The former Manchester City player was clearly distressed with the fact that Manchester united won 2-1 with a spectacular goal from Wayne Rooney and was unable to hold back his emotions.

The unprofessional rant came moments after replays showed the winning goal, with Summerbee claiming that the moment of brilliance was the only thing that separated the two teams.

The bitter blue neglected to take into account the fortuitous way that City equalised, with Edin Dzeko’s shot deflecting off the back of David Silva past Van der Sar, and instead claimd that City had been the better team on the day.

Bizarrely he claimed that the away side had dominated for 60% of the game, then when shown the actal possession statistics of 54%-46% he laughably backtracked and said, “I’m not into stats”.

It was car crash television for Manchester City fans, but hilarious for any reds still tuned in and even Jamie Redknapp and Dwight Yorke struggled to contain their disbelief at what the mentalist was coming out with.

Clearly unhappy with the replays being shown, Summerbee added, “I wish you’d show some of our chances too”. He also claimed that someone will “come here and take United apart some day, like we did”.

The man sums up what it’s like to be a Manchester City fan. bitter, deluded and with no real grasp on reality.

This is how it feels to be City…

Video via ManUnitedYouth on Twitter

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Roj2eqffes

But even I was surprised by his latest comments regarding the state of the game and how it’s driven by money and greed.

“Football is only about money, and I don’t like it,” he grunted.

“There are so many agents with really young footballers. It’s awful, as these young players are not interesting in winning titles, they only want money.

It seems the irony of his words were lost on him. Tevez left the biggest club in the world to go and play for a team that has not won a trophy for a three and a half decades. To hear him talk of values and greed is like being told you’re a bit of a druggy by Pete Doherty.

He has joined the mercenary ranks of Manchester City and taken the massive pay cheque that came with it. But he’s also taken on the burden of playing for a club that are perennial losers and the stress continues to show.

He has repeatedly spoken of his desire to retire from football early and go back home to Argentina.

“Today, the young players have no education at all, and I don’t want to listen to them. When I played in Boca, when [Martin] Palermo or [Juan Roman] Riquelme talked, I listened to them. So I don’t want a young player to tell me ‘why did you do that?’ in the dressing-room. I would punch him, as I have won 13 titles in my career.”

Not wanting to communicate with idiotic footballers who make career choices based on salary offers rather than trophy winning potential is an admirable quality to have, but not when you’re too dense to realise your own hypocrisy.

Last night’s bore draw was about par for the course for City’s season. Mancini regularly opts to play not one, not two, but three defensive midfielders on the pitch, restricting City’s attacking options considerably.

It’s the Italian “we must defend well and try to sneak a goal” attitude that will ultimatey hold City back from becoming real title challengers.

The derby last night was about the most boring I’ve watched in recent years. City were highly defensive, showed very little in attack and had no real desire to try and win the game. More than half an hour had passed before they had a meaningful effort on target, and even that was from a free kick.

It honestly felt like a home game, where one of the relegation battlers is visiting Old Trafford and their tactic is to put every man behind the ball and try to play for a draw.

It actually feels disappointing to come away from their often half empty stadium with just a solitary point after completely dominating possession of the ball.

City’s players will be in no doubt about what the fans thought of their performance as they were booed off the pitch at the final whistle by arguably the worst fans in the league. All that money spent on big name signings and even now they only fill the stadium when United come to town. And we were treated to glorious renditions of “Carlos Tevez is a blue, he hates Munichs” all night. A couple of our own fans didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory last night, but it’s a bit different when the entire stadium is mocking the dead of years gone by. utterly classless from the City fans, but that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from them.

So here’s to 34 more years of turgid, defensive, unimaginitive football and being booed off the pitch by their own fans.

Mary D’s, on Grey Mare Lane, was daubed with graffiti last night ahead of tonight’s Manchester Derby.

The insults included, “Manchester is Red”, “34 years” and “Foe c*nts”.

While the first two are certainly true, the reference to Marc Vivien Foe is utterly dispicable and the United ‘fans’ involved should be ashamed.

It is one thing to taunt your rivals over a lack of success, but another to taunt them over the tragic sudden death of one of their former players.

We’ve suffered enough with people mocking the dead of Munich, but we’ll no longer be able to claim the moral high ground while we have rebel elements of our own fanbase lowering us to their level.

Of course derby days don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. To us as fans it means everything, but in the end you can only win or lose 3 points and form generally goes out of the window. Win or lose at the council house on Wednesday and we’ll still finish comfortably above them at the end of the season.

Now rather than get into the match preview too early, I thought I’d remind you all of some of the reasons why we’ve been laughing at City for so long. Some of the verses are a little out of date, but they’re still good nonetheless.

They’ve got the tallest floodlights in the Football League…

Oh! city are a massive club!

Other verses:

They’ve got the widest pitch in the land

They’ve got 54 players and they’re no f*cking good

They’ve got Curly Watts as a celebrity fan

They play at Gresty Road and Edgerly Park

They go to Wrexham and Cardiff on Euro-aways

They had the future England Captain, but his cruciate went

They won the Shamrock Trophy in 92

They’ve got 3 stars on their new club badge

They’ve got exec boxes with a balcony

They’ve had seventeen managers in twenty years

They take 25,000 to every away

You can see Old Trafford from the Kippax Stand

They’ve got the best goalie the world has ever seen

They’re the second-best team in Division Two

They have a civic reception when they’ve won f*ck all

They had a continental Laser Blue Kappa Kit

They’re going to turn Manchester into Milan

They signed Spencer Prior on deadline day

They’ve got the Gallagher brothers in the Guvernors

They took a quarter of a million to Ewood Park

They’ve got 3007 in a temporary stand

They’ve got the tallest corner flags in the world

They invade their pitch when they win 3 points

They had Ryan Giggs on schoolboy forms

They’ve got a farmyard animal and they play him up front

They’ve got three million fans in Manchester

It’s been 27(28..29……35?) years and they’ve won f*ck all
They’ve got a dirty old slapper with a rusty bell

They’ll stay up for 3 seasons – autumn, winter and spring

They empty Stockport when they play at home

They’ve got four different stands from a Meccano kit

They’re the only team that come from Manchester

All their fans live 10 minutes from Maine Road

They’ve got the biggest bananas in the land

They’ve got a centre forward with grooves in his head

Their managers got a papier mache head

They’ll be relegated by bonfire night

They’ve got salt and pepper on their hot dog stands

They’ve got greenalls bitter in the kippax stand

They’ve got the greenest grass in the whole of the world

They hounded Swales’ mam into an early grave

They’ve got a gypsy curse on their massive pitch

Their best player ever played for Ajax reserves

They had a derby match with Macclesfield

They had Colin Bell who was better than Best(!)

