City's Card Has Been Marked

Six points from a possible six, four points ahead of United, Ronaldo and Rooney out of the Manchester derby and a home goal to remember - I don't think many of us expected such a fantastic start to the season.

After the stunning performance at Upton Park, it was always going to be difficult to match that in the next game and the first home Premiership game of the season wasn't a classic performance by any means, but there were again glimpses of wonderfully flowing one-touch football against a well organised Derby team who on last night's evidence may not be the push-overs everyone is predicting.

It was great to see one of the local youngsters grab the headlines and Michael Johnson's goal was just stunning. If Elano or Geovanni had scored that, I'm sure a lot of the headlines would have been about superior Brazilian skills so let's not short change the lad, his goal was pure quality and proof there is local talent; you just need to look for it and develop it properly.

Despite the great start though, I do have a slight concern about the number of yellow cards we've received in just two games. Bookings to Garrido, Ireland, Elano, Geovanni against West Ham and Petrov, Hamann, Johnson last night, bring the total to seven.

Both the games City have played have been good sporting games played in good spirit, but yet seven cards have been dished out to City for the most innocuous of challenges, whilst only one card has been shown to City's opponents in those games. None of the two games have been dirty, physical matches, yet seven cards have been shown - something is not right somewhere!

It seems to me that so far City have been very harshly treated by the officials, especially last night when the Derby players got away with a lot of cautionable offences, whilst the referee (who by the way bore an uncanny resemblance to CJ from the classic Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin series), couldn't get his card out quick enough for the slightest transgression by the City players.

There were also some highly dubious free kicks awarded to Derby right on the edge of the City penalty area and at times it was if the referee was doing his best to help Derby score, hence the ironic cheers when City managed to get a rare decision in our favour

There was one incident last night when a Derby defender nearly ripped the shirt right off one of our players and it went un-punished. His shirt was literally up around his neck right in front of the ref, but for some reason he didn't see that as worthy of a yellow card. If it had been a City player he would have been booked without hesitation.

I'm just wondering if this is now a pattern that City will have to put up with throughout the season. Is it because Sven's the boss, is it due to the Shinawatra takeover and all the high profile coverage? I really don't know, but what's for sure is that our players have been singled out for harsh treatment whilst our opponents have been treated more leniently.

I'm sorry to say that in his first Premiership game, last night's referee was poor and extremely inconsistent. This will cost us later in the season when the suspensions begin to kick in.

Anyway, on a more positive note, it's the Rags on Sunday and whatever the result, we'll still be above them in the table. Surely the prospect of opening up the gap to seven points is more than enough motivation (even for the new foreign signings) to turn on the style and beat the old enemy - can't wait !