Category Archives: Seasons

A Magazine Advert from 1978

Here’s a magazine advert from November 1978 which gives mention to Manchester City. The brewery involved had no connection to City at the time, so it may seem remarkable to some but back then the fact City had won the FA Cup in the same year as a canned beer was launched in the UK was too good for an ad agency to miss. They could have picked the 1956 League champions (Manchester United) but maybe their spell in the Second Division (promoted in 1975) or the stories of crowd disorder that had dogged United during this era may have given more of a negative angle for the beer.

If you’d like to find out more about Manchester City in the 1970s then take a look at the following 5,700 word article on the entire 1978-79 season – a season which saw City mount a UEFA Cup challenge and a former hero return (if only he hadn’t!). My article, like most of my other indepth pieces, contains material from interviews I have performed with many of the key figures – chairman, managers, players and others. You can read this below.

The article is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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Manchester City 3 Young Boys 0

On this day (7 November) in 2023 Manchester City defeated Young Boys 3-0 in the UEFA Champions League. This was recorded as City’s 100th win in major European competitions (don’t get me started on whether a win on penalties is counted as a win in sequence records!) and extended the club’s unbeaten run in Europe to 18 matches (this was a new record for English teams).

You can see film of the game here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/city-3-0-young-boys-highlights-63834993

The City scorers were Haaland (2) and Foden.

A Classic Manchester Derby From 1971

Here’s film of the 6 November 1971 Manchester Derby which ended 3-3. Well worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KgV5f55Qg

You can find out more about the 1971-72 season for Manchester City in the this 4,700 word article on the entire season – a hugely significant season though one that’s often neglected. This is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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QPR 2 Manchester City 3

On this day (5 November) in 2011 Manchester City defeated Neil Warnock’s Queen’s Park Rangers 3-2 with goals from Edin Dzeko, David Silva and Yaya Toure. The game is often overlooked in the history of games between the two clubs mainly due to the fact that the second game of the season between these teams was such an important occasion. But this match also had its twists and turns, with the three points of course proving vital at the season’s end. People inevitably focus on the final day, title winning matches but in a season where a title is decided on goal difference then every game and goal is important.

QPR opened the scoring in the 28th minute (a header from Jay Bothroyd) with man of the match Edin Dzeko equalising two minutes before half time. David Silva (photographed) made it 2-1 seven minutes into the second half but Heidar Helguson equalised in the 69th minute. The game was won with a 74th minute headed effort from Yaya Toure.

After the match manager Roberto Mancini rightly commented: ‘It was important we beat QPR. I knew that we could have a problem. The win was very important because we’ve played 6 very, very hard games and we’ve won, it was important because of the international break.’

Club Record Established: Manchester City 6 Bournemouth 1

Today (4 November) in 2023 Manchester City defeated Bournemouth 6-1 and established a club record 21 successive home victories. The win put City top of the Premier League and you can watch highlights here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/city-6-1-bournemouth-premier-league-extended-highlights-63834732

The City scorers were Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva (2; photographed), Manuel Akanji, Phil Foden, and Nathan Ake.

1937 Making History

It wouldn’t get the same focus today but back on 3 November 1937 Manchester City’s first Charity Shield (nowadays Community Shield) win was heralded as a major achievement. The 2-0 success over Sunderland meant that City had at some point in their existence won every major honour available to them. This meant League, FA Cup and also the Second Division (often quoted in club histories, not just City’s, as a major success back then), as well as the Shield.

City’s scorers in the 2-0 win were Alec Herd and Peter Doherty.

You can read more on this period for Manchester City with this 1,800 word subscriber article on the 1937-38 season. If you subscribe (see below) I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t subscribe then why not try it for a month (£3 per month or sign up for a year at a discounted £20 per year)?

