"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.

Manchester United defeated Manchester City 3-2 on Sunday in the English FA Cup. The game was played at the City of Manchester Stadium in front of a sell out crowd. The last two times the teams had faced off against each other there had been a total of 12 goals, 6-1 to Manchester City at Old Trafford in the English Premier League and 3-2 to Manchester United at Wembley for the Community Shield clash.

If Carroll starts he'll be looking for those delicious crosses from Gerrard...Liverpool travel to the City of Manchester Stadium on Tuesday evening to face Mancini's side for the first of three times this month. The Reds will be looking to take advantage of City after they lost to Sunderland on Sunday.

Round 1 Of 3 Versus City

If Carroll starts he'll be looking for those delicious crosses from Gerrard... Liverpool travel to the City of Manchester Stadium on Tuesday evening to face Mancini's side for the first of three times this month. The Reds will be looking to take advantage of City after they lost to Sunderland on Sunday.

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.

Dates fixed for LFC's Carling Cup semi-final games

THE dates for the semi-finals of the Carling Cup have been announced and Liverpool will play both legs of their tie with Manchester City on Wednesday nights, both with 7:45pm kick-offs. The first leg, in Manchester, is on January 11th and will be shown live on BBC1.

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.

Venue: City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester. Date: Sat 19th November, 2011. Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Chris Foy (Linesmen: D Bryan & D.C.Richards). Don't forget that as usual, we will also be doing our usual "what the managers are saying" review in the run up to the game, and also our regular "match banter" feature where you [.

Fancy a chance to watch Manchester City vs Bayern Munich 'LIVE' at the City of Manchester stadium on Dec 7? You can't say no to Kun Aguero or Philipp Lahm, guys! Heineken is giving out a PAIR of tickets to Fabulous Futbolita Fans to catch one of the biggest Champions League clashes up-closethis season, with the Heineken Star Player Game available on iPhone and Facebook.

Competition time One lucky OTP reader will win a pair of tickets to the Manchester City v Bayern Munich match at Eastlands on 7 December. We're still talking about events from last time the two teams met, so it promises to be a great match. We've teamed up with Heineken StarPlayer to offer this fantastic [.

The 2011-2012 Champions League Group Stage is underway, with Matchday 1 halfway done. 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: Chelsea 2 0 Leverkusen; Genk 0 0 Valencia

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

Group G: Porto 2 1 Shakhtar Donetsk; 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.

The next step for Financial Fair Play - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

It is fact that the gap between the "haves" and "have nots" in European football grows evermore larger. Last season in the English Premier League proved this adroitly when Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure reportedly earned more per week than the entire Blackpool squad.

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

Man City vs Swansea Goals 2011 4-0 Highlights Video Score is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Man City vs Swansea 2011 ( Manchester City vs Swansea City 2011 Premiership) Final score and result:- Man City vs Swansea 4-0 ( Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero*2, David Silva) City of Manchester Stadium, 15th [.

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.

Liverpool joined the grand coalition attacking Manchester City's £400m sponsorship deal with Etihad, with managing director Ian Ayre saying yesterday that Uefa should investigate whether it is an illegal deal under its financial fair play regulations.
Speaking in Kuala Lumpur -- where on Monday Arsene Wenger accused City of "financial doping" -- Ayre suggested that the 10-year sponsorship agreement with Etihad may be an illegal 'related-party' deal, which financial fair play specifically outlaws.

Manchester City have confirmed that the City of Manchester Stadium, aka Eastlands, will be renamed the Etihad Stadium after signing a 10-year deal with the airline. The Abu Dhabi-based company is already the club's shirt sponsor.

"We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Etihad Airways through this partnership agreement," said City chief executive Garry Cook.

Manchester City have confirmed that the City of Manchester Stadium will be renamed the Etihad Stadium after signing a 10-year deal with the airline. The Abu Dhabi-based company is already the club's shirt sponsor.

"We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Etihad Airways through this partnership agreement," said City chief executive Garry Cook.

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.

Manchester City have confirmed their City of Manchester Stadium will be renamed the Etihad Stadium with immediate effect with chief executive Garry Cook branding the deal as "one of the most important arrangements in the history of world football".

The Manchester Abu Dhabi We imagine that it was quite a grilling, various members of the board thrashing out a deal, with both sides desperately trying to make their own case. But probably not. Because Manchester City have sold the namings rights to their stadium to Etihad, who are already their shirts sponsors and are [.

