By Chris Wright

According to the Daily Mirror and Mail among others, Manchester City’s Micah Richards has been moved to delete his @officialMR2 Twitter account and asked police to investigate after receiving torrents of racist abuse from a ‘small but depressing minority of people’ over the past few months.

The Mirror call the abuse ‘sickening’ without, one suspects, being privy to any specifics – but what we will say is that, if the offending messages are even half as vitriolic and poisonous as the Tweets that Stan Collymore chose to publicise not so very long ago, we can’t blame Richards for packing it in.

His Twitter account may be deleted but, as our friends over at Anorak are quick to point out, Micah is still available to racially abuse in person should these cowardly little f**kwits have the plums to surrender the safety of their anonymity.

Let’s see shall we?

                          

By Chris Wright

‘The Hart Fart’ appears to be a phenomenon that most Man City fans are aware of already, being as though their official in-house television channel has already produced an in-depth analysis package to accompany the video.

For the unenlightened, the clip is taken from City’s 2011 blooper reel and sees Joe Hart letting go of a little bum toot in the back of a taxi, with captain Vincent Kompany trying desperately to keep a straight face in order to admonish young Joseph and his rogue sphincter, while Micah Richards just explodes in fits of howling laughter…

Yep. They roped in Noel Gallagher to pundit a fart.

Via Dirty Tackle

                          

Manchester City 3-0 Fulham – Premier League – 4th February 2012

Manchester City put the disappointment of that midweek defeat against Everton behind them at a snowy Etihad Stadium on Saturday, coasting to victory against a Fulham side who rarely threatened Joe Hart’s goal.

In a game peppered by stoppages so ground staff could clear the snow off the pitch, City look menacing every time they got forward but eventually took the lead on 10 minutes courtesy of a very soft penalty. Adam Johnson “made the most” of contact in the box from Chris Baird and Brede Hangeland, going down easily to win his side a spot-kick which Sergio Aguero deftly converted.

City’s second goal was another case of misfortune for the Cottagers, with Baird putting through his own net from Johnson’s cross/shot. However, Roberto Mancini’s side deserved to be a couple of goals up after a succession of superb attacks.

The visitors’ best efforts came courtesy of Clint Dempsey and Simon Davies, but on 72 minutes, City made it three, with Edin Dzeko firing home after excellent work from Aguero.

The home side did hit their own post late on when Dzeko deflected a Bryan Ruiz cross off the woodwork but City were good value for their victory, and even managed to hand new-boy David Pizarro a debut.

So the Citizens go three points clear at the top, at least temporarily, while Fulham are now seven points clear of the drop-zone.

Photos…

Highlights…

Photos: PA

                          

By Chris Wright

Whereas I’m pretty sure it would have still gone in on the other side of Joe Hart’s goal, Darron Gibson’s heavily deflected winner against Man City last night saw his old club Manchester United go level on points with their rivals at the summit of the Premier League – pretty much making his goal last night the best thing he ever did for United, indeed they were chanting his name 30 miles away at Old Trafford when the news broke…

Gibbo’s goal has gone down so well with his former teammates that Rio Ferdinand has tweeted him this morning to genuinely offer the Everton midfielder a free dinner at his Rosso restaurant (the food’s lovely, though the herbs are a little strong).

How nice.

                          

You may have noticed that Everton’s win over Man City at Goodison had to be halted last night for five or so minutes when a fan made his way onto the pitch and handcuffed himself to the frame of Joe Hart’s goal, before having the cuffs taken off with boltcutters, being forcibly removed by the police and ejected from the ground entirely.

The 46-year-old man was subsequently charged with ‘going on to the grassy bit at a football match’ and bailed with conditions to appear before Liverpool Magistrates Court on February 17th.

It has since come to light that the chap’s name is John Foley, and he was protesting against budget airline Ryanair; their wage structure (hence the “Europe’s Greatest Training Robbers – RYANAIR – Lowest Wages” t-shirt) and their recruitment policy; specifically the fact that they won’t give his daughter a job – though what that has to do with Everton’s woodwork is anybody’s guess.

Clear? Nope, us neither. Good luck John, whatever it is you’re blathering on about.

[Photos: PA]

                          

By Alan Duffy

Everton 1-0 Manchester City – Premier League – 31st January 2012

Roberto Mancini’s nouveau riche Citizens just can’t seem to put any decent daylight between them and their Manchester rivals in the race for the title. Once again, City stumbled to a surprise defeat against a hard-working Everton side.

Former United midfielder Darron Gibson was the goal-hero for the Toffees, firing home on the hour-mark after a Leighton Baines corner. City did their best to respond, but sorely lacked the influence of their Ivorian midfield general, Yaya Toure.

French schemer Samir Nasri did hit the woodwork on a couple of occasions, but this definitely wasn’t one of City’s best performances.