They’ve been relegated ten times

They had a chairman and a manager that wore a wig

They bought Steve Daly for a million quid

They tried to sign Geoff Thomas and he turned ‘em down

They’ve got Bernard Manning as their fattest fan

They used to be little, but now they’re large

They sing racist chants, coz they’ve got no class

Scunthorpe took a deserved lead in the first half with a beautiful strike from Josh Wright. Darron Gibson levelled shortly after with a delicious lob after getting on the end of a long ball from Chris Smalling. Smalling went from provider to finisher minutes later to put United into the lead. And further strikes from Michael Owen and Park Ji Sung gave united breathing room before Martyn Woolford’s late consolation goal.

The hosts dominated the early exchanges and had United on the ropes for much of the first half. A combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping from Tomasz Kuszczac kept Scunthorpe out, until Wright’s screamer into the top corner which the polish ‘keeper could no nothing about. The lead didn’t last long though as Gibson’s perfectly executed lob showed that he can be graceful as well as powerful.

The half time score was 2-1 to the visitors and Scunthorpe will consider themselves unlucky to be behind after a less than convincing first half performance from United, saved only by their clinical finishing.

It was Scunthorpe again who started the second half brightest, putting United on the back foot with some good pressure, but a rapid counter attack from United saw Michael Owen slot the ball past goalkeeper Murphy and sink Scunthorpe hearts.

The hosts never gave up though, pressing for a goal to get them back in the game, with United seemingly content to soak up the pressure and play on the counter. Park ji Sung was next to get on the score sheet after a scramble in the penalty area, leaving Scunthorpe with no chance of clawing themselves back into the game.

Owen rounded of the scoring for United after a penetrative run and shot from Park bounced back off the ‘keeper. The scoreline said United were strolling but in truth they’d ridden their luck and taken their chances very well.

New signing Bebe made an appearance with 15 minutes to go and the early signs were promising. Full of energy, direct running and well balanced, this Portuguese youngster could prove his critics wrong given the chance.

Elsewhere, Chelsea were knocked out by Newcastle at Stamford Bridge (4-3) and Manchester City lost 2-1 to West Brom at The Hawthornes. So all in all a good night for United whose youngsters gave Sir Alex some food for thought ahead of this weekend’s visit to the Reebok Stadium where United take on Bolton Wanderers.

The banner represents the number of years City have gone without winning a trophy, and the ‘handful’ of City supporters who planned to steal it; aimed to burn it at the derby last week.

The ignorant bitters paid to go on the Old Trafford tour, and planned to deviate from the party and head in the direction of the banner. Fortunately the stringent security measures in place inside the stadium halted their cunning plan.

So not only did they fail in their attempt to commit a criminal act, they also paid for the privilege of doing so. Thanks City , for providing us with comedy gold for 34 long and glorious years.

This is how it feels to be City…

Eight Manchester United players died in the Munich disaster when their plane failed to take off. Also amongst the passengers who died that day was an ex Manchester City player – Frank Swift. When their fans show their lack of class by chanting ‘Munich’ at us, they’re also mocking the death of one of their own.

So you have to assume either a) They don’t know the history of their own club, or b) They do know the history, but they dont care.

I’m not quite sure which option is worse. City fans will of course claim that the Munich chants never happened, but if you go to youtube you’re sure to find many videos to the contrary. One thing they can’t deny, however, is that they were throwing inflatable airplanes around in the crowd, as seen here.

Money can buy you mercenaries, but it can’t buy you class!

Neville 7 - Struggled at times with the pace of Bellamy, but his desire, determination and tough tackling encapsulated the derby day spirit.

Evans 8 - Adebayor and Tevez rarely got a sniff of United’s goal.

Vidic 8 - Dominated aerially as usual and made key interceptions to keep City at bay.

Evra 8 - Caught out of position on a couple of occasions, but his attacking contribution was first class. Excellent cross to set up Scholes for the winner.

Valencia 8 - Caused havoc down City’s left flank and created numerous chances that really should have been buried. Giggs and Rooney being the chief culprits. Supported Neville in defence very well.

Gibson 6 - Kept things ticking over in midfield, but didn’t really stand out.

Scholes 9 - Dominated the midfield from the deep lying playmaker position. Dictated the pace of the game and popped up with the wining goal in the dying seconds. Showed why Sir Alex rewarded him with a new contract this week.

Fletcher 7 - Another batting performance from the fiery Scot, but couldn’t keep the limelight off the ginger prince.

Giggs 6 - Quite a poor performance from the Welshman. Sloppy in possession at times and should have done better with Valencia’s excellent cross.

Rooney 5 - Worked tirelessly alone up front, but often lost possession and missed a glorious chance to score the opener just before half time.

A Paul Scholes header with just 10 seconds left on the clock was the decisive goal that sealed the win and kept the pressure on Chelsea at the top of the league.

It was the away side that started brightly, forcing City to retreat into their own third for the opening exchanges, with City not entering United’s half until the 6th minute.

