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So we are 8 games in with 17 points on the board

Won 5
Drawn 2
Lost 1

How do you think we are doing so far?

Personally i'm very happy...bearing in mind i'd rather be a City fan than a Bin Dipper fan at the moment

I'm absolutely delighted - we are in the top 6 after 8 games.

We've played 8 games but it's worth bearing in mind that 5 of them have been away games and only 3 at the City of Manchester Stadium.

We've played 3 really good teams in United, Arsenal and Villa plus had tricky trips to Wigan, Blackburn and Portsmouth. The side will get stronger as the season goes on because at centre back in particular Lescott and Toure are still building up an understanding between one another.

The run of 4 games - wigan (away), fulham - home, birmingham (away), burnley - home, if we get 10pts then that really sets us up well into the middle of November

So far this seasons been excellent. It's a very exciting time for all of us.

Our two draws came away from home against teams that beat Chelski which is to our credit. I thought we played well enough against Villa to deserve the win.

The loss, well do I really need to recap on that game? Not many teams will go to the swamp and push them to the death this season.

I for one am extremely happy so far that we finally have a team that when we go a goal behind I am not totally devastated because I know that now we have the ability to pull it back!

However we are not only achieving on the pitch but off it aswell. Improvements all round to all aspects of the business, training facilities, the academy, revamped shops, it's a long list of changes to behind the scenes. But what impresses me the most is the new kits and the website especially.

I am sort of pleased and sort of displeased. The rational part of me recognises it's early days with effectively a new set of players and I shouldnt expect too much too soon. We really havent played that well yet and still have picked up some good results and even the last 2 draws could easily have been defeats if the attitude hadnt been as good as it is.

BUT on the other hand I am wondering why we havent been playing that well? Some of it is down to having a load of new players I am sure but at the same time individuals have been below par anyway. I do wonder though whether the manager has yet decided which is the best formation for the talent we have. Is it the 4.4.2 approach we have used recently ( you would call it 4.4. with Tevez working with Ade right?) or should it be the 4.3.3 with the 2 wide men given much more of a striking task to get alongside Ade whenever they can.That would mean we could use Stevie better too.

Much better to come I am sure and even after saying all that we are 5th with a game in hand.

Pleased with the position we are in. We have done the important things: we have won games at home where we have not played well and have come back twice after being a goal down away from home. Some things have worked really well -Ade and Bellers in particular. Some things are a cause for concern - the centre of defence - the right back and the right role for Superman. We are still very much work in progress but a good start. Would like to see a bit of flexibility in our shape there is a danger of us becoming a bit predictable.

I'm very pleased didn't expect us to be where we are after 8 games.

Very pleased with our points tally and league position. Pleased with our play on the field as a whole but also very happy in the knowledge that this is still a new team in transition. It's good that City are keeping my feet on the ground and I'm not getting carried away, and to be truthful, it's been a pretty entertaining season so far. We've had it all!

No so pleased with the lack of beer at the stadium and the Balti pies seem to have gome off. Just thought I'd mention it ;-)

very pleased where we are in the table.

On form, i'd say i'm a little bit manic. sometimes i feel we're gained an edge this season to be able to graft out some wins and today's draw which last season we'd have lost. Other times i wonder why the fucl we didn't take Villa and Wigan to the sword and finish them off with the quality we have.

All in all i am pretty happy, but i'll make my judgment about the season's possibilities when i look at the top end of the table after the xmas fixtures.

Pleased with the points, results, and position. Its a good start and if we can maintain untill the end of the season we will be in the hunt for the title.

I expect us to hit a bad patch at some point as we dont have a great team yet but hopefully the great players we have will do what they have shown signs of this season and really gel into a winning machine.

As good as we are on paper, there are other clubs out there with better or as good teams and better or as good players. You cant win em all as today showed. And no matter what's said, the fact that the 2 fixtures we have drawn so far are fixtures that Chelsea have lost is very signifigant to me.

Went for 'very pleased'. Still a little peed off about not getting a point from the derby, and our performance today.

Very pleased with most aspects of the season so far, a couple are worrying me though.

I think Hughes has done remarkably well, and that's coming from a critic of his. Every time we've gone a goal down this season we've come back either immediately or shortly afterwards. The fight we showed at Old Trafford to come back three times would, on any other day have earned us a point and we'd be contemplating an unbeaten start now. At Villa, we were playing poorly in the first half. He got them into the dressing room and you could see as soon as the second kicked off they had extra motivation and determination to get the equaliser. It was exactly the same today. We were comfortable without dominating in the first half, and paid the price in conceding a sloppy goal. Second half starts, we threaten from the first whistle and have equalised within three minutes. That aspect is very, very pleasing and something we've improved on tenfold compared with last season. Obviously in an ideal world we wouldn't be going behind to begin with but the character of this squad is brilliant. I really feel we would have gone on to win today had Zabs not been sent off, and even when he did, away from home with ten men, in exactly the same scenario as Chelsea two weeks ago, we held on and played positively. What is also very pleasing is the Manchester City he presents to the media. Never loses his cool, defends our case but in a reasonable way and has upstaged Ferguson when it comes to composure and dignity.

