If a string of draws where points were thrown away ultimately did for Mark Hughes, Roberto Mancini is quickly proving that the decision to trust him to take City to the next level was a smart one.
A home game against Blackburn, dogged and doughty opponents in games past, was the type of fixture that saw the wheels begin to come off under Hughes during the months of October and November.

It appears as though progress is being made over the potential signing of Middlesbrough's Adam Johnson.
After Gordon Strachan poured water on a possible move yesterday, Sky Sports reported that Johnson himself was keen to speak to us over a move and today's MEN states a deal is 'edging' closer:

Manchester City are closing in on Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson to replace the departing Robinho.

With Robinho finally getting his wish to leave the Eastlands on a six-month loan deal to Santos, a bigger issue could be forthcoming at the City of Manchester Stadium. Despite manager Roberto Mancini's repeated encouragement for Robinho to stay at the club, the Italian's failure to promise first-team football to City's record signing proved the decisive factor in the Brazilian star's departure.

By Chris Wright.

And lo, there was silence in the valley. Here's the apres-deadline round up...

Easily the highest profile transfer of the day (Sky Sports News nigh-on creamed themselves) saw Tottenham's Robbie Keane join Celtic on a six month loan deal.

As expected, the loan transfer of Benjani to Sunderland was confirmed today and it is all but certain that his career with us is now over with his contract set to expire at the end of the season.
It is a good move for Benjani as he remains in the Premier League and goes to a side where he will likely see plenty of playing, something he would not be afforded (despite his recent stint as a stand-in) with the return of Emmanuel Adebayor.

Roberto Mancini eyes up yet more Eastlands striking talent.

Win the Club Shirt Of Your Choice Simply by Speaking Your Mind!

Manchester City have set their sights on Benfica goal machine Oscar Cardozo. Roberto Mancini has placed the Paraguayan onto his ever growing summer wish list.

With the FA Cup Final only days away, and every Portsmouth fan like myself trying to convince ourselves we have a chance to defeat a club like Chelsea that's clicking on all cylinders, it saddens me to think that we'll be going down to the Championship next season. Our time in the top-flight has, at times, felt like being an emigrant on a passenger steamship who snuck into first class to see how the rich lived, only to be tossed back to steerage when discovered.

As the summer kicks in, the transfer rumors hot up too.

Manchester City are in talks to sign Brazil's £30m-rated World Cup midfielder Ramires from Benfica, after a deal for Aston Villa's James Milner stalled.

Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will snub Manchester City's interest to stay at Spanish club Barcelona.

Solid and unspectacular it may have been, but given some of the shambolic cup exits witnessed in recent years a routine FA Cup 3rd round win (against a bogey side) was very welcome.
It wasn't a performance that will live long in the memory, but it was a game that we controlled with the instruction to retain possession again very evident.

Benjani scored the goal for Manchester City to beat Middlesbrough. This is Mancini's side 3rd straight victory with him in charge.

Everton manager David Moyes has sent home Brazilian striker Jo after he travelled back to this hometown. Seeking permission from his club was something he ignored, and has been punished by being sent back to Manchester City. It's unlikely that he'll get much of a game at Man City with Santa Cruz, Adebayor, Tevez, Bellamy, Benjani and Robinho all pushing for a first team place.

Surprise starter (and with a hat-trick of assists under his belt) Benjani has spoken of his hope that his recent appearances may translate into a new deal come the end of the season:

"I'm very happy because I've started two games in a row and it's been a long time since that happened.

I was expecting worse news in all honesty:

MANCHESTER City boss Roberto Mancini expects Roque Santa Cruz to be sidelined for a month with his latest calf injury.
The Paraguayan lasted just four minutes of his comeback at Everton on Saturday before going down with the same problem that caused him to miss three games over the Christmas period.

The confidence and brashness that was felt heading into tomorrow's game has no doubt been checked a little since the weekend - obviously because of contrasting results for ourselves and United, but also I'm sure because derbies rarely illicit a feeling of over-confidence as kick-off approaches.
There was much debate after the postponement as to whether the initial game being called off worked in our favour.

"That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose."

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is which striker have we been linked with this morning, and what his lousy goalscoring record is like, and how his club were fed up with him before we approached, and all that David Di Michele kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

Sky Sports News understands Sunderland are in talks to sign Manchester City striker Benjani.

Benjani's future at City has been the subject of speculation for the last few weeks with a number of clubs credited with an interest in the Zimbabwe international.

West Ham were believed to be close to signing the former Portsmouth man, but they have ended their interest in Benjani.

"We have entered into discussions with his representatives about the player.

We have just looked at the situation and we feel we are juggling the balls in the air a little bit and you are just hoping the squad is big enough and strong enough. With the injuries we have, we are worried we are a little bit light in that area, and we have decided that we will try to make a move.

By Chris Wright

Busy, busy, busy. Here's the round up...

Decisions decisions

Rumour No. 1: Gianfranco Zola has confirmed that Benni McCarthy will be a West Ham player by the end of the transfer window and that he is also keen to add one more name to his roster of forward options.

So suggests ESPN, based on Steve Bruce's pre-match interview when he discussed the potential move:

Steve Bruce is hopeful Benjani will be joining the club after Sunderland's last-gasp move for the Manchester City striker.

Speaking before Monday night's ESPN game with Stoke Bruce said his club had got all the paperwork off on time and were awaiting confirmation.