United’s pressure wasn’t paying off though, with numerous spurned chances threatening to haunt them later in the game.

City’s first and only attempt in the first half came from a Carlos Tevez free kick that the Argentine striker had dive to win. His effort was headed for the top corner, when Edwin Van der Sar expertly plucked it from the air.

When the half time whistle blew it was United who had dominated.

The second half started with almost total domination by United who didn’t allow City’s home advantage to affect their obvious superiority. Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney both missed guilt edged chances after good wing play by Antonio Valencia.

Gareth Barry attempted to win the game late on by shamefully diving inside the United area. Martin Atkinson waved away his claims and Barry was fortunate to escape a booking.

The game looked like it was heading for a draw as the final whistle approached, when up stepped Paul Scholes to win the game for the visitors. Patrice Evra‘s cross into the box was met by the unmarked midfielder who headed calmly into the bottom right hand corner past a helpless Shay given.

The final score is a lesson to City that money can’t buy you class, it can’t buy you results and it definitely can’t buy you the winning mentality that flows through Manchester United. The same mentality that enables the team to drive forward looking for a winning goal until the final whistle. The same mentality that means United have beaten their bitter rivals in the dying seconds not once, not twice, but three times this season. And the same mentality that allows United to still dominate City on their own turf even after they’ve spend a quarter of a billion on new players.

The poster featured a picture of Tevez (ironically celebrating a goal for Manchester United against Wigan) with the caption, ‘Welcome to Manchester’. The poster was allegedly a poke at United, whose Old Trafford home has been outside of the city limits since the Local Government Act was introduced in 1972.

United were founded in Manchester, and the boundary changes mean that technically the stadium is outside of those boundaries. Manchester City on the other hand, were formed in West Gorton, which at the time was not part of Manchester. So technically they were never really from Manchester, they just moved here. That’s a secret though, so don’t tell anyone.

Back to the issue, and Carlos Tevez is less than pleased at the behaviour of his employers and insists the poster was nothing to do with him.

“I never understood the intention of that poster,” said the kettle spilling Argie. “What was the point? Tell me. Was it to welcome me to Manchester City, or was it to anger Manchester United? – Nobody ever told me !”

“I’m indifferent towards it, but it is important you know I had nothing to do with the poster. I’d have preferred for it not to have been there. I have respect for all the clubs I used to play for. That was not showing respect, was it?”

It seems nobody told Carlos that Manchester City’s number one focus is and always will be trying to get out of the shadow of their more successful neighbours. Even when funded by a billionaire and aiming for the pinnacle of football, the first thing on their mind was Manchester United. They say a picture paints a thousand words. In this case only one is needed – Bitter!

Tensions are obviously still high between Terry and Bridge as indicated by the non handshake before kick off. Terry put his hand out to shake Bridge’s hand, but the City player blanked the disgraced former England captain and walked right past him.

When the game kicked off there were boos and whistles for Bridge, who was the innocent victim in the whole scandal involving his ex Vanessa Perroncel. Most fans would recognize this and leave Bridge alone, but Chelsea fans, classless as they are, chose to show as much respect as their big man™ captain JT. Utterly despicable, but not altogether surprising.

Thankfully their team got a pasting on the pitch thanks to two goals each from Craig Bellamy and mercenary Carlos Tevez, giving us a huge boost to our title hopes.

Craig Bellamy told Sky Sports what he thought of Terry in his post match interview.

“I think you guys make a lot more of it, you know, em, I know what JT’s like, and nothing surprises me about him, so I’m not going to comment on that guy, em, I think everyone in football knows what the guy’s like.”

Click here to see Bridge snub Terry.

The Champions will be hoping to bounce back in style after the disappointing result at Goodison Park, by beating a West Ham side currently just 4 points above the relegation zone.

United are expected to welcome Rio Ferdinand back into the starting lineup after serving his 4 match ban for violent conduct, alongside Nemanja Vidic who has been absent with a nerve problem. The pair will bring much needed composure to the back line after recent nervy performances by stand-ins Wes Brown and Jonny Evans.

West Ham come to Old Trafford on the back of successive victories against Hull and Birmingham, but boss Gianfranco Zola has hinted that he may make changes.

United are clear favourites for the game, as usual at Old Trafford, but also because West Ham haven’t won an away game since the opening day of the season against Wolves. United beat West Ham convincingly at Upton Park in December.

Having already lost ground on Chelsea in the race for the title, United can’t afford another slip up tonight or they risk gifting the league leaders crucial breathing space. A win tonight puts them one point behind Chelsea who don’t play again until Saturday when they host Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

Squads

Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Foster, Neville, Brown, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Fabio, Park, Anderson, Valencia, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Obertan, Gibson, Rooney, Owen, Berbatov, Diouf.

West Ham (from): Green, Stech, Spector, Faubert, Upson, Tomkins, Da Costa, Daprela, Parker, Behrami, Kovac, Collison, Noble, Diamanti, Stanislas, Cole, Mido, Ilan, Franco, McCarthy.

The defeat shouldn’t really have come as a huge surprise. Everton have found their form at just the right (or wrong depending on who you support) stage of the season. David Moyes’ men headed into the game on the back of impressive results against Portuguese side Sporting and league leaders Chelsea.

And while Manchester United have been in impressive form in the league since the turn of the year, their make shift back four has shown to be an Achilles heal on numerous occasions against teams that don’t just sit back and play for a draw. Whenever teams attack United they’ve looked vulnerable without the assured class of Rio Ferdinand and the all action style of Nemanja Vidic.

Nevertheless, 3 points were lost in the race for the title and Chelsea capitalized by beating Wolves at Molineux, but Carrick insists the title race is far from over, and rightly so. Both teams will drop points in the run in, that much is inevitable, and with Chelsea still to visit Old Trafford in April, he has every reason to be upbeat despite the setback.