The attack is still finding its feet. Adebayor has done well, the banning came at the worst possible time though because with 4 goals in 4 games he had a real momentum to carry through that was obviously disrupted. In the two games since returning he doesn't look quite as explosive but the class is still there. Tevez has been very good overall. His workrate doesn't need highlighting but what's impressed me is his passing range and vision. Listening to rags (silly thing to do) their view was that fans would be endeared to him for his never-say-die attitude but that there was a severe lack of quality. Against Wolves, West Ham and today he has shown some exquisite touches and intelligent running, rather than headless chicken stuff. Three goals is about what I'd have expected, he's not a clinical finisher but weighs in with a decent amount.
Bellamy's form has been incredible so far and had he been fit today I think we'd have beaten Wigan. Only in his absence can you appreciate what he gives to the team. For all of Petrov's close control and passing ability, he just doesn't work up and down the touchline and puts us under pressure when not in possession of the ball. His goals have been first class as well. I genuinely didn't expect much more than cameo appearances from Bellamy this season but he's shut me, and all of his doubters up this season. Long may it continue.
For Robinho and Santa Cruz, neither have had a chance to impose themselves so far this season so any comments would be unfair.
Overall, it's 16 goals scored from 8 games so no cause for concern with the attack. And when they click I've a feeling that average will increase.

The midfield is an interesting one because we have very good individuals, but as a unit they're not imposing themselves on the opposition enough for my liking. We've mostly had less possession than the opposition this season. We might have been playing away from home mostly but nonetheless, a side with aspirations of competing with the big guns needs to dictate from the middle and not always rely on counter-attacks. Barry's passing has generally been good, whereas de Jong has tackled exceptionally but well made some atrocious decisions on the ball- winning it only to give it straight back isn't much good, and he's been guilty of it more than once. Wright Phillips for me hasn't done enough, where quality is concerned. Yes, he works exceptionally hard but as a winger he has responsibilities beyond hard work. He needs to deliver quality balls into the box, which he's not doing and he needs to beat players with some degree of regularity, which he's not doing. If he could focus on those two we'd be a lot stronger because there'd be a genuine threat coming from both sides. What he is doing well is winning free kicks, we just need the others to step up and take advantage of that.
That leaves Ireland, who to my mind has only played well once so far. I had a thread recently about him and his form, we never came to any solid conclusion but I'm going to stick with my initial feeling that it's a transitional phase. The differences between a 'hole' player and a central midfielder are so vast that it will obviously take time to adjust. The worry for Stevie is whether he'll be afforded that time given the strength of our squad now. Still a hugely talented player of course and one with a big future- hopefully here at City, winning trophies.

Lastly, the defence- which is what's troubling me the most. This might be a controversial opinion but at the moment I think we're getting away with murder. Whether it's luck, a lack of quality opposition in most of the games, a gelling phase for the new defenders, or Given saving us, I don't know. But it seems like we invite an awful lot of pressure and deal with it quite poorly at times. Touré has been fantastic overall, as have Bridge and obviously Given but I'm concerned about Lescott. He's recovering reasonably well and looks decent aerially but he's been twisted and turned by quite average players. What happens when he comes up against Torres/Drogba/Anelka/Defoe and recovering isn't an option because the ball's in the back of the net? I do believe he's better than this and don't want it to come across as a slating but I am worried.
With Richards, the athleticism is there, so too is the desire but he's absolutely rubbish positionally and I wonder if that will ever develop. He doesn't look like a defender. In that couple of years when he broke through and in Sven's season, he was one of the quickest players in the league and so his appalling positional and tactical sense was covered up by his recovery pace. Now he doesn't seem to have the same degree of pace so the faults that were there all along are being cruelly exposed. At the moment, central defence isn't an option because of this- he's slightly more comfortable on the right but even so, lacks the composure to beat players, overlap intelligently and put the ball in dangerous areas. He did it against Arsenal but was that one-off? Or can he find some kind of consistency? I was disgusted with him at the Swamp for roaring at Touré, his own captain, and that lack of concentration played a part in us conceding so early.
Zabaleta is a better all round player to Richards but doesn't come without his frailties. As we saw today, he flies into tackles quite carelessly, actually he showed that at times last season as well, which can put the team under pressure. He does also lack pace which can be exposed- it hasn't really yet and defensively he's done well so credit to him for that.

Maybe I'm concentrating too closely on every little detail- I certainly feel that I've scrutinised performances a lot more this season than ever before. Maybe it's a winning mentality, maybe it's pedantic. But magnifying glass and all, things are very good- not just in the sense that we've racked up a very respectable amount of points but in all areas of the field, the players will become stronger and more unified as time goes on, which will hopefully enable us not only to rack up the points but do so in a more convincing fashion.

With Fulham, Scunthorpe and Burnley at home, and Birmingham away to come in the next couple of weeks we should be able to really take off. Four wins and we'll go to Anfield full of confidence.

It's only just begun.

