[table="width: 500, class: grid, align: left"] [tr] [td]TITLE RUN-IN[/td] [td]Man Utd[/td] [td]Man City [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]18/21 Mar[/td] [td]Wolves (a)[/td] [td]Chelsea (h)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]26/24 Mar[/td] [td]Fulham (h)[/td] [td]Stoke (a)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2 Apr/31 Mar[/td] [td]Blackburn (a)[/td] [td]Sunderland (h)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]8 Apr[/td] [td]QPR (h)[/td] [td]Arsenal (a)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]11 Apr[/td] [td]Wigan (a)[/td] [td]West Brom (h)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]15/14 Apr[/td] [td]Aston Villa (h)[/td] [td]Norwich (a)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]22 Apr[/td] [td]Everton (h)[/td] [td]Wolves (a)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]30 Apr[/td] [td]Man City (a)[/td] [td]Man Utd (h)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]6 May[/td] [td]Swansea (h)[/td] [td]Newcastle (a)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]13 May[/td] [td]Sunderland (a)[/td] [td]QPR (h)[/td] [/tr] [/table] With 10 games to go there'll be plenty of twists and turns and the big match-up at the Etihad should be crucial. I fancy our fixtures a lot more than City's though.
We need to have won it before the last day of the season as their fixture is a home banker and ours, thanks to MON, is now looking very tricky. Chelsea could do us a favour next week.
United have done very well to come through a tricky batch of fixtures beating us, Liverpool, Tottenham and drawing with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Apparently City have only won two of their last eight away games. So with trips to Stoke, Arsenal, Norwich and Newcastle to come that could prove to be a crucial factor. That said, I hope we have it more or less sewn up by the 30th, cos our last three fixtures don't look the easiest...
I cannot see it being sewn up by 30th! I think unless there is a total collapse of City, I see United needing at least a point at the Etihad. There is still a long way to go and we shouldn't be counting our chickens just yet. Well not during this weird season...when anything can happen and has bloody happened...
If it's neck-and-neck then Mancini won't out-manage Ferguson. For me, Mancini remains City's weak link. He hasn't shown strong management in his handling of Tevez, and if player bust-ups are still a regular occurrence then that looks bad too. He seems to pick the wrong team at the wrong time, and his tactical re-adjustments rarely seem to change the game decisively. Just from watching the highlights, it was obvious even in the first half that City's players knew they weren't going to win. That speaks volumes about their faith in the manager. Mancini's best hope was always to get ahead of United and stay ahead. Maybe he blew that today.
I agree I think some of Mancini's decisions have been bizarre, he seems to have a habit of making tactical subs in the first half, I don't get that, all that does is embarrass the player he's bringing off, which gets there back up. I don't understand some of his team selections either, why does he show so much faith in Balotelli? The guy has talent, but he is not as good as Aguero, and I even prefer Dzeko to him. Balotelli is to lazy, and only plays well when things are going well, when things are going badly, he just does stupid things. Inter Milan got the hump with Mancini after a while, because even though he did well domestically with Inter, he was always tactically naive in Europe, and could never get them past the last 16. The other point I'd like to make is about David Silva, it seems that the team is set up around him, and there formation is very rigid to accommodate him, he can't play as a centre midfielder and he can't play as a striker, he plays in between, so they have to play a way to accommodate him. That's alright when he's playing well, but his form has dipped since the turn of the year, and as he's playing in such an influential role, he needs to be on fire every game to make them tick. I think the guy is to much of a luxury player if you ask me, to much is sacrificed to accommodate him
