chance to capitalize and close the gap to 3 points. Wolves were fighting to avoid relegation for at least a few more days, so a professional job would be needed to get the win. City never looked like they would concede; it was a matter of grabbing some goals, as was clearly the intent early on, especially as goal differential may prove to be the deciding factor now. Tevez and Aguero threatened early and often and probably could have had 3 or 4 more goals between them. There was no real weak spot on the pitch, despite allowing Wolves a bit too much space to operate in the first half.

Momentum and form are crucial at this point of the season (or any part of the season really) and as such it was important City continued the form they have shown in the past few matches especially being on the road. While it wasn't as pristine as the performance against Norwich, it was still a strong display enough display to not leave much doubt as to what the final result would be. The attacking flow that we have seen over the past few matches was once again on display. The one wrinkle in the match was David Silva who only completed 74% of his passes. Many of them were attempted through-balls that are difficult, and hopefully he is able to complete those passes once again the way he did at the beginning of the season. Silva's movement throughout the match was exactly as we expect it to be though, and the Silva-Nasri-Aguero-Tevez core seems to be getting more and more comfortable.

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City:

Wolves:

With Everton claiming a thrilling 4-4 draw with United just hours ago at Old Trafford, the title race is back open. If City win their remaining fixtures, the title will head to Eastlands.

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What a frustrating match. It was painful at times to sit through the first half, watching Swansea totally outplay City while setting up a penalty kick that Scott Sinclair should have converted to reward his team's efforts to that point. It took City 40 minutes to wake up and start playing the style of football we have become accustomed to seeing the side play, and even that took a jolt from an uncommon first half substitution from Mancini. The first half lacked organization and energy, as City sat three (Barry, de Jong, Toure) deep in the middle of the field, allowing Swansea plenty of space to attack and there always seemed to be someone open in a white shirt. When City did get the ball, poor movement and passing bogged down each attack, often leaving Balotelli with nothing to do but run around aimlessly trying to fashion out a chance.

City's passing accuracy was a mere 82%, a number which, while I don't have all the data in front of me, I'd like to say is the lowest mark of the season. The biggest culprit was surprisingly David Silva. Other than Stefan Savic (72%), Silva posted City's lowest number of all, completing just 73% of his passes before being substituted late for Edin Dzeko. When Silva doesn't play well, City don't play well, plain and simple. If City are to win the title, they will need to get back to having the lethal attack they had at the beginning of the season, which was largely built off of Silva's magical play. Are Premier League defenses starting to find a way to stop Silva? While our rivals such as United might like to say so, many of Silva's passes today were simply poor and had less to do with tight marking and more to do with poor judgment. If he tried to play a lobbed through-ball it would have too much power; if he tried to play one of his trademark slips to Aguero or Balotelli into the box it would not have the necessary zip. I'll check it off as an off-day.

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City: Hart, Clichy, Savic, Toure, Richards, Barry, Yaya, de Jong, Nasri, Silva, Balotelli

Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Caulker, Williams, Taylor, Britton, Allen, Sigurdsson, Routledge, Sinclair, Graham

Kick-off is just about upon us. Comment away...

A good win, but a relief more than anything. City have struggled on the road lately, but today's performance was much more comfortable against a usually stingy home Villa squad. City were unlucky to not grab a goal in the first half, which saw them dominate in spells. For a time, fears of Everton arose, where City would be the better team on the pitch but lose to a scrappy goal. But a similarly dominant second half performance saw City's efforts pay off, with a well-worked corner kick resulting in a goal for Joleon Lescott, assisted by Gareth Barry, who was arguably the man of the match for City, an unlikely theme of the season thus far.

The back four were rock solid tonight, barring the final few hectic minutes where Villa bombarded forward in search of an equalizer. Few would have expected a lineup that did not feature Gael Clichy or Micah Richards, but Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov filled in well. Neither did anything particularly spectacular, but rather provided some ample defending when needed and a bit of support going forward. Vincent Kompany was his usual stern self; Lescott too. Nigel de Jong's return to the starting lineup helped in this regard as well, playing the anchor man role between midfield and defense.

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Starting lineups are in and kick-off is just 10 minutes away.

City:

Villa:

A win would see City re-establish a 2 point lead at the top of the table. Comment away...

Been having computer issues in getting this thread started. Poor red card decision to begin the match.

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Lineups are as follows:

It's the traditional Boxing Day fixture, and the last match of 2011 for City. Comment away...

Lineups are as follows:

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Lineups are in:

City bench: Pantilimon, K Toure, Savic, de Jong, Johnson, Nasri, Dzeko

Chelsea bench: Turnbull, Lampard, Torres, Mikel, Malouda, Ferreira, Kalou

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A comfortable game all around. Newcastle came into the match as the only other unbeaten side in the Premier League, and this coupled with the memory of last year's tricky affair in this fixture meant that City could not afford to be complacent coming off the international break. Mancini decided to rest Silva which came as a surprise but James Milner continued his string of solid games and Samir Nasri also had one of his better matches to continue to allow City a smooth, flowing attack without the diminutive Spaniard in the lineup. Nigel de Jong also made a return to the starting XI and as with the rest of the squad, he seemed to fit in seamlessly from the start. Overall the side has not seemed to be affected by international breaks or Champions League matches midweek, which is something that tends to set apart champions from the rest of the top teams.