I saw the length of that post and wondered whether to read it, as I'm in a bit of a can't be arsed mood, it's 1.14 on a Sunday night. If anyone's in the same mood, I wholeheartedly recommend them to go back and read it, as it's a fantastic post and pretty much sums up my opinion too on City currently.
The only thing I can disagree with is SWP, I really believe he is getting a lot of unnessacary abuse, for want of a better word, at the moment. Although his final ball is not always decent, he's a great outlet out on the right, and put in some great performances this season.

Great post CtK.

So far this is far and away the best start to a season I can remember. It doesn't compare to what we've been used to, the question is whether it compares to what we dreamt of all those long years.

Last year we were fragile. We ripped apart teams or lost, there was no middle ground. This year we're still fragile mentally, but a very different kind. It seems like we can score goals for fun when we can be bothered. If we come out looking for an early goal, we often get one. If we go a goal down we're often not waiting especially long to reply. This is very promising because it shows that we're getting some of the harder things right, we seem to be drifting out of games though. Not used to concentrating as hard for as long or dealing with being able to dictate the ebb and flow of the game.

We're a very unsettled squad. Aside from the big, big changes there's the fact that we've had a steady stream of injuries that have been consistently disruptive. Losing Dunne was always going to hurt us in the short team, he'd been holding together the defence for so long, but maybe long term we'll be stronger for it. Today was a perfect example of more enforced changes.

Wigan are a real bogey team for us. They've always been good at stopping us playing and disrupting our rhythm. Little things, like going down all over the place, manhandling forwards without getting pinged, getting our players booked, just generally winding us up; they do it all. I really hate the clunts. This year they tried to play more but we still struggled to respond to their tactics.

Still, we had a lot of good chances against them and could easily have won it. When we went down to 10 men we were still capable of winning it. I'd say they're happier with the draw than we are. Sometimes we're missing a bit of zip in attack and not making space for each other. Ireland and Bellamy have been good at that this season.

Other years it would have ended up being a much worse day.

I'm very very pleased because I don't think it's realistic to expect anymore at this stage but I'm frustrated as I can see the title almost defaulting to the rags without them doing anything to deserve it & us dropping points that we COULD have picked up with a little more brains/composure & stuck with them. The fact that we didn't is not surprising but is nontheless frustrating & in terms of catching the rags, which I believe we have the players to do. Unfortunately we don't yet have the team or the fear factor the rags generate which caused Wigan, same as Bolton yesterday, to play like nervous schoolkids at the back & hand it to them on a plate.

It's one of several factors which add up in the rags favour & imo means that, to eventually win the league, we don't just have to be as good as them, we need to be about 25% better to make up for their little non football extras which give them crucial points.

At the moment, their best 11 is still about 20% better than ours anyway, not on paper but as a team so we have a way to go. Time will tell if we can bridge that gap but the points dropped at Wigan who fell apart v them & Villa, who fall apart every time they play them, could already be significant.

If we can hang on to them by our fingernails though & are still in sight of them at the end of winter; they have a real problem.

very pleased with your record so far. We aren't conceding too many goals but we could do with few more goals ourselves so that's something we need to look at.

8 games in and 17 points secured. If we continue at 2.125 points per game then we will end up with 80.75 points. I'd be over the bluemoon with that. Drawing all our away games isn't at all bad if our home record continues like this and last season.

Also we have been suffering with a range of injuries to many of our players yet the team hasn't looked weak yet and has always been in every match and dangerous enough to win them.

Having read CTK's and Wooders posts, we're doing good.

I'm well please as well, but just a little worried about our current form. I hope we will win a few on the run now.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:I am sort of pleased and sort of displeased. The rational part of me recognises it's early days with effectively a new set of players and I shouldnt expect too much too soon. We really havent played that well yet and still have picked up some good results and even the last 2 draws could easily have been defeats if the attitude hadnt been as good as it is.

BUT on the other hand I am wondering why we havent been playing that well? Some of it is down to having a load of new players I am sure but at the same time individuals have been below par anyway. I do wonder though whether the manager has yet decided which is the best formation for the talent we have. Is it the 4.4.2 approach we have used recently ( you would call it 4.4. with Tevez working with Ade right?) or should it be the 4.3.3 with the 2 wide men given much more of a striking task to get alongside Ade whenever they can.That would mean we could use Stevie better too.

Much better to come I am sure and even after saying all that we are 5th with a game in hand.

Good post Doug. Agree with all of it. I voted "Pleased but could have done better" as obviusly there is room for improvement.

Over the moon in lots of ways because we have had a very good start to the season, points haul and have turned in some real performances of character which are as different from some of the capitulations we have seen from City over the last couple of seasons as it is physically possible to be.

BUT the real reason I am so pleased has been alluded to above.....we don't even seem to have "clicked" or fully hit our stride as yet. So to think of the level of performance that this squad has in it...well that really is a nice thought.

If we can stay up on the rails with the pacesetters without actually playing all that amazingly then we should be well placed for when we do hit form.

Also, as people have said in previous threads. Someone is going to get an absolute mauling at some point soon....and I cannot wait!!