There's so much at stake in the derby

Les Chapman.

MANCHESTER City's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal at Wembley was such a disappointment.

To be honest it's been the story of so many games this season for the Blues.

In countless matches City should have won when they haven't. They've not had the luck at times and referees' decisions have gone against them - it's such a fine line in top-flight football these days.

On Sunday City had more than enough chances to have gone on and won the game quite comfortably.

They hit the crossbar twice, it's just been a frustrating season all round really.

It's all set up nicely for tomorrow's derby now, though.

The atmosphere inside the Etihad Stadium will be both electric and quite tense, because there is so much at stake for both sides.

Both teams are still fighting hard for that top four place, and both teams will have been boosted a little by Liverpool losing at home to Crystal Palace.

I think both City and United could sneak into the top four yet.

As for tomorrow's game itself, it'll be tight as usual.

The form book always goes out of the window in these games, but I think if City play as well as they did in the reverse game at Old Trafford - particularly in the first half - then they should be okay.

Having said that, United are in good nick. They've not been beaten in the league for a while and their victory against Chelsea last week will have given all their players a big lift.

I met Georgi Kinkladze this week for a little feature for the City website.

He's been over for the derby, so we met yesterday and I showed him round the new campus facilities. It's fair to say he was quite impressed with it.

What a player Georgi was in his hey-day. His skills were phenomenal.

He's back in his native Georgia again now, running leisure centres.

He was always quite a shy and reserved guy really, so I'm not surprised that he never went into coaching or management.