Some solid results, but no signings for Mancini
By Aaron Leggott
Sunday afternoon sees City contest against the Champions of Europe and FA Cup holders, Chelsea, at Villa Park for the first piece of silverware of the season.
It is of course the Community Shield, and after pre-season tours of Austria and China, as well as trips to Germany and Ireland, it is fair to say Mancini is ready and raring for the new campaign.
The pre-season results have been impressive, seeing only one defeat in our opening fixture against Al Hilal and one draw against Dynamo Dresden.
We'll forgive the players for those two performances and put it down to shaking off the rust, as ever since the Besiktas game, we have looked a formidable side ready to fight to retain our Premier League crown.
Both the Al Hilal and Dresden games were poor encounters, with the only goal in the 180 minutes coming from Hilal player Shaker Nawaf Alabid.
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| Aguero and Tevez look a force to be reckoned with after pre-season Photo: Dino Panato/Getty Images Europe |
However, thanks to goals from Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany, we easily saw off the stern challenge of Besiktas to finish off our tour of Austria in style.
The front pair of Aguero and Carlos Tevez, played in every friendly up to now, (bar Limerick) have looked deadly together, and I have a feeling many Premier League managers will be facing sleepless nights in finding how to stop them both from finding the target.
In an effort to boost fitness levels and almost certainly attempt to boost revenue, City made the long trip to China and Malaysia for their next couple of games. Perhaps meeting Jackie Chan gave the Blues the fighting spirit to beat Arsenal, as we saw off Arsene Wenger's side thanks to goals from Pablo Zabaleta and Yaya Toure.
Unfortunately, captain Kompany was forced to travel home due to an injury, but we have been told that he should be fit for our game against Southampton at the latest.
Another straight forward win last week against Malaysia XI ensured the Blue's were well on track in preparation for the new season, but despite previous campaigns in recent times, there were no new faces joining up with the team.
Despite being heavily linked with the Blues all summer, and being undoubtedly the biggest transfer story of the close season, Robin van Persie will not be joining City according to Mancini.
However, time is starting to run out if Mancini wants to bring in any fresh faces. There have been some strong rumours regarding Daniel Agger making the short journey to the Etihad Stadium for a fee of around £20 million, whilst the likes of Daniele de Rossi and Scott Sinclair have also been reported to be on Mancini's radar.
Other positives for us have been renewing both Mancini's and Kompany's contract, with our captain pledging his future to the club for another six years, which will be the biggest signing of the summer.
So, trips to Germany and Ireland last weekend meant the Blues finished pre season on a high, thanks to a 2-0 win at the Volkswagen Arena against Wolfsburg, and a straight forward 4-0 win against Limerick on Sunday night.
Now, with just the Community Shield to play before we kick off against Southampton, I am expecting a tough affair but hopefully we continue our impressive form and grab a win against a much stronger Chelsea side to the one we saw last season.
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(c) The Sky Blue View 2012
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