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"It only took nine years" was the song booming from the AFC Wimbledon end of The City of Manchester Stadium at the end of the Blue Square Bet Premier play-off final against Luton Town in May of last year. There was a certain irony to the fact that two clubs from the south-east of England had to travel over two hundred miles to play a match that would ordinarily have been played at Wembley.

To celebrate its twentieth anniversary, the Premier League ran all manner of polls to try and decide, in its uniquely revisionist style, which had been the most exciting season in its history. We could debate what it says about the culture of modern football that last season was voted the most exciting of the lot, or that this vote was taken before the session had even ended.

Forty-four years ago, Manchester City broke their record transfer fee and splashed out £60,000 on Francis Lee from Bolton Wanderers. Several months later, they celebrated their first English championship for thirty-one years. At the start of this season, they broke that transfer record again and it was the man whose arrival at The City of Manchester Stadium did this, the £38m Sergio Aguero, who scored an almost inconceivable goal three minutes into stoppage-time to bring the title back to the club on an afternoon of emotional extremes which encapsulated why we love and loathe this beautiful, extraordinary, sanity-testing game.

The hard work, the experts will tell you, has been done. Victories against Manchester United and Newcastle United have taken Manchester City to the cusp of their first English league championship in almost four and a half decades and on Sunday afternoon a win against Queens Park Rangers at the City of Manchester Stadium will be enough to return the second part of the dynasty that the club's lavish owners have set their hearts upon since taking control of it in 2008.

If the Premier League excels at any one thing, then that thing must be spectacle of the type that we saw at the City of Manchester Stadium last night. The significance of this meeting between Manchester City and Manchester United both literal and symbolic -Â could not have been lost upon anybody that cast so much as a cursory glance in the direction of the league table, and in the build up to the match the press began to run out of superlatives regarding its significance.

"It only took nine years" was the cry from South-West London last summer, when AFC Wimbledon won promotion back to the Football League after a dramatic penalty-shoot-out win as if there is any other sort against Luton Town at The City of Manchester Stadium in the Blue Square Premier play-off final.

Anyone taking a bet at the start of the season would not have been able to predict how this would all end up. Manchester City and Manchester United kissed goodbye to the Champions League this season, and there were few mitigating factors that they could cite as a defence. Manchester United can point to their injury list and Manchester City can invoke their inexperience, but ultimately both clubs have resources that dwarf almost all others in Europe.

If there was the slightest slither of doubt before, there probably isn't any more. As much as some would like to wish it isn't so, Manchester City glided to another comfortable win this afternoon against Newcastle United at The City of Manchester Stadium. It was a result which confirmed that Manchester United are going to have a hell of a job in keeping up with them the gap this afternoon went from five points to eight, and then back to five again with United's tepid win at Swansea City this evening while Newcastle United's run near the top of the Premier League table started to look more like a temporary position than it has been at any other point of the season so far.

The 2011-2012 Champions League Group Stage is underway, with Matchday 1 halfway done. Â Eight matches in the books yesterday, eight more matches coming up later today.

See below for yesterday's results the most surprising that Barcelona and Milan drew in the Camp Nou; below that are today's fixtures with our preview notes (including a preview of Benfica-ManU sent in Jon Novy):

Tues 13 September 2011 Results

Group E:Â Chelsea 2 0 Leverkusen; Genk 0 0 Valencia

Group F:Â Olympiacos 0 1 Marseille;Â Dortmund 1 1 Arsenal

Group G:Â Porto 2 1 Shakhtar Donetsk;Â APOEL 2 1 Zenit

Group H: Barcelona 2 2 Milan; Plzeň 1 1 BATE

Wed 14 September 2011 Fixtures & Notes

Group A: This is the proverbial Group of Death.

One year after his £28 milion transfer from Inter Milan to Manchester City, Mario Balotelli doesn't looks in the center of Roberto Mancini's project for the season 2011-2012.

The Italian manager left "Super Mario" in the bench in the first three appearences of Mancehester City in Premier League and during the summer the forward complained about the city of Manchester, saying that he would prefer to go back to Italy.

Man City vs Swansea Goals 2011 4-0 Highlights Video Score is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

In May of 1983, three clubs were relegated from the First Division. Brighton & Hove Albion were one, and the other two were Swansea City and Manchester City. Manchester City returned to the top flight a couple of seasons later but, for Swansea City, the intervening three decades have brought hardship and a couple of seasons during which even the league status of the club was thrown into doubt.

A spell broken, or a mere blip? This may be the question that Manchester City supporters are asking themselves as they prepare themselves for a season which will see their club fall under the spotlight of the media to a hitherto unprecedented extent. They may have been challenging for a place in the Champions League and to land a major trophy for the first time in three and a half decades, but it felt last season as if manager Roberto Mancini was walking a perpetual tightrope, with the entire world watching them from below and a considerable number of them hoping that he would stumble and fall.

All of the optimism surrounding Chelsea after its hiring of manager Andre Villas-Boas appears to have subsided a bit after what appears to be a serious injury to a key player.

Midfielder Michael Essien reportedly ruptured knee ligaments in training and is set to miss a large part of the upcoming season, according to reports from England.