All the footprints you've ever left and fear expecting ahead (Man City)

I've given up the idea of a new format for the match previews. Decided that all the usual match preview stuff can be found elsewhere, and done better (I imagine... though I find it hard to believe...), so I'm just, to take a tired cliche, "take each game as it comes," and write whatever I feel like about the game and see where I end up.

Man City. I'm sure we all know enough about them, more than enough about them. We know they're "newly wealthy peasants" with all the gratuitous spending that that entails. We know they've had a good start to the season (against hmmmm opponents). And we know how much they want to beat us. What else is there to say?
Let's start by reminding ourselves of what Sir Alex had to say in July:

"It's City isn't it? They are a small club with a small mentality," Ferguson retorts. "All they can talk about is Manchester United; they can't get away from it. That arrogance will be rewarded. It is a go at us, that's the one thing it is. They think taking Carlos Tevez away from Manchester United is a triumph. It is poor stuff."

"Do you know what City's biggest triumph is? It's getting those players there. I don't know if they will do anything with them," he says. "It is not easy to get into that top four, so the biggest success of all is to just get the players there. They might not get beyond that.

"When someone offers you that kind of money, it is a big attraction to people nowadays. That is the reason they have gone there. At the last minute, from what I can gather, either Emmanuel Adebayor or his agent phoned us after they had agreed a deal with City and then did the same with Chelsea. He was desperate to get to either Chelsea or us."

Maybe that can help explain Adebayor's celebration against Arsenal. Not so much taking revenge on an old club, but just fitting nicely into the small club mentality - joy at the act of giant-killing...
The words of Vidic from yesterday:

"If they win the Premiership title for the next 10 years in a row then maybe we can talk again, but until then we don't just believe we are the best in Manchester but also the best in Europe.

"I won't be happy with anything but Premiership and Champions League medals this year, one of them won't make us happy, that shows just how big this club is."

Lead us nicely into this, a video for you to enjoy while waiting for Kick-Off, some quality Rock 'n' Roll, the way it should be - The Jim Jones Revue - Fish 2 Fry



Yes, we really do have much bigger fish to fry. All this talk that Sir Alex is scared of City because he's talking about them. yeah, how unusual, talking about the opposition to a room full of journalists at a press conference before the game involving them... he really is a man obsessed...
So this post is just a way of saying that win or lose, our season continues - they win, their season is over, they won't top it. Small club mentality.
Prediction. 3-1 to us. Really think we'll be up for this one. Putting them back in their place. Turning the screws.
And a video to finish, let's remind ourselves of a humorous moment from games gone by, Man City Supporters holding a banner aloft saying "Manchester is Red" at the last derby at Maine Road.