With  new signing Nikica Jelavic paraded around Goodison at the break, and a fine win against the league-leaders under their belts, things are looking up for David Moyes’ men. As for City, the question remains; despite all their wealth, will their lack of experience in a title fight be their downfall?

Oh, and one Everton fan handcuffed himself to Joe Hart’s goal-post towards the end of the first-half, which caused a five-minute delay. No doubt, we’ll see more on this rather bizarre incident on Pies’ very soon.

Photos…

Highlights to follow…

Photos: PA

                          

By Chris Wright

Short, sweet and does exactly what it says on the tin – like Warwick Davis smeared in a mixture of Nutella and Ronseal.

But enough about the sketchbook that got me thrown out of Art College, here’s Vincent Kompany – Manchester City’s erstwhile captain and leader – being sent arse-over-teats backwards after being sneaked snuck snaken snook crept up on by a small blue ninja stealth bag during training…

Looks like this four-match ban has hit poor Vinnie hard.

Video: City TV

                          

By Alan Duffy

Liverpool 2-2 Manchester City (Aggregate 3-2) – Carling Cup Semi-final – 25th January 2012

Liverpool came from behind twice against Manchester City at Anfield to secure a place in the final of the Carling Cup, and their first appearance at Wembley in 16 years.

City opened the scoring on the half-hour mark, courtesy of a 25-yard Nigel De Jong super looper, but the Dutchman’s strike had come somewhat against the run of play.

Indeed, Stefan Savic endured a torrid first-half in the centre of City’s defence, with goalkeeper Joe Hart forced into a number of superb stops. However, with the clock ticking towards half-time, Micah Richards was rather harshly penalised for an nigh-on unavoidable handball – with Steven Gerrard converting the spot-kick.

With Savic hauled off at half-time and replaced with Sergio Aguero, Roberto Mancini chased the victory and City once again look the lead on 67 minutes – Edin Dzeko prodding home Aleksander Kolorov’s superb cross.  However, the Reds did get their deserved equaliser just seven minutes later, when former City man Craig Bellamy pulled the old give-and-go with Glen Johnson and slipped a superb effort past Hart and into the back of the net.

So while Mancini and co. will no doubt be left bemoaning the performance of referee Phil Dowd, Kenny Dalglish and his charges will be preparing for the final against Cardiff City, i.e, Liverpool’s first Wembley appearance in a very, very long time.

The big question is, I suppose, whether or not the Reds will wear those dashing cream suits again on the big day?

Photos…

Highlights…

Photos: PA

                          

By Chris Wright

Given that he really shouldn’t have been on the pitch by that time, Tottenham had every right to feel absolutely bloody eviscerated at the final whistle seeing as Mario Balotelli both won and then subsequently rolled home a 95th-minute penalty to nab all three points for Man City with the final touch of the game at the Etihad.

After a ponderous first-half, the game sparked into life after the interval – with four goals in nine minutes finding the back of the net courtesy of Samir Nasri (adding a sweet first-time finish to David Silva’s cute through-ball), Joleon Lescott (bundling home with his perineum), Jermain Defoe (capitalising on Stefan Savic’s wayward header to roll past Joe Hart and into an empty net) and Gareth Bale – who did this to equalise at 2-2…

Beauty.

Come the 65th minute, cometh the man. Mario Balotelli emerged from the bench – replacing the really quite useless Edin Dzeko - and found time to get booked for brushing Benoit Assou-Ekotto aside, not get booked for kicking seven shades of Tibetan Fox out of Scott Parker’s face, get bought down in the area deep into stoppage time (Ledley King’s only mistake in 90+ minutes) and then steer the resultant penalty past Brad Freidel all without so much as breaking into a jog.

In short, t’was a spiffing football match. For everyone of a non-Tottenham persuasion.

Photos…

Highlights…

Photos: PA

                          

By Chris Wright

In which, shortly before scoring the winning penalty in Man City’s at-the-buzzer victory over Tottenham yesterday afternoon, Mario Balotelli – for reasons unknown – quite obviously rakes his studs down Scott Parker’s Tibetan Fox face…

Not our Mario’s finest moment. In fact, it’s pretty disgusting on his part. Needless, opportunistic, completely intentional and potentially incredibly dangerous – not to mention a nailed-on red-card offence.

We don’t want to go all Daily Mail on you, but Parker could have been blinded given the angle and venom behind the stamp. Balotelli had no idea where he was planting those studs as he raked at his prone opponent. Could’ve been cheek, could’ve been forehead, could’ve been eye socket.

Couple this with Joleon Lescott’s forearm crack across Younes Kaboul’s jaw…

…going completely unpunished and it seems that the FA may have a fair bit of retrospective work to get through this week.