Mancini cool in City storm

IT was another busy day at Manchester City as Roberto Mancini prepared to make Edin Dzeko his latest big–money signing, readied his side for a trip to third–placed Arsenal tonight and had to deal with another training ground bust–up.

The Italian began the day by attempting to ease any title pressure on his players ahead of the most important match of City’s season so far, labelling his side as the least likely of the five contenders to lift the title.

But the news of Dzeko’s likely arrival for around £27million from Wolfsburg, followed by news of training ground friction between players — this time Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor — emphasised just what an astonishing feat Mancini has already achieved in getting the big spenders into second spot.

“Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Tottenham all have more experience than us and, probably, one of these four teams will win the title,” said Mancini.

“We just want to try and stay there and improve.”

This isn’t always easy with such a temperamental squad. There have been a number of on–field disagreements this term and it is only a month since Mario Balotelli and Jerome Boateng were kept apart by team–mates. Former Arsenal team–mates Toure and Adebayor also had to be separated by colleagues, then were ordered to play on the same side in a training match to prevent a resumption of hostilities.