Victories against Manchester City at Old Trafford and AC Milan in the San Siro, as well as the demolition of Portsmouth and the comprehensive sweeping aside of Arsenal at The Emirates stadium give Carrick the belief that United will respond to the defeat in true United fashion, by bouncing back with a succession of victories to keep the pressure of Chelsea at the top.

“We have had some massive games in the last month and played really well over that period of time,” Carrick told Sky Sports.

“That is why Saturday was such a shock. I suppose we have to look at it as a one-off. We are certainly not getting too down about things.

“We have to bounce back but the manner of our performances over the past few weeks leads us to believe we can do it again.”

Carrick will have the chance to take on his former club West Ham in United’s next game. He acknowledges the important part West Ham played in his career as a professional footballer, but will be keeping his emotions in check when they take to the field at Old Trafford tomorrow night.

“West Ham gave me my chance,” he said. “They took me away from home, taught me a lot of things and guided me through.

“They gave me a chance in the first team, so I have a lot to thank them for. I still have a lot of friends there who I like to see when I go back.

“But, obviously, when we kick off it is business as usual and I am desperate to get the win.”

The combative midfielder has been in good form for the bitters this season, but appears to have had one or two knocks on the head judging by his latest words.

“I noticed from the moment I arrived in Manchester how many Blues there were compared to Reds,” he told the club’s official website.

It’s a strange comment for a number of reasons.

The first reason being that it simply isn’t true by any stretch of the imagination.

The second being that City regularly fail to fill their stadium. If there are so many City fans walking around on a daily basis why are they not in the council house on match days?

The third and most telling reason why De Jong’s comments are full of delusion is that Manchester United have enjoyed higher attendance figures than their bitter neighbours for over 70 years. This included periods out of the top flight and even several years where United shared Maine Road with City. That’s right, we had higher attendances than them in their own stadium!

So a big well done to Nigel De Jong for playing up to the berties and admitting to the world that he’s as deluded as they are.

The outspoken forward was allegedly struck from behind by the fan and fell to the floor holding his head, and the attacker was moved on by club doormen.

A witness told The Mirror: “He whacked him from behind and Craig fell to the floor. Bouncers jumped in straight away and the guy was carted off.”

Bellamy is no stranger to cowardly attacks. He assaulted a defenceless Manchester United fan while stewards held his arms behind his back during United’s 4-3 win over noisy neighbours City. And was hit by a coin during his team’s Carling Cup defeat to United.

Is karma coming back to haunt Craig? Or has his mouth finally got him into trouble?

The City fanatic will be in mourning after they were beaten 3-1 at Old Trafford, but Gallagher believes looking good on the touchline is an all important asset for any manager.

‘Mancini looks good but then, all Italians are cool. He’s certainly cooler than that Taggart from across the road – he’s a top manager and all that but he looks like a dustbin-man.’

This sharp wit is a trait present in all Manchester City fans. I’m sure you were all in stitches when reading the comments, just as I am.

When details of the presentation for “Best Dressed Manager Of The Year Award” are available I’ll be sire to keep you updated.

His first error came when he welcomed Uwe Rosler into the Manchester United hall of fame, instead of Manchester City.

His second and arguably worse judgement error was his boast last week that it was a matter of “when, not if, we’re at Wembley having beaten Man United yet again!”, only for City to lose after being thoroughly outplayed over two legs.

It’s thought that Sir Alex Ferguson used Cook’s comments in the dressing room before yesterday’s derby and that his words inspired United to victory.

City’s owners have reportedly began to wonder whether he’s the right man to take City forward and he could get the boot as early as the end of the season.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge-0txBMgqo

I bet they regretted taking the seats when Rooney popped up with the winner in injury time.

Full size

The best one of all, that I exposed last week, is that all City fans are from Manchester.

It was exposed again last night, as 38 coaches were parked on the AWAY car park during the game. Amazingly, they weren’t from Manchester.

I couldn’t believe it either, but apparently City fans came from Cheltenham, Blackpool, Preston, Hazel Grove and The Wirral, amongst other places. If we assume there’s 50 people on each coach, that’s 1900 fans out of a total of 9000 that definitely travelled from outside of Manchester.

Another interesting part of the night was the way they sang “This is our City”. And they proudly showed how they own the City when their “firm” of about 50 marched down the road, surrounded by a police escort of about 100, which they had asked for!

Still, ask any City fan what happened last night and you’ll hear stories of how they ran United all over the place.

It just goes to show you that the one thing you need to be a troo bloo is the ability to tell a good lie.

Rafael – 6 - Struggled at times against the impressive Bellamy. Needs to learn to stay calm and develop his footballing brain.

Ferdinand – 7 - Could have done better to keep Tevez out, but other than that he was very impressive. Good to have his experience back in central defence.

Evans – 7 - As against hull, looked much better alongside Ferdinand than he does against Brown.

Evra – 8 - Another fantastic performance from the Frenchman. Up and down the left flank all night.

Nani – 7 - another impressive performance from Nani as he continues his return from injury. A constant thorn in City’s backside, but not quite as impressive as against Hull.

Carrick – 7 - Controlled the midfield with his two partners Scholes and Fletcher. Some errant passes, but made up for it with the second goal.

Fletcher – 7 - Another combative display from the fiery Scot. Set up Carrick’s goal after good work from Nani sent him into the penalty box.

Scholes – 8 - Still our best midfielder on his day. Dominated the middle of the park with ease. Scored the opener.

Giggs – 8 - Started slowly but became an important player in the second half. Opened City up on several occasions and if not for profligate finishing from others we’d have sewn the tie up much earlier.

Rooney – 9 - Excellent performance. His pin point pass sent Giggs through to set up a goal, and he popped up in injury time to score the winner and break City’s hearts. Tevez who?

“I feel I’ve shown I’m at the right club now. Everyone knows how important the fans are and, if I make them happy, it’s an honour.

City is my club now, a place where I feel part of everything.”

