4-4 at Chelsea X 2

It’s Manchester City at Chelsea this weekend. Last season that same fixture ended in a 4-4 draw and this was heralded as a great game by the Sky TV pundits. As fans, these sort of games never feel like great games at the time but neutrals obviously love them. For fans of the teams involved they tend to feel like opportunities lost or maybe great comebacks depending on which side you support. Immediately after the game last year I was asked when City’s previous 4-4 draw was and I spent a few minutes thinking ‘I’ve never seen one before involving City, or have I?’ So, I then started to scour the material in my collection and was somewhat surprised to find it was against Grimsby in September 1950! Certainly many, many years before I was born.

My favourite goal in last season’s match at Chelsea was the one Haaland scored with his er… um… er… shorts area. The City scorers were: Haaland (25 minutes pen, 47 minutes),  Akanji (45+1 minutes),  Rodri (86 minutes) and for Chelsea (including two City old boys): Thiago Silva (29 minutes),  Sterling (37 minutes),  Jackson (67 minutes),  Palmer (90+5minutes pen)

Incredibly last season’s game wasn’t the first time City had drawn 4-4 at Chelsea and, coincidentally I’d tweeted about this before last year’s match. I never expected history to repeat itself. You can read about the earlier match via the link below. Incidentally, the game was in 1936-37 and City won the title that year – as they did in 2023-24!

Sergio Agüero’s Debut

On this day (August 15) in 2011 Sergio Agüero made his Manchester City debut after signing in the summer of 2011 from Atletico Madrid. Here’s an article on his debut for subscribers to this site. Enjoy!

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Stadium Opener

On this day (14 August) in 2003 the City of Manchester Stadium (now Etihad Stadium) staged its first competitive game as City defeated TNS 5-0 in the UEFA Cup. Relive that night (and Granada TV!) with this video of the game:

The report above talks of the UEFA Cup draw with TNS.

50 Years Ago Today: Asa Hartford

Asa Hartford signed for Manchester City on this day (13 August) in 1974. You can find several articles that mention Asa throughout this website. Start looking here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/asa-hartford/

Manchester City’s Chairmen

Here’s a full list of Manchester City’s chairmen since the club’s earliest known game in 1880 through to today:

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If you would like to read this and all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. Monthly subscription costs £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Monthly subscribers get full access to everything posted since 1 October 2022 and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming weeks.

A New Era: Keegan

On this day (11 August) in 2001 new Manchester City manager Kevin Keegan guided the Blues to a 3-0 victory against Watford at Maine Road. You can watch highlights of that win here (and relive the season):

50 Years Ago Today: Gary Owen

Gary Owen signed apprentice forms for Manchester City on this day (5 August) in 1974. You can find several articles that mention Gary throughout this website. Start looking here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/gary-owen/

Olympic Blues

As it’s an Olympic year how about a look at links between City and Olympic gold winning medallists? Here’s a piece focusing on Manchester City star Max Woosnam and Manuel Estiarte, a member of Pep’s staff.

This article is available to subscribers to my site. Subscribing costs £20 a year and subscribers have full access to everything posted on the site, including audio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison, George Graham and others, plus the entire text of Manchester A Football History and a PDF of my first book From Maine Men to Banana Citizens. You can always try it out by subscribing £3 per month and cancel at any time. No matter whether you sign up for a year or a month at a time you get full access to everything for as long as you are a subscriber.

Anyway, here’s the article…

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Home in Barnsley

On this day (31 July) in 2008 Manchester City played a home game at Barnsley. This game made history as it was the first occasion the Blues had played a home European tie outside of Manchester.  Previously City had played home European games at Maine Road and at the City Of Manchester Stadium, but work at Eastlands following a concert by Bon Jovi prevented the Club from staging the game at home.  The decision was taken to stage the match at Barnsley.  Subscribers can read about both legs of the European tie here: