Birmingham preview

I'm perfectly happy to settle for a point against United as long as we can take maximum points at home against lesser sides. This isn't something we have done too well this season, dropping two points against Blackburn Rovers in September.

While I won't criticise Roberto Mancini's tactics from Wednesday, there is a legitimate concern over our approach in these games. The set up of the side, the famous 'broken team', is not designed to break down teams that defend deep and in numbers.

So I hope we see some changes tomorrow. Adam Johnson is a must, as, probably, is Aleksandar Kolarov. I've got a sense Yaya Touré might be rested (he's still exhausted after trying at West Brom), so I wouldn't mind seeing James Milner playing centrally. Emmanuel Adebayor instead of Carlos Tévez is a long shot but would not be a surprise.

I just hope we can get an early goal. Last year we scored just in time and won easily, 5-1. A goal or two in the first half hour and it will be a comfortable afternoon. Prediction: 3-0.

United player ratings

Hart Only had two meaningful saves to make - from Patrice Evra in the first half and Dimitar Berbatov in the second. Other than that it was a fairly quiet day, one of his high points was athletically preventing a corner. 7

Boateng Defensively solid, again, winning three tackles - two of which were right on the edge of our box. I suppose I'm still waiting, though, to see the same cavalier runs we saw in the World Cup. He didn't make one successful pass in the final third. Whether this is to do with instruction from Mancini or adjustment from the Premier League isn't clear yet. 6

Kolo Touré Another decent performance. Willing to put his foot on the ball (we could never have knocked it around in defence if we still had Richard Dunne) and kept his position well. Lost out in the air to Javier Hernandez when he came on, but otherwise fine. 7

Kompany Second only to Paul Scholes in passes completed last night, with 60 to the little master's 68. The importance of retaining possession from the back to the Mancini plan cannot be underestimated. Defended excellently, too, always in the right place and making three important interceptions. 8

Zabaleta His second consecutive strong performance from left-back. Why Mancini played Wayne Bridge earlier in the season remains a mystery. He kept Nani quiet, holding his position, not diving in, and while he's not a naturally attacking full-back he gave it a decent try and actually had our best chance of the second half. Didn't even get booked! 7

de Jong Did a good job of limiting United's attacking opportunities even while they were allowed to dominate possession. His positional awareness is excellent (he's really not a 'rich man's Michael Brown'), while three interceptions and five tackles kept United at bay. Invaluable in games like these. 8

Silva I was hoping he'd do something historic so was a touch disappointed. He got a fair bit of the ball in wide areas but could never quite produce. Admittedly, crossing a 5'7" Carlos Tévez is difficult but he took four or five of our eight corners - when we have some fairly big players in the box - and couldn't beat the first man. 6

Yaya Touré I think he's getting there. Not quite as good as he was against West Brom, but his bounding runs through the middle are clearly one of the few ways to link what Jonathan Wilson has described as our 'broken team.' His decisions and execution in the final third aren't what they should be though. Tired in the second half - I'm not sure he was fully recovered from Sunday - my guess is he'll rest against Birmingham City. 7

Barry Did a crucial job helping out Zabaleta in the left back position, winning four tackles there and making three interceptions. This shut down Nani which was crucial in our keeping a clean sheet. Couldn't complete as many passes as he did last Sunday, and never really got forward, but he did the job that was asked of him. 7

Milner Important work covering Patrice Evra's runs down the left, in a way that Adam Johnson just wouldn't. Didn't produce much going forward; like Silva his corners were poor (though he did win most of them himself). Must wonder what the point is swinging in crosses that get headed away. 6

Tévez I'm not sure he looked 100% fit but there was never a question of his not playing. He scurried around and nearly worked space to shoot a few times but his only decent chance was a free-kick that Edwin van der Sar saved comfortably. Might get a rest on Sunday. 6

Subs:

A. Johnson Beat his man with his first touch but otherwise quiet. 6

Kolarov Too late to mark n/a

Adebayor Too late to mark n/a

City 0 - 0 United

• Well that was certainly better than losing in stoppage time. It was a fairly dour game, with only one or two goal-scoring chances at either end. We looked for a 0-0 and we got it. United played nicer football than we did but we're a good enough defensive unit that when we want a clean sheet at home we can usually get one. Some people might criticise Roberto Mancini for being so cautious, but I'm fairly relaxed about it. After the events of the past year or so there are worse things than being very averse to losing derbies.

• The plan was the same as the Chelsea match. If possible, dominate possession, if not, stifle the opponents and at all costs keep a clean sheet. Then, where possible, breaking through David Silva and Carlos Tévez. It was harder than the Chelsea game: United were much better in midfield. They effectively had Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Park Ji-Sung in central midfield, outnumbering us, with Scholes and Carrick seeing a lot of the ball. But in terms of goalscoring chances there was one for Patrice Evra in the first half, one for Dimitar Berbatov in the second half and that was it. Our second consecutive clean sheet, I think we're over our brief defensive blip.