Apart from not knowing when to shut up, it displayed yet another dig at united fans following his acrimonious move across the red/blue divide.

Now I’m wondering whether he still feels he made the right decision.

After scoring 3 goals over 2 legs of football against us and still finishing on the losing side, we’ve proven once again that there are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Manchester United.

♫ This is how it feels to be City, this is how it feels to be small.

This is how it feels when your team wins nothing at all, nothing at all. ♫

Even at a time when we were relatively unsuccessful, we were still bringing more fans to their own stadium than they were, which actually reflects the red/blue split in Manchester quite well. 70% red 30% blue sounds about right. Just watch when goals go in at both ends, all you can see are reds, reds and more reds.

On the pitch, it was Bryon Robson, Arthur Albiston and Mike Duxbury who did the damage as United eased to a 3-0 win.

Enjoy the show.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ha3Xhu8teQ

For Manchester United it’s a chance to show their noisy neighbours that they’re still the top dogs in Manchester, despite the huge sums of money spent this Summer. The added value of a win will also mean another year is added onto the famous banner in the Stretford End that records the number of years since City last won a trophy.

For City, this is simply their biggest game for decades. Not only is it against their biggest rivals, but it could symbolize a turning of the tide in Manchester. It could send a message that City are finally on their way to glory and become a stepping stone to greater things. When Manchester United won the Carling Cup in 2005, they got a taste of success and have dominated the league since. A win for City against the Champions tonight and against Aston Villa in the final could be the springboard that City need to mount a serious title challenge next season.

The online bookies all seem to be favouring the home side tonight, but events in the first leg could carry some passion into the second leg, meaning it won’t be an easy task for United.

City will be expected to play a big part in the outcome of tonight’s game, but while reading a thread on a betting forum earlier today I realized just how poor their away form has been recently. They conceded 3 goals at both Bolton and Tottenham. Conceded 2 more at Everton and another 2 at Scunthorpe, albeit in a 4-2 win.

The stats suggest their defence is there for the taking, but do United have what it takes to carve it open? In Wayne Rooney I believe they do. The England striker is in the form of his life at the moment and currently sits atop the Premier league goalscoring chart with 19 goals to his name. After pledging his future to United following recent speculation about his future, he’ll be eager to put in a performance tonight that will turn the tie back in United’s favour.

But as the saying goes, form goes out of the window when derby day comes around, so we’re sure to be in for a few twists and turns once Howard Webb blows the whistle at 8pm tonight.

City will no doubt sit back on their slender advantage and play on the counter attack, with United dominating possession as they did in the first leg. The game hinges on United’s ability to turn their possession into goals while at the same time dealing with City’s counter attacking tactics. Rio Ferdinand will bring some experience to the defence and be a leader from the back, while Rooney will work his socks off up front trying to create and score goals. If United can break through City’s defence early it will either be a very comfortable evening for the reds or turn into a very entertaining derby with end to end action. My money is on the latter.

What will the final score be?

Leave your predictions in the comments.

The biggest and most idiotic lie of them all is that most Mancunians support City and all United fans are from outside of the City borders. You would think common sense would take hold of people being told such a lie, but alas the lie has spread and is repeated by  Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal fans and plenty of other clubs around the country.

Even on the face of it, the idea that Manchester United, arguably the biggest club in the world, cannot attract a local following is absurd. City fans will tell you that all of United’s fans are glory hunters, but even if that were true, would there not be any local glory hunters? This simple logic escapes most City fans, that’s why they’re affectionately known as “The Liars”.

Now for the facts.

Manchester United have had a bigger average attendance than City every single for the last 71 years. the last time City had a higher average attendance than us was in 1939. You can check this for yourself at the library.

It’s not just because we have a bigger stadium either. We shared Maine Road for eight years after the war and still managed to attract bigger attendances than them in each of those eight years IN THEIR OWN STADIUM. City wouldn’t come close to filling Old Trafford today. They only fill Eastlands when they play United.

I’ve lived in this City for decades and not once growing up, going through school, or in any place of work have I ever experienced an environment that had more City fans than United. We outnumber them everywhere I’ve ever been. In some parts of the City centre it’s even possible to find more Liverpool fans than City, that’s how ridiculous the lies are, but they continue to spout them.

So the next questions is obviously: Why do they put out such a poor lie that’s so easily shot down?

The truth is that it only became an issue once we became successful in the early 90′s. Before that point nobody cared where anyone came from because it didn’t matter. We were “also rans” in the league every season so City didn’t have much to complain about. Ever since Fergie turned us into the team that has dominated the last two decades of English football, City have come up with more and more lies about us due to their jealousy and bitterness.

They needed a stick to beat us with and because we do have one of the biggest fanbases in the world, possibly the biggest, they’ve turned that around into a bizarre theory that every United fan is a glory hunter from London or abroad. They conveniently forget about the half a century prior to our success where we still had much bigger attendances, even when we were relegated to the league below them.

So the next time you hear someone tell you that most Mancunians are City fans, ask them where they’ve all been hiding for the last 71 years because I’d love to know.

United are, have always been and always will be the best supported club in Manchester.

Nice of the City fan to film it for us. Also note the “MUNICH” chants. They’re a classy bunch.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=snRUfkB42LU

Here it is again from inside the United end.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oU4ep2uhXk

Now this is City’s cringeworthy Blue Moon, with a slight interruption from United’s red flare.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rV_B3-U_xU

So who wins? For me it’s a flawless United victory. United’s flare completely outshone (literally) City’s stage managed cringe fest.

United also won off the pitch, with City being run off their own patch all over Beswick. Some had a go but they were last season out of breath hiding in Asda.

It just goes to show that they all love the Munich chanting when there’s a pitch to separate us, but when they come face to face they get on their toes in the opposite  direction. Massive fans!

Some ridiculous refereeing sees United trail their bitter rivals 2-1 heading into the second leg of their semi final, but Phelan believes United have the quality to overturn the deficit and book heir place at Wembley.

