I am quite keen on this City team, I saw them late last season at home to Brentford, the Bees were awful that day, but the Blues were very well organised and despite the financial mess at the club, boss Gary Rowett has been able to address a few areas in which he felt they were lacking, he has also, at least so far, been able to keep prize asset 19 yo Demarai Gray. The youngster actually signed a contract extension in July and considering City has previously turned down a £5m offer for him, he is going to be very expensive to buy and the lad seems committed to the club, but agents have no loyalty !
 

 

With no money and the mood at the club all doom and gloom, Rowett did his already promising CV no harm at all, by taking City up to 10th with 63 points, 35 of which were earned in the second half of the campaign, tightening up a previously porous defence considerably. They are unbeaten through five competitive games this season, Jon Toral has been signed on a long loan from Arsenal and has immediately impressed, he was on a season long similar deal at Brentford last season, but with midfield competion rife there , could not command a regular starting place, but he will thrive with game time ( and already has) and he has an eye for a killer pass.  Last year's top scorer Clayton Donaldson (pictured in much nicer colours !)) has yet to find the back of the net this time round, but works harder than any forward in England and they will come soon enough. Newly promoted Dons scored four at Rotherham on opening day, but I have my doubts about them at present in terms of goals, they lost 20 goal top scorer Will Grigg and hugely influential 16 goal Dele Alli in the summer and with them, a lot of their offensive threat. I just do not see where the ten goal, let alone 15-20 goal Championship level striker is in this squad, maybe they will sign one, but IMO, he is not on the books right now. They play nice football and are comfortable on the ball, but goals will be hard to come , the four against the Millers papered over the cracks, just one in three starts against Preston, Reading and Bolton who are not the best teams they will face this season by any stretch of the imagination, give a better indication of the problems they face. At the other end of the pitch, David Martin has so far made the most saves in the Championship and  and is keeping his team in games, but that can only go on so long. Brummiies and the start for me.
 

I saw the Robins on Saturday, in their 4-2 home defeat to Brentford, City were 2-1 up and had missed good chances to extend that lead, before the match turned on the sending off of Luke Freeman. From that moment on (35th minute), it was all Bees and the away win never looked in doubt. Brentford are very confident with their passing game and the wide open spaces of Ashton Gate (which looks bigger as there are only three sides to the stadium at present) played to their strengths, which meant that for much of the next hour + , City had to work incredibly hard and at times where chasing shadows and the quick turnaround when many players are still coming to terms with life at the higher level, is a big ask on the back of that.

They will be without Freeman tonight, he played in central midfield, right at the heart of what was a 3-5-2 and the catalyst of so much of what they did offensively, he was on Saturday (after his departure) and will be today, a very big loss, Freeman was ever present last season, contributing seven goals and 18 assists and for many, was the stand out performer in League 1. City know they are a couple of players short of being competitive in the Championship and made what looked like a bit of a panic bid yesterday of £9m for Andre Gray of the Bees, they have a wealthy owner, but in terms of FFP, this is a signing they cannot really afford (as I type it has still not been completed). Anyway, we will discuss Gray in the future, for now, suffice to say that City are still coming to grips with life at this level, need to strengthen and are without perhaps their best player today. United have won the last six h2h meetings with City ,have scored eight (two or more in each) in their last three visits to Bristol and look good for at least a point and I don't feel that the hosts would be too disappointed with that. We are at a very early stage of the season, but almost 52% of games in the Championship have ended all square, many teams look evenly matched and there is a lot of jostling for position, especially in the transfer market and for now, games in general might continue to be hard to win.

 

They were 2-0 down late there but salvaged a draw and then posted a road win at Middlesbrough, but that was down to the Championship's own Mr Tinkerman in Aitor Karanka who has so far refused to learn from last season and too often is rotating just for the sake of it . City were back down to earth with a 2-1 home loss to Burnley and the match at Boro aside, City have struggled to put together more than 30 minutes in any one game and are finding the transition to Championship life tough and boss Steve Cotterill is hardly a calming influence on the sidelines in that respect, if it came down to him versus Rowett, mano e mano it is a mismatch in coaching ability. The visitors do get Luke Freeman ( see above) back today which will help, but I am keen on the hosts.