• The second half of the plan - nicking a goal - was harder. In truth, we didn't create a single proper goal-scoring opportunity. With United dominating the midfield, we found some space in wide areas. But with only Tévez up front there was only so much that could come from James Milner and David Silva's crossing. Too many times we swung crosses in and they were repelled by Nemanja Vidic. We won eight corners, and with Vincent Kompany, Jérôme Boateng and both Tourés in the box we ought to have done better with them - but our delivery was never quite there.

• There were moments when Yaya Touré or Carlos Tévez nearly broke through the middle but United defended too well to gift us the spaces we needed. I'm not entirely sure Carlitos was 100% fit, but this was a further illustration that when he isn't on top of his game we struggle to create chances. Was there anything Mancini could have done differently? Put on Emmauel Adebayor, maybe, for more of an aerial threat. But for whom? We could barely have afforded to lose another man in the middle. Adam Johnson from the start, and risking United full-backs running rampant. Containing United is difficult, and necessitates trade-offs from other areas of the side. I can't say I'm too upset with his decisions.

• Ultimately, I don't think Mancini's decision today - that not losing was the most important thing - was far wrong. After five straight league derby defeats, three stoppage time derby defeats last season, a run of three defeats that only ended last Sunday, it cannot be underestimated how damaging another defeat would be. Yes, in times gone by, we could go for United, knowing that the difference between no points and three would not make a major difference in a season that would see us finish somewhere in mid-table. But this season is different. We need to be fourth, and we need to be clear-headed about achieving that. This is the game we're in.

Derby preview

The biggest single test of Roberto Mancini's reign so far. There have been bigger games, of course, the League Cup semi-final, the Champions League play-off with Spurs, but that was Mancini doing his best with Mark Hughes' team. This is his team now, he owns it, and his fortunes are entirely married to it.

Of course, we've already beaten the champions this season at home, in what remains the greatest single display of the Mancini system and approach. But this means more in so many ways. I'm not entirely certain that I'd take three points against Chelsea at home and none against United rather than, say, draws against both. I'd certainly have to think hard about it.

What makes this game even more terrifying is that my traditional attempts to play the low-expectation game are getting less and less credible every year. This isn't like the days when Roy Keane, David Beckham and Paul Scholes lined up against Gerard Wiekens, Jim Jeff* Whitley and Ian Bishop, and it's wrong to pretend that it is. As aggregates of player abilities, there is not much between the two squads. On paper, at home, we are not distant outsiders, much as it might comfort me to pretend that we are.

If we lose tonight, it will represent points dropped in a way that has never really been true of derbies before. So what do I expect? A tight game, certainly. I don't think United would be too disappointed with a point. Providing we defend as we can (joint second best defence in the Premier League, even with the recent blip) there's no reason we can't keep a clean sheet.

So I'm going to take the coward's way out and predict 0-0, or at least 0-0 after ninety minutes. Exactly what goes on in the murkiest recesses of Fergie time is anyone's guess.

*Why of course, Gwil. J.

The importance of Tévez

Not just symbolically in Manchester derbies, as we will see tonight, but every time City go out onto the pitch. There have been two interesting pieces on Tévez in the last day or so which are worth looking at.

First from the great Jonathan Wilson, explaining Tévez's 'false 9' role within our system:

Tevez, though, makes it work, as he almost defines the role of the false nine. His movement prevents the team breaking up, providing a link with the midfield, and as he drops deep, so he can interact with Touré or Barry. That is not natural to Adebayor – very much a real nine – and the difference in their approach is seen here. Adebayor did drop deep and pull wide, but far less than Tevez, and against Wolves he attempted only just over half the number of passes Tevez did against West Brom...

The theory is simple: the back four defends with only occasional forays from the full-backs; the three midfielders dominate possession, and if they can't, they sit deep to provide an extra layer of defensive cover; and a fluid front three tries to turn the possession into chances and goals. Tevez, though, adds something extra, linking the two parts of the team, and making the whole more fluent. He scores goals, but more important is that he lubricates the whole mechanism.

And then the great Uwe Rösler, City fan, talking about the man who in some sense replaced him:

"City often appear to lack enthusiasm when Tevez isn't in the side... He lifts his team-mates and also the crowd through his style of play. In my time at City, Paul Walsh was similar: very busy, never giving up, chasing everything and always looking to create chances.

"In the game at Wolves in October [when Tevez was injured], City got an early goal and then played as if they thought the job was done. They invited Wolves back into the game and ended up losing. With Tevez in the team you have a guy who is up for it all the time and he carries the rest of the players with him."