“We want to keep some consistency in our game. At City there were signs that Manchester United are on the way forward. If we can stick the ball in the back of the net we are in business.

“It will be intense next week. It should be intense. We are at home. Our supporters will want that. We should be okay as long as we have a fully fit team.

“The players are disappointed and that is a good sign. They should be disappointed because they know they could have come away from the game with more than a 2-1 defeat.

“People keep saying the Carling Cup is not on anyone’s priority list. But it is a cup game. When you get to the semi-final of a cup you want to get to the final. Both clubs are desperate for that.

“We have been in many and we want to taste another. It is all to play for. We are pleased we put on a performance. We didn’t score the goals that we wanted to. But all being well we can do the right thing on the night next week.”

City played nothing like a side that’s capable of coming to Old Trafford and beating us or even leaving with a draw. They were camped in their own half for much of the game, while United dominated possession and mounted attack after attack. One of those attacks paid off when Ryan Giggs tapped in the deflection after a good save from Rooney’s near post effort and united were looking very much in control of the game. City had nothing to offer.

Things changed however, when the shambolic referee decided to award City a penalty for a foul that was clearly outside the box. It begs the question, what prompted Merseyside born Mike Dean to make one of the worst decisions of his error laden career?

However undeserved, it gave City some momentum and some confidence to actually play a little bit. They created one or two more chances after that and were more adventurous in their attacks. United were still dominating the majority of play though, while City relied on counter attacks from the often isolated Bellamy.

The winning goal came from a corner that possibly shouldn’t have been given. Dean apparently saw a flick off Rafael that was very hard to see on television replays. Nevertheless, United defended the corner badly and the kettle spiller was left free in the middle of the box to tap in the winner.

After my initial drunken rant last night though, I’m not feeling too bad about the defeat at all. We dominated City on their own turf. They looked poor for most of the game and if not for another shocking performance from smug looking Mike Dean we’d have come away with a draw minimum.

With the Stretford End behind us next week I have full confidence that we can overturn this deficit. There was another occasion in recent seasons where we brought a team back to Old Trafford and were carrying a 2-1 deficit. Does anyone remember how that ended up?

I’m not predicting the same result this time around, but with a more adventurous starting line up from Fergie and City inevitably camped in their own half desperately hanging onto their slender advantage, I can see us winning comfortably at home to those undeserving cretins who are under the mistaken impression that they deserve success.

Now I’m not into conspiracy theories. I’ve always been of the opinion that bad decisions happen to every team sporadically throughout the season. And while decisions don’t ever even themselves out like the old wives tale suggests , they do seem to happen to most teams every now and again.

This season has been something different though. Since Fergie had a go at Wiley I can remember very few decisions that have gone in our favour, and many that have gone against us, not least two key decisions tonight.

The first one was the non-existent penalty that was given, and the second was the corner that City scored their second from.

Rafael was naively caught out of position by a good Tevez pass and a good Bellamy run in behind him. Rafael, as he tends to do when caught out of position, had his hands all over Bellamy as he fought to get back into position.

He fouled Bellamy well outside the box and the referee gave nothing. He then fouled Bellamy again still outside the box, but the referee Mike Dean immediately gave a penalty without a moments hesitation, with that usual smug look on his face as if he knows his decision is wrong but he doesn’t care anyway.

Dean justified the penalty by insisting it was for the second foul. This brings up two issues:

If you don’t give the first foul you can’t give the second for the exact same thing. If anything, you allow an advantage to be played and if there is no advantage to be had, you pull it back for the initial foul.

The first foul was well outside the box and the second foul, while being closer to the box, was still outside of it. If this is the foul that Dean has given a penalty for then he has to come out and admit that he’s got the decision wrong.

The second one is more debatable. Should it have been a corner? Personally I think not, but I’d like to see a few more replays before I give my definite opinion.

It wasn’t just those two though. Carlos Tevez went in late with his studs raised and raked them across Wes Brown’s knee. it’s a yellow card offence minimum, but Dean didn’t think so. Further into the game Bellamy went in two footed and late on Valencia. It could have been a yellow card in itself, but to trip a United player 20 seconds later and still not get booked was quite frankly ridiculous.

It’s becoming all too familiar though. Big decisions are going in our opponents favour more often than not and it’s becoming slightly obvious now.

I’m sure City fans won’t care that they should have lost tonight’s game and that Mike Dean has gifted them one foot into their first final since 1981. And I’m sure a lot of them will come on here and call me a sore loser. I’m sure the more deluded ones all of them will all also tell me that it was a definite penalty and they were the better team.

The team going away from the council house tonight aggrieved at the result is obviously us. We dominated the majority of the game and could have won comfortably. At the very least we should have been heading back to Old Trafford with a 1-0 lead and with a proper referee in the second leg we just might be able to put this outrageous result right.

And with a little bit of honesty from the FA, Mike Dean will be refereeing in the Championship next week as punishment for his disgraceful performance tonight.

The United boss was speaking ahead of the game at Eastlands tonight and thinks the fact that the Carling Cup would be City’s first trophy in 34 years has no bearing in games like these.

“It is a popular argument that this means more to City,” Sir Alex told the M.E.N.

“But, as far as I am concerned, it is a semi-final. It doesn’t matter how many you have played in, they are occasions you always want to do well in.

“The rivalry creates far more emotion. You can’t compare United and City to Rangers and Celtic, but we are obviously in the same City and they are also making a better fist of their league programme this year.”

The money grabber made the switch across Manchester in the summer, despite claiming he loved the club and the fans.

It hurts Evra to see his mate wearing the blue of City, but he’ll do all he can to keep a lid of the frisbee chaser tonight in the Carling Cup semi final.

“I am very excited about this game. I get a text from Carlos every day,” said Evra. “I congratulated him on his hat-trick against Blackburn but he replied that was just the warm-up for United! But I told him no chance.