By AVI CREDITOR

A day after St. Louis welcomed home Steve Ralston, the city appears to be in position to add another top-notch soccer star.

St. Louis Athletica has traded for the top spot in the Los Angeles Sol dispersal draft, sending three players and its second-round pick in the dispersal draft to the expansion Atlanta Beat.

Here's all the deadline happenings, so the semi-casual fan:

• Robbie Keane and Kamara are off to Celtic.
  
• Sunderland getting Benjani?
  
• B-list trio to West Ham.
  
• Cross-city switch for Mancini, Inter to Milan.
  
• Pavlyuchenko to Birmingham?
  
• Milan keeping Huntelaar, Flamini.

Couple more things out there in the deadline aftermath:

• Pique wants a new Barca deal.
  
• Sunderland confirms move for Benjani.
  
• Fergie doesn't regret Beckham sale.
  
• Milan switch by Mancini angers Berlusconi.
  
• Christian Gomez dumped by D.C.
  
• Bayern defender sold for the fans.

After failing to score against a tired Fulham side on Sunday, Sunderland have now gone 14 games without a win in the Premier League and are the only team in the division to have not won a league match in 2010. Such damning statistics can only point to one thing: the manager.

I didn't think anyone could be as bad as resident caretaker Ricky Sbragia, but even the experience and know-how of Steve Bruce is finding it difficult to get the supporters on his side.

Kenwyne Jones could be sidelined for at least a month and miss half a dozen games after limping off at half-time yesterday with a muscle strain.But manager Steve Bruce will resist any temptation to recall Martyn Waghorn from his loan spell at Leicester City and will instead hand Benjani his opportunity to shine alongside top scorer Darren Bent.

A statement on the club's official website read: "Martin Petrov, Sylvinho and Benjani are senior players who will leave City this summer. All three are out of contract and free to negotiate deals at new clubs.
Doing this every time he scored obviously wasn't enough...

A move to Anfield just may well suit Merseyside club and Eastlands wideman down to the ground.

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A move to Anfield just may well suit Merseyside club and Eastlands wideman down to the ground.

Bet £5 on Torres to be WC Top Goalscorer at 12/1 with Ladbrokes and get £25 worth of free bets!>

Join CaughtOffside's World Cup 2010 Fantasy Football League and win £5k!

It is another busy summer for the money men at Man City who are on the verge of splashing out £175m on new talent this summer, having spent £60m on David Silva, Jerome Boateng and Yaya Toure this week alone. Next up on the shopping list of the Manchester side are Lazio's Aleksandar Kolarov, Benfica's David Luiz and Aston Villa's James Milner that offers are expected for over the next few days.

Blackburn may have beaten Everton 1-0 last weekend, but Big Sam wants more goals out of his squad. His newest attempt at adding to his squad up front is Benjani.

The 32-year-old striker has been on trial with Blackburn in an attempt to prove he's fully recovered from a knee problem which he suffered at Portsmouth that derailed his season last year.

Blackburn may have beaten Everton 1-0 last weekend, but Big Sam wants more goals out of his squad. His newest attempt at adding to his squad up front is Benjani.

The 32-year-old striker has been on trial with Blackburn in an attempt to prove he's fully recovered from a knee problem which he suffered at Portsmouth that derailed his season last year.

Former Portsmouth and Man City striker Benjani has landed a one-year contract (with the option of another year) with Blackburn Rovers. The 32-year-old was released by City at the end of last season.

Rovers were in the market for front line reinforcements, and Benjani has a decent record in the EPL, more so at Portsmouth.

Reina
Carragher Kyrgiakos Skrtel Konchesky
Lucas Meireles
Maxi Gerrard Cole
Torres
Goals:
Kyrgiakos 48'
Carragher (og) 52'
Torres 53'
Even though we finally saw Liverpool "at its best," that was a lot nervier than it needed to be against an anemic Blackburn.

The what: Premier League, Round 10 – Blackburn v. Chelsea
The where: Ewood Park (31,367)
The when: October 30, 3pm local time (10am EST)
The how: ESPN2 (DirecTV 209, Dish Network 144)
The why: Because it's ******* Blackburn.

A hotly contested goal from Nani helped Manchester United beat Tottenham 2-0 and stay within five points of Chelsea after the English Premier League leaders fought back to beat Blackburn 2-1 on Saturday.

United was already leading through Nemanja Vidic's 31st-minute header when Nani scored in the 84th.

Relief.

That's all. That's it.

The Rundown
• We won barely.
• We really didn't deserve to.
• Has anyone ever seen Blackburn play that well? More on this below.
• Zhirkov, with his creativity, brings a good balance to our Lampard-less midfield.

Sam Allardyce brings his merry band of thugs to St James's Park in his first reappearance since his dismissal by the Newcastle hierarchy back in 2008.

Blackburn could be without a number of first team players with Diouf, Nzonzi, Keith Andrews, Vince Grella and Benjani all doubtful.

Gosling, Ben Arfa, Harper, and Leon Best are all definitely out for the Toon, while the injury Shola Ameobi sustained against Arsenal on Sunday has yet to be determined (publicly).

>> Click Here To Watch Newcastle United Vs Blackburn Rovers Live Now <<

Newcastle United Vs Blackburn Rovers Live Streaming & Match Preview
English Premier League – Newcastle United Vs Blackburn Rovers Live Online Click Here
Wednesday, 10th November 2010
Kick Off : 19:45 GMT
Venue : St.