Boxing Day Fixture - City 2 Stoke 0

The king is dead, long live the king!

Our first chance to see the new manager and see what he's made of. Certainly looked the part in about £2000 quid's worth of tailoring topped off with a £1.50 'derby' scarf which straight away endeared him to the crowd who gave him rapturous welcome. First 15 minutes it felt like a lot of the players didn't know what they where suppose to be playing but after that they seemed to settle and took control. Although at times there wasn't flowing football (against what was a pretty poor Stoke team) you could see the added importance Mancini has placed on retaining the ball and it was certainly interesting to see the tactical changes he made within the game especially bringing on Richards for Sylvinho in order to stop the aerial threat Pullis introduced with Beattie and Fuller. Good result, pretty good performance by all the team (Robinho excluded!...did he really think we were cheering him?) and a clean sheet! Roberto Mancini's Blue and White army!!