Two years ago, the fate of Manchester City changed when a big money group purchased the club. Fast forward to this upcoming season and all of the money that was spent in the transfer market has paid off as the club will be playing the in Champions League. The same might be happening in France with Paris Saint-Germain.

He is talented but hugely unlikeable and not just because of his stint at Arsenal. I couldn't understand a word that came out his mouth during the World Cup when he was helping diversify the BBC's panel of pundits. He puts in 110% for a few games a season but is largely lazy. I think that pretty much sums up Emmanuel Adebayor.

Despite having earned a fortune in recent years, the chances are that Emmanuel Adebayor is a man who almost certainly regrets his actions over the last few years, with the result of those actions leaving him in a state of frustrating limbo and without many clubs in the context of world football that would be particularly keen for him to join them, despite his undoubted talent.

And still they keep coming! The next in our Those We Have Lost series comes from David Mayor, who had misgivings about Manchester City leaving Maine Road, but is happy that the spirit of his club remains intact, at least in its support. We are still very much looking out for submissions on this subject, by the way.

Football is a passionate sport. It's played by passionate people, and followed by passionate people, and without such people, the sport would not thrive the way that it does – as Jock Stein famously said, "Football without the fans is nothing". The various governing bodies use the fact that the game is passionate, and that football fans are passionate people in order to sell television rights, and other marketing concepts around the world.

Tevez: Manchester City have told me I can leave - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has revealed that the club's multi-billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour has told him he can leave the club if that is to make him happy.

The Argentine international has been very unsteady throughout the season and now well into the transfer period, and with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and AC Milan reportedly sighting the 27-year-old, Tevez has long been interested in a move away from Eastlands.

Liverpool is reportedly interested in Man City winger Adam Johnson and will look to make an offer for the England international this summer. The former Middlesbrough wide man has had an up and down time at Eastlands and spent much of last season on the bench and has voiced his concern at lack of regular first team football and has locked horns with Roberto Mancini on the matter.

The Manchester City FC Umbro 2011/12 away kit has been very well-received by the club's fans since its launch on at the City of Manchester Stadium on Monday night. Now shirt provider Umbro has released an insightful video of David Blanch, Senior Designer of Umbro foootball kits, discussing about the inspiration behind the new jersey and [.

English FA Cup and UEFA Champions League group stage qualifiers Manchester City FC have launched their Umbro 2011/12 away kit. The new City jersey was worn by the club's cast of big name players at Monday night's FA Cup homecoming event at the City of Manchester Stadium. It is now available at World Soccer Shop.

Umbro has revealed the Manchester City 2011 / 2012 shirt on the pitch following the FA Cup homecoming event at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Manchester City FC have unveiled a new trial design for their platinum level corporate boxes at the City of Manchester Stadium, dubbed the 'corporate box of the future'.

GK: Edwin Van der Sar, Manchester United

An easy choice, the ageing Dutch keeper has been in fine form in the United goal this season and his performances have won them points single handily. Sir Alex Ferguson must be gutted he is retiring at the end of the season.

RB: Bacary Sagna, Arsenal

A consistent performer all season on the right-hand side of Arsenal's defence having made 41 appearances in all competitions so far this season.

Value is a relative concept, and it is all the more so in the case of sporting events. In recent times, for example, the standard fall-back position for those that defend the increasingly extortionate prices that many football clubs now charge for season tickets has been the size of the waiting list for season tickets at their club.

Liverpool is planning a summer move for Valencia winger Juan Mata.
Reports in Spain suggest that both the Reds and Manchester City have expressed their interest in Mata in recent weeks, as have Premier League champions-elect, Manchester United with Valencia's ongoing financial woes threatening to force the sale of the 23-year-old.

City of Manchester Stadium, February 24th 2010

Photo Credit: notFlunky on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool

City of Manchester Stadium, February 24th 2010

Photo Credit: notFlunky on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool

This stunning Simon Cox goal vs Tottenham gave West Bromwich Albion a 2-2 draw against Spurs in the Premier League fixture between the two sides on April 23, 2011. The Simon Cox goal against Tottenham has also probably put paid to Tottenham's ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League next season, given Spurs' tough upcoming [.

West Brom vs Liverpool 2011 Hawthorns- 2nd April 2011 Final score:- West Brom v Liverpool 2-1 ( Chris Brunt*2 pen/ Martin Skrtel) Roy Hodgson claims victory over his former club as West Bromwich Albion beat Liverpool 2-1 thanks to two second half penalties from Chris Brunt. Defender Martin Skrtel had earlier put Liverpool ahead from [.