From one recalcitrant to another, we have Mancini's first test: curing a suicidal Manchester City malaise (by Darshan Joshi)

At least Roberto Mancini's selection headaches are thinning. The petulance of Edin Džeko will see the Bosnian left out of City's weekend clash with Blackburn, while Carlos Tévez's latest insipid tirade has seen Mancini finally pull the plug on last season's top goalscorer.

Mario exacts his revenge.

• It'll never end. (Studs Up)
• Sweden and Cyprus. (The Best Eleven)
• Those sneaky Spanish ballboys. (ESPN)
• EPL Blog awards. (EPL Talk)
• People are mean, dgibbo28 edition. (Guardian)
• Relegation is childish. (Umbro Twitter)
• What can you do for me.

Edin Dzeko is a man certainly better at making new friends than Antonio Cassano, if we're comparing big January purchases. Sitting in his press conference, he made several digs at United with one fell swoop.

It's sort of the modern evolution of "I want to win trophies and I also want to score goals against [insert hated rival here].

Hey, remember this guy? He's good.

[101gg]

• Chicken, man. It's the chicken. (Dirty Tackle)
• Edin Dzeko with the last, expensive laugh. (Jonathan Wilson)
• The man, the myth, the legend. (Left Back In The Changing Room)
• Estonia's calling out France.