“I will do the same to him as I did in the league. I remember when he shot and I made a tackle at the last second. The ball hit the post because I touched it,” Evra told the M.E.N.

“I have to do the same. I don’t want him to score against us. It is still painful when I see him wearing a Manchester City shirt.

“It was not easy for him to move because Carlos was a Manchester United fan in his heart. It was not easy for him. Now he is starting to play well and he is scoring a lot of goals.

“For me, he is a champion guy. I am not surprised how well he is doing because he has a great mentality and a great spirit. He showed he was a good player when he was at Manchester United and now he is doing the same at City.

“But I hope tonight he doesn’t show that type of attitude against us.”

The Arab owners have already shelled out hundreds of million of pounds of exppensive signings like Carlos Tevez, Emmanual Adebayor and Gareth Barry, but Beckham knows it takes a lot more than that to become as big as United.

“City will never be bigger than United. Being successful and one of the most recognised clubs in the world doesn’t come from the money. It’s about history.”

History is one thing City will never have. Chelsea have shown that when you spend your way to the title the success is hollow, then after a couple of home draws the fans are booing the team off the pitch again.

As soon as the arabs get bored with their plaything, City fans will be back to going to the council house dressed as blue plastic seats again.

The French left back believes United will be looking to edge closer to winning a trophy tomorrow night, whereas bitter rivals City will be more focused on beating us.

“We know the City people are talking about this game,” he said.

“But we are playing it to go one more step closer to winning the cup, maybe they are playing it to beat us. That is the difference between the two clubs.

“For us it is not just about beating Manchester City.

“Yes, it is an important game but Manchester United play a lot of big games.”

Evra also thinks the 4-3 derby win in September was the best atmosphere he’d ever experienced at Old Trafford, even better than against Barcelona.

“People always ask me what is the best atmosphere I have ever experienced at Old Trafford,” he said.

“Before it was Barcelona and the game against Roma.

“But when we beat City 4-3 it was crazy. Everyone was on the pitch at the end, the noise was incredible.

“More importantly, City had been doing well. But when they lost that game against us they started to struggle.

“If we win this match it might affect them again.”

The Argentine frisbee chaser was offered the chance to extend his stay at Old Trafford, but turned it down in favour of a massive payrise to move to our bitter neighbours.

“What Tevez is doing now is not an issue for me,” he told Sky Sports.

“We made a pitch, he didn’t take it, and he went to City. It’s no problem for us, we have moved on.

“It’s not the end of the world for us. He’s done well and so be it, but I’ve got no issues about it.”

We all know they’re a massive club with massive fans, and it appears Mancini has now heard about how massive they are too.

“The potential is massive, there are strong teams and historic rivals that have always dominated the league” he told Il Corriere Dello Sport.

The City boss also praised United for how well we’ve coped without Ronaldo, and believes we’re an institution that will never die.

“As for United, they sold Ronaldo, but they are still winning. They are like Milan without Kaka. They are immortal.”

The Inter Milan cast-off said: “I don’t believe United dominate the Premier League as much as they used to because now you have Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal plus City and Aston Villa, so many teams who can finish in the top four.

“And I think that has made it really difficult for United to dominate as they used to. They don’t look as strong as they did.”

It’s hard to imagine how a team can be more dominant than winning the league 3 seasons in a row. We’re the only team to have done it since the inception of the Premier League era and we’ve actually done it twice.

It took Vieira 9 years to win 3 titles with Arsenal!

He’s probably still sore from being dominated by Roy Keane time and time again when he was with Arsenal.

The former United midfielder was the subject of a bid totalling £14Million by his ex Inter Milan boss, but rejected the offer citing that happiness is more important than money.

“It’s not a fact of money. First of all is the family, and second, I have made a decision and I want to respect it, that is what I feel and Estudiantes is the place where I feel comfortable,” he told Sky Sports.

“If I would have accepted this offer I wouldn’t have been true with my convictions, with myself and with the people.”

Veron’s agent Miguel Perez confirmed that the deal involved £7M for Estudiantes and £7M to sign Veron on a twelve month contract.

“Veron said to me that he received a phone call from Mancini and that he had offered him £7million and the same to Estudiantes for a one-year contract.

“In addition, that amount would have got duplicated if he would have continued at Manchester City during 2011.”

Manchester City have issued a statement on their official website saying they’re in talks with Greater Manchester Police, the City Council’s Safety Advisory Group, Manchester United and the Football League to discuss whether the game should do ahead as planned.

They have warned fans who are travelling from far away for the match to stay put until further notice, rather than travel all the way to Manchester for the game to be postponed.

Make sure you stay up to date with the latest travel and weather information or you could be wasting your journey.

Update: The game has officially been called off.

The rearranged first leg will now be played on January 19 with the return at Old Trafford on January 27.

“We’ve only lost twice all season, despite everything that has been said and written about us, and that was one of them, in the 99th minute at Old Trafford,” Shay Given told The Times.

The official goal time was 95:27. More than three and a half minutes shy of the 99th minute.

The Irishman admits it took him a while to get over it. He went on to rewrite history by claiming Manchester City played well.

“It took me a good few weeks, even a couple of months, to get it out of my system,” he continued.

“We played so well that day and for them to get such a late, late goal – it was very difficult for everyone to swallow really.”

It seems Given has forgotten about United’s total domination of the second half. We had more possession, more shots, more corners, more territorial advantage, and the most important statistic of all – more goals!

The only reason the scoreline was so close is because Rio Ferdinand and Ben Foster decided to leave their brains at home that day. The scoreline flattered City when we could easily have won by 3 or 4 goals, such was our dominance.

And hopefully we’ll reignite that spirit on Wednesday and bounce back from the Leeds result by thrashing City.