There's also some interesting stats in that piece, the most striking being that we have won 91.6% of games in which Tévez has scored.

More on Mario

I feel like I have to write more on Mario Balotelli. His performance on Saturday was so compelling, such an open and complete revelation of character, that one paragraph just doesn't do it justice.

There is always a degree of exaggeration, of overshooting, when discussing new signings. Everyone wants to claim that they were there at the start of something special. I am conscious of this trap.

But: Balotelli's performance was unlike anything I have ever seen from a footballer. And the fact that he won us the game, scoring both of our goals, is just a small part of it. From the very first minute it was one long mad battle, against the laws of the game, against the officials, against both West Brom as a team but also against every single one of their players and supporters.

We all know that the thrill of young players is their fearlessness, their lack of reverence of for traditional footballing etiquette and hierarchies. We experienced this with Shaun Wright-Phillips, and, to a lesser extent, with Micah Richards. But I've never seen a young player with so much contempt for etiquette and hierarchies as from Balotelli. Every dive, step-over and flick was soaked with disdain: even for him to raise an accompanying sneer would have been to make too much of an effort.

I'm not sure yet whether it was Never Mind the Bollocks stretched over twice its original length or Rebel Without A Cause compressed to half but it certainly had the smack of either. And, just like James Dean or Sid Vicious, Balotelli at the Hawthornes was willing to storm in, burn a deep impression on his surroundings and his audience and then be expelled from it all in a quick blaze of violence.

But he will be back, at Stoke City on 27 November.

WBA reax

Tim Rich, The Independent

This was not a victory that ends the debate about his suitability to marshal the disparate and brilliant talents of this club but it stilled the crisis triggered by their last trip to the Black Country, eight miles away and eight days ago.

At Wolves, they had looked a disjointed jumble of egos. At West Bromwich, we were reminded why they might be the most refreshing thing to have happened to the Premier League since Kevin Keegan wrote his first programme notes at a newly-promoted Newcastle in 1993, saying he was after Manchester United's title.

Jason Burt, Daily Telegraph

With an impressive performance, City easily arrested their run of three straight defeats which had ratcheted up the pressure on manager Roberto Mancini, who was on the pitch at the end to acknowledge the relentless backing of the visiting supporters.

Daniel Taylor, The Guardian

This will be remembered as the day Mario Balotelli announced his arrival in the Premier League and his new audience stared back with a glazed expression of shock and awe. Balotelli's first two goals in English football had therapeutic qualities for Manchester City, who will like to believe they have answered a few questions about their spirit of togetherness, but then we saw the other side of this gifted but temperamental striker.

West Brom player ratings

Hart After a minor dip in form I think he's getting back to his autumn best - he was impressive under a sustained aerial barrage, although I suppose it ought to be remembered that he was twice beaten when West Brom hit the woodwork. 7

Boateng A funny performance: he's clearly very talented and does some things very well. A few tackles, particularly one in the second half were excellent and some runs of his were as good as those he made during the World Cup. But there were a few moments where his positioning or decision making was unreliable. Still adjusting, but there's clearly an excellent player in here. 6

Kolo Touré A good performance again; no mental freezes, just repeatedly being in the right place at the right time, intercepting and clearing with no obvious problems. 7

Kompany Very good, as usual. Had a difficult physical battle with Marc-Antoine Fortuné but he made almost everything, coming out of some potentially difficult situations always with the ball under control. 7

Zabaleta Reminded us what we all knew - until Aleksandar Kolarov gets fit he's still the best left-back at the club. This was one of his best performances for City, playing flawlessly until his late substitution. He was fierce enough into tackles without getting sent off, his positioning was very good and he tried to help out going forward. Does prompt the question why on earth Mancini tried Wayne Bridge and Joleon Lescott there for so much of the season so far. 8

de Jong Booked for handball within the first five minutes, and this could have inhibited his natural game but he played well: not diving into tackles but always in the right place, crucial to our keeping the ball when we needed to, making 49 of 54 attempted passes. A good demonstration of how good he is without the occasional Lee Cattermole impressions. 7

Yaya Touré His best game for City. Finally showed off the awesome physicality of his runs more than once in a game, taking on West Brom defenders four or five times, and causing panic and problems every time he got going. Defenders don't know how to deal with it, and he ended up taking some fairly brutal treatment as they attempted to stop him. Clearly isn't far from becoming a very useful goal-scoring midfielder, once he further adjusts. 8

Barry Completed 70 passes (from 76), which sounds like the most from a City player for some time. He was very influential, dictating our tempo, breaking up play and buying a few of those free-kicks of his. As with Yaya, there was a notable improvement in effort from Molineux, which was pleasing to see. 7

