MAN CITY v Lech Poznań – Adebayor to Start, Tévez May be Rested

Fresh from an entertaining afternoon at the seaside, Man City return to Europa League action as they face last year’s Polish champions Lech Poznań. The Blues must look to keep their impressive run of form going, and must concentrate to keep their focus on this in light of the astonishing transfer revelations emanating from our rivals in the city.

This isn’t the right time to go into depth about the Wayne Rooney saga, but suffice to say, he’s not quite as ugly as I thought he previously was. OK, he looks like a fat pig, but a quite handsome fat pig at that! If you want to vote on whether you would like to see Rooney at City, please click here.

And as a special treat to all the Poles currently living in England or travelling here for the game …
Cześć! Witajcie wmojej zapowiedzi trzeciego meczu Manchester City w Ligi Europy, w którym Niebiescy jada do Polski aby zmierzyc sie z Lechem Poznań. Obydwie strony sa obechie w czotówce grupy takze mimo dobrej formy City, wynik tego meczu nie jest przesadzony.

City have drawn their past four matches against Polish opposition and are unbeaten in their previous eight European fixtures at the City of Manchester Stadium following a loss to FC Midtjylland. Coming off the back off a string of four consecutive Premier League victories, the Blues should be full of confidence, but by no means is the result of this game a foregone conclusion.

Our visitors managed a highly respectable 3-3 away draw with Juventus, and secured a comfortable home victory against FC Salzburg, and on goals scored, they actually top this group. In the previous couple of season of European competition, they have beaten Feyenoord and Club Brugge, as well as drawing with Deportivo La Coruna, so they are not to be taken lightly.

My good friend Roberto Mancini faces a number of tricky selection dilemmas for this fixture, as he must bear in mind the weekend fixture against Arsenal, which will be preceded by a fitting minute’s applause for the late, great Malcolm Allison. For this match, Mancini had wanted to rest captain Carlos Tévez, but with Roque Santa Cruz not included in the squad, Mario Balotelli sidelined and Jo struggling, the Italian may be forced against his will to start the Argentine. Emmanuel Adebayor is guaranteed a place and will look to get on the scoresheet to boost his confidence.

Central defender and former club captain Kolo Touré is out with a hamstring injury and will also miss the Arsenal match, so there should be another opportunity for Joleon Lescott to partner Vincent Kompany, although Dedryck Boyata is vying for a place. Wayne Bridge should start at left back but has never convinced there, so Pablo Zabaleta or Jerome Boateng could fill in, with the Micah Richards slotting in at right back.

This is the team that I would play, although Mancini will no doubt think differently.

                                                       Hart

Zabaleta                Boateng                   Kompany                      Lescott

SWP                          Vieira                      de Jong                      A. Johnson

                                                     Silva

                                                Adebayor

Subs: Given, Richards, Boyata, Bridge, Barry, Milner, Tévez

Player to Watch: Emmanuel Adebayor - The Togo international has not the most productive start to the season, only making sporadic starts and never contributing greatly during his time on the pitch. In the possible absence of Tévez, he needs to sparkle, hold the ball up well and bring others into play. Adebayor is a confidence-player, so will hope to grab an early goal to get him going.

Prediction: MAN CITY 2 - 1 Lech Poznań - The Blues won’t field a full-strength side, but should still have enough quality to defeat our Polish visitors, despite the presence for them of Artjoms Rudņevs, the Latvian forward who notched a hat-trick against Juventus. I back him to score, but that will be a mere consolation as goals from David Silva and Adam Johnson secure victory for City.