It’s been suggested that Ferguson could abandon his youth policy in favour of  his star players for the meeting with United’s local rivals. United fans are keen to deny City the opportunity to win their first trophy in 33 years and are eager to see a healthy amount of experience on the pitch on Wednesday.

However, Ferguson has insisted that he will play the likes of Danny Welbeck, Darron Gibson, Gabriel Obertan and Ritchie De Laet in the first leg of the tie at Eastlands on Wednesday.

“I will stick with the principle of picking young players on Wednesday,”  Ferguson told the Manchester Evening News.

“That is what we have done in the Carling Cup and we are not changing that.”

He added that the youngsters who play in the semi will also be picked for the final against either Aston Villa or Blackburn if United overcome City as a reward for their excellent performances.

The often outspoken Ipswich boss thinks the length of time Hughes spent at Manchester United should have made him turn down the City job, in which he lasted 18 months.

”I’m disappointed for him of course I am,” he told Sky Sports News.

“I think when you’re involved with a club like United, as Sparky was over his career, you shouldn’t go to a club like City. I think you should try and get employment somewhere else. I think Sparky is probably better off.”

Keane did however, reserve praise for Hughes, who he believes to be a top manager.

“Hopefully he’s enjoying his break and he’ll come back because he’s a top manager,” he added. ”He did a great job at Blackburn and Wales. He’ll go on to be a top manager no doubt about that, but he’s probably better off out of City.”

The media have all but crowned Chelsea as Champions over the past week after they beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates, but they’ve come crashing back to Earth today after losing 2-1 at Eastlands.

We’ve now moved to within two points of Chelsea at the top of the table and we have our bitter blue neighbours to thank for it.

United will take on City in two clashes for a chance to got to Wembley to play either Aston Villa or Blackburn Rovers in the final.

Hughes remembers a time when Sir Alex always played his strongest line up in the competition, but in recent times he’s used the Carling Cup to give the youngsters a chance to impress.

“Sir Alex never used to play weakened sides in the competition,” Hughes told sky sports.

“I seem to recall during my time at Blackburn they were a pretty strong side in the semi-final.

“We will have to wait and see. That is his decision.”

Nevertheless, Hughes is confident his City side can beat any eleven players Sir Alex sends out. And he has acknowledged the importance of getting to the final of a competition, after 33 years without a trophy.

“We will enjoy it,” he said. “Over two games we would back ourselves against anybody.

“We want to get to a Wembley final. This club has not had many experiences of that in recent times.”

He insists the club are heading in the right direction, even though recent results would seem to point to the opposite being true. Seven points from the last seven games is what has been garnered from seven straight draws. Whichever way you slice it, one point per game over the course of a season will get you relegated more often than not.

“We are at a point now where we are reasonably pleased with where we are. You can’t deny we are going in the right direction,” Hughes said.

“Comparisons are always made between ourselves and Chelsea. We started from a lot further behind. We need a little bit of time.”

The Manchester City manager is confident his team is capable of beating all comers, including United, so can’t wait for the fixtures to come around.

“The whole of Manchester will be tuning in and we’re looking forward to some fantastic games,” Hughes said.

“We would have fancied ourselves against anyone in the draw, so bring them on.”

United beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 on Tuesday thanks to two goals by Darron Gibson. And City beat Arsenal 3-0 tonight to win their place in the last four.

United will travel to Eastlands for the first leg of the tie, with the game scheduled to be played on the week commending January 4th.

The winners will face either Blackburn Rovers or Aston Villa in the final.

Despite Sir Alex Ferguson publicly stating that Tevez wasn’t worth the £25 million being asked for him, City fans believed they were getting one up on us – their bigger, more successful neighbours. The culmination of this delusion resulted in the now infamous “Welcome to Manchester” banner erected by City, featuring a picture of Carlos Tevez. I was the ultimate act of immaturity and for many it cemented their place as “a small time club with a small time mentality”, as Sir Alex expertly put it.

For all of Carlos’ effort during the course of matches, there wasn’t a significant amount of quality to his game, and while many fans would have liked to see him stay in the red shirt, his loss was certainly accepted as being negligible. His paltry 5 league goals in 29 league games last season illustrating the lack of end product he brought to our attack.

Nevertheless, City fans were in raptures when he signed on the dotted line for a reported £47 million and couldn’t wait to rub it in the face of United fans.

Fast forward a few months and the situation has changed completely. City fans are seeing Tevez for exactly what he is. Many of them are calling for him to be dropped from the starting line up and some are even saying he should be sold off asap.

It’s funny what a difference a few months can make, but they do have good reason to be disappointed.

Tevez has score 4 goals in 1022 minutes of football, including 13 starts and 1 substitute appearance. For £47 million you expect a hell of a lot better than that.

Contrast those statistics with Michael Owen – signed on a free transfer – who has scored 4 goals in just 540 minutes of football and you can see who got the better deal this Summer.

Owen – One goal every 135 minutes.
Tevez -  One goal every 255 minutes.

Michael Owen has been twice as effective as Carlos Tevez, despite being restricted mainly to substitute appearances. We signed a much better striker and saved £47 million the process.

But it gets better than that(unless your name is Bertie Magoo). Tevez has now revealed how tired he is of playing football. The work horse said yesterday he may quit football for good if Argentina win the World Cup next Summer.

“I have a contract with Man City until 2014, but I am thinking of retiring if Argentina win the World Cup.

“I am tired of football, really tired. I want to enjoy my family, to stop and have some quiet in my life. I have already won a lot. I am exhausted.

“I have lived in England for four years and I can’t say a word in English.

“Even my daughter talks in English! At night she asks me to tell her a story, and I have to invent one, but she laughs at me.

“But I am happy in England. I play golf after the training sessions and that relaxes me. And I spend as much time as I can with my wife and daughter.”

So, despite City’s best efforts, they have once again made a complete laughing stock of themselves and helped us confirm that Sir Alex pulled off a masterstroke by getting rid of the Argentine midget.