Silva Were it not for Mario Balotelli all the focus would be on him today. He was just wonderful, again, playing football in a way not many in the Premier League can. There were three passes that were straight out of the Xavi bracket: a reverse pass into the channel for our first goal, a chip down the middle for our second, and one to Jérome Boateng ('Feed the Boat and he will score') that nobody else on the pitch could have conceived of, never mind executed. 8

Tévez As ever, the whole team looked different with him in. Yes, he didn't score, but I'm not sure we could have done it without him. It was his energy and movement that drove the front three on - his run and cross that set up our first goal. When we were down to ten men his hold-up play and leadership was invaluable - he just wouldn't let West Brom have the ball. 8

Balotelli I don't know what to say. This was a performance unlike anything I have ever seen. To start with the obvious: he's clearly a very good footballer: he's strong, quick, technically excellent and has a sharp eye for goal. But - and I wish I had a better way of putting this - he's just mad. Even before the sending off, he was more petulant, more contemptuous than any player I've seen. Not just the diving, the bickering, the running battles but also the skills - the whole array of tricks even at 1-0 up. There is certainly the suspicion that he plays the opponents rather than the game, but it's really something to behold. I need to write more about him soon. 7

Subs:

A Johnson Did a decent job when he came on, stretching the defence and working hard at the back. 7

Kolarov Too late n/a

West Brom 0 - 2 City

• What a response. After a week of whispers and innuendo, and the annual bestowing of the 'crisis club' label upon us, the players produced possibly their best performance of the season. Maybe beating Chelsea was better. But this felt braver, I think, marginally controlled, more dramatic, less a product of Roberto Mancini's plans (althought it certainly was a tactical triumph); it was a battle, a show of strength, a message sent and a proof of force and clarity that the players and the fans remain loyal to Mancini and his approach.

• The plan was fairly simple: keep the ball, slow it down, impose our will on the game in a way that we could not at Molineux last week. Remeber the second half at White Hart Lane in August? Well this was, for the first hour, just like that. With Nigel de Jong, Gareth Barry and Yaya Touré all at the top of their games, we hoarded possession in a way that no many away sides manage to do in the Premier League. With David Silva and Carlos Tévez dropping into midfield alternately we passed the ball with real precision and imagination.

• And it was those two, our two impish conjurers, that created the goals for Mario Balotelli, who shares some of the qualities of Silva and Tévez - ability, competitiveness, imagination - if not impishness itself. (I feel like I ought to write at length about Balotelli's performance yesterday, because it was unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. Honestly. And as one of the 23,013 people there (and as someone who writes about football as a matter of course), I do have a duty to describe it as best I can. But I don't think I can do it tonight.) The first goal came with Silva playing a genius pass into the channel to Tévez, who fired across goal to Balotelli. The second goal started with Silva, who chipped in Balotelli, who shrugged off and spun a defender and fired into the bottom corner.

• The second half was never going to be as easy as the first. West Brom came out stronger: tougher in the tackle and more direct on the ball. The fact that we reduced such a good footballing side to such tactics is an achievement in itself. They did look close to scoring, hitting the woodwork once from distance. But for the most part Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany were as commanding as ever - I hope that our defensive blip is now over - and we resisted. These pressures were exacerbated when Mario Balotelli was sent off; for just over 20 minutes we had to play short-handed. As against Arsenal we fought hard in difficult circumstances, and while we were given the occasional scare it became increasingly apparent that we would come through.

• Three of the best points we'll take this season. This takes some of the edge off Wednesday night (it's inconceivable that there will be serious rumours of Mancini's dismissal even if we lose), as well as making us more confident of a positive outcome. There were some excellent individual performances, but looked most like a team showing, in difficult circumstances, that they have a bit more unity and cohesion than they sometimes like to show us.

Lech 3 - 1 City

• Sorry for the lateness of this post, and the lack of posts recently. There's not really too much to say. It was not a particularly meaningful game, as they go. I think we've still got a good shot at qualification.

• It was a fairly even game for the most part. We didn't play particularly well, but all three goals were difficult to prevent: two excellent hits and one freak bounce. But that said our defence was as patchy as one would expect given Wayne Bridge's inclusion. And we looked short of ideas in the final third: trying to get Adam Johnson involved in one-on-ones but not much else.

• In part it felt like the FA Cup defeat against Nottingham Forest in January 2009. That was when Mark Hughes put out a team of players he inherited: Michael Ball, Gelson Fernandes, Darius Vassell etc, as if to show people the poverty of his resources, to display just what a mess he inherited. Here Mancini played Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emmanuel Adebayor, Joleon Lescott, Shay Given. It's not the same but I did feel some resonance.