As Danny had mentioned once in a previous post, sometimes all a team needs is that one moment to open the floodgates and start the scoring, and such was the case today. City bossed much of the first half but couldn't produce a goal, though credit must be given to Newcastle keeper Tim Krul for a few fantastic stops along the way. Balotelli's opening goal eventually came via the penalty spot, but it came as a result of a well worked move around the box and let Newcastle's guard down a bit; in particular Ryan Taylor who gave away the penalty and subsequently was guilty of some dodgy defending to allow Richards to pounce on a loose ball to poke home the second goal a few minutes later. From there on it was smooth sailing as City were not only leading the scoreline but also gained all the momentum going into halftime, strengthening the attacking swagger we have seen from the side this season.

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Clash of the only remaining undefeated teams in the league. 

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Big, big day for the Blues. Team lineups are in:

Fire away with your thoughts...

Fire away with your thoughts...

Given the midweek meltdown at Munich and the media stampede following City, an away match in the Premier League would surely test the squad's mental strength and resolve to bounce back. It's a schedule the players will have to get used to with 4 competitions to fight for and plenty of distance to travel. There were many of questions to answer, and answers were found. Edin Dzeko seemed to be on good terms with Mancini again as he was on the bench for the match and came on in a late substitution to get a few minutes under his belt. The performance itself was much brighter than Tuesday's Champions League match against Bayern, most notably the defense which never buckled under the pressure or lost focus. 

One thing that I've used as a barometer of City's progression over the past 2 or 3 years has been comparing Premier League results against what they would have been a season ago or two seasons ago. Last year, City drew against Blackburn 1-1 at home and won 1-0 away. City have certainly looked much stronger so far this season than most of last season, but at the same time Blackburn also look like one of the worst teams in the league, with a fanbase that regularly broke out into chants against their manager, Steve Kean, in the second half of today's match. There was potential for this to be a tricky fixture (as nearly all away matches in the league are), but it was still one that City were expected to win, probably by a comfortable two goal margin at the very least. In some sense it was like the match at White Hart Lane against Spurs; an on-fire City against a team in shambles (Spurs unsure over Modric, lack of team spirit, poor display against United). So it is important to not get too carried away with this result as it should have been expected. 

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It's about kickoff time, let's get the comments rolling on this historic day

City kicked off the season with a bang at Eastlands, demolishing Swansea 4-0. There was definitely a buzz around the season as the fans were very eager to watch the Blues. In last season's home opener, City dispatched Liverpool 3-0, and a repeat performance seemed to be on the books with newcomers Swansea.

City came out with Hart, Clichy, Lescott, Kompany, Richards, Barry, de Jong, Yaya, Silva, Johnson, and Dzeko, in the usual 4-5-1. City started possessive but a bit sloppy. A few first touches were bad, some passes here and there missed their targets. It wasn't that Swansea was pressuring City well into making mistakes, it was City doing it to themselves. Slowly but surely, the play improved and City were threatening for many goals by the end of the first half. David Silva hit the bar after a nice run and pass from AJ, and both Toure and Dzeko had some decent efforts, one of which Dzeko should have buried but the Swansea keeper was in top form all night long and prevented Dzeko from a cracking opener. With seconds before the half Barry also hit the bar on a shot from the top of the 18, with groans heard all around Eastlands as the ball just somehow would not go in. 0-0 at halftime.

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After a long and hot summer, the best unofficial holiday of the year is finally upon us: opening weekend of the EPL. I had been excited all week for the season to begin, even though City don't play until Monday; all the games are at least a little bit exciting. The weekend would have probably been better if the Spurs v Everton fixture had been given the green light following the London riots, but there were still many headlines to watch. With that in mind, here are a few things to watch for as the season kicks off.

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City defeated MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 tonight at a very soggy and messy Empire Field. The pitch had experienced some heavy rain in the past few days and it had even forced a regular MLS match to be postponed this past Saturday, making the pitch difficult to navigate, but it was nothing that City hasn't experienced back in England. 

It was City's second match in the past 3 days and with the EPL-style atmosphere in Vancouver, it always had the chance to be a tricky affair, even with the Whitecaps winning just 2 of 20 matches so far in their first year in the MLS.

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City today confirmed the signing of 20-year old defender Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade, their second signing in as many days. He moves to Eastlands on an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £6 million with a 4-year contract. The Montenegro international had impressed very well for Partizan this past season, and was getting attention from many of Europe's top clubs. He had a 10 day trial with Arsenal last season, and with increased interest from the Gunners in the last few weeks, it appears City have taken one of their top targets (2 great transfers in a row over the North Londoners).

Along with Gael Clichy's arrival, it fortifies the back line and adds even more depth to an already spectacular defense. With the defense essentially all set, it would seem Mancini's next transfer would have to be in attack; either a striker to replace want-a-way Carlos Tevez, or a creative midfielder to add flair and playmaking in the final third of the field. But with every incoming transfer, one can't help but think of when the exodus of City's fringe players will begin.

The official MCFC site reports that Gael Clichy has passed his medical and is Roberto Mancini's first summer signing. The transfer from Arsenal is reportedly worth £7 million, with wages at £65,000 a week.

Wayne Bridge already seems to be on his way out the door, but what does this mean for regular left-back Aleksandar Kolarov? Thoughts on what Clichy's impact at City will be?