Here’s the article:

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Villareal 0 Manchester City 3

On this day (2 November) in 2011 Manchester City defeated Villareal with goals from Yaya Toure (2) and Mario Balotelli (penalty; photograph) You can watch highlights below:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2011/november/villarreal-v-city-60-sec-highlights

Lessons From History: MCFC 2020 & 2025

It’s part of the football circus these days that occasional defeats are greeted as devastating occurences. Social media goes into meltdown; shock jock style radio stations begin to predict the end of eras and even the BBC seems to take a ‘your all doomed’ approach if you lose a game. After City’s narrow defeat at Villa last week the BBC’s website stated: ‘In the context of the title race, there are concerning signs for City’ and elsewhere on the BBC there were fans quoted complaining about the weaknesses in the team. So, to take a more reasoned view I decided to take a look at the 2020-21 season when similar reporting occurred of City’s games. Back then pundits like the former Arsenal player Martin Keown were highly critical of City. After five games of the 2020-21 season City were 12th and Keown said: ‘there’s certainly some rebuilding to be done. We will see how good Pep really is now; he’s got to rebuild the team.’

Those Keown comments are similar to some being aired at the moment about City being rebuilt etc. Pep proved back then (I wonder if he chatted to Keown about his comments in 2020?) how good he was.

Back in 2020-21 City lost to Tottenham in their eighth League game. That put Spurs top and some began predicting the London club may manage to actually win the league. Similarly, some predicted that City were too unpredictable to lift the title. The statistic often quoted that weekend was that City’s points total of 12 from eight games was the club’s lowest at that stage since 2008-09. Very similar style comments to this season when the BBC quoted (after the Villa defeat): ‘City have lost three of their opening nine games in the Premier League this season (W5 D1), with the Cityzens last suffering more defeats at this stage of a league campaign in 2008-09 (four).‘

As a direct comparison it’s worth noting that City are two points behind where they were five years ago, and in both seasons faced criticism. Remarkably City ended up winning the Premier League in 2020-21 by 12 points and the early season leaders Spurs finished seventh. Some pundits and journalists would later rewrite history and go on to talk as if the 2020-21 title race had been a foregone conclusion with City ‘dominating football’ like no other team had ever done before (it was ‘bad’ for football, blah, blah blah). They talked negatively about other teams not standing a chance etc. but that is so wrong.

So, what am I going on about. Well, if 2020-21 shows us anything it is that no league title is decided so early in the season. Nor does a defeat mean all is lost. City are currently two points behind where they were in that remarkable 2020-21 season, when they won the title by 12 points. Imagine if that happened again? I know it’s doubtful and Arsenal are certainly a better team than they were back then and Spurs were too. But football’s unpredictable and anything is possible.

For those wondering here are 2020-21’s results at this stage followed by a table with this season’s:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
21/09/2020Wolverhampton WanderersA3-13
27/09/2020Leicester CityH2-50
03/10/2020Leeds UnitedA1-11
17/10/2020ArsenalH1-03
24/10/2020West Ham UnitedA1-11
31/10/2020Sheffield UnitedA1-03
08/11/2020LiverpoolH1-11
21/11/2020Tottenham HotspurA0-23
28/11/2020BurnleyH5-03
Total18

Here’s this season’s results:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
16/08/2025WolvesA4-03
23/08/2025SpursH0-20
31/08/2025BrightonA1-20
14/09/2025UtdH3-03
21/09/2025ArsenalA1-11
27/09/2025BurnleyH5-13
05/10/2025BrentfordA1-03
18/10/2025EvertonH2-03
26/10/2025Aston VillaA0-10
Total16

The Days When League Cup Ties Forced European Cup Games To Move!

This article from January 1964 is a reminder of a time when domestic competition took priority over European competition. Back then the Football League was able to tell its clubs to move a European Cup quarter final if it clashed with a League Cup game in the same city. The matter was brought to a head when United, due to play a European tie at Old Trafford, were told to move that game as City were planning on playing a League Cup semi final on the same night. It’s unlikely a similar decision would be made today of course.

You can find out more on Manchester City during the 1963-64 season below. If you’d like to read this 1700 word article, plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below). As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.

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40 Years Ago Today: David White

David White signed professional forms for Manchester City on this day (30 October) in 1985. You can find several articles that mention David throughout this website. Start looking here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/david-white/