Manchester City put their title credentials on show as they dominated Liverpool in a comfortable 3-0 win at Eastlands on Monday night.

City survived a bright Liverpool start and took the lead against the run of play as Gareth Barry finished off James Milner’s cross on 12 minutes.

The hosts doubled their advantage in the second half as Micah Richards nodded in Milner’s corner, with Carlos Tevez trying to claim the last touch.

Tevez didn’t have long to wait to officially have his name on the scoresheet, though, as he converted a 68th minute penalty to seal an impressive victory for Roberto Mancini’s men.

Reds boss Roy Hodgson opted to start David Ngog and Fernando Torres up front together, the first time in the Premier League but the Spaniard looked well short of match fitness early on.

Martin Skrtel made his presence felt in only the fourth minute with a cynical foul on Adam Johnson, who had beaten the Slovakian for pace on the wing, and went into the book for his trouble.

Adam Johnson fired an early warning to the Reds as he lashed a 30 yard left foot strike inches wide of Pepe Reina’s right post, narrowing missing out on handing City a 9th minute lead.

City were rewarded for their pressure in the 13th minute, though, and debutant James Milner was instrumental as he fended off a challenge from Steven Gerrard and teed up Barry, who calmly slotted home the pull-back.

Tevez almost made it two in two minutes as he shrugged off Jamie Carragher and drilled a powerful shot towards goal, finding the side netting from a difficult angle.

By the half-hour mark, City had dominated possession with 60% of the play as the Merseysiders looked rattled by the big spending Mancunians.

Liverpool began to come into the play more as the half wore on, but a distinct lack of match practice was evident as Torres, Dirk Kuyt and Glenn Johnson were all guilty of poor touches on numerous occasions.

Torres, though, presented Gerrard with a chance to equalised on the stroke of half-time as he spotted the captain’s run and picked him out with a delightfully weighted past.

Approaching the pass at high speed, the England international failed to connect as he knows he can, slicing his shot well wide of Joe Hart’s goal.

Second half

Liverpool came out after the break with greater urgency and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession in the opening stages of the restart.

However, City soon found themselves two goals to the good against the run of play as Micah Richards rose highest from a Milner corner and directed his header downwards and into the net, beating Reina who appeared to be obstructed by the eager Tevez.

The Reds responded well and were almost back in the game as first Ngog forced Hart into a save before Torres saw his point-blank range rebound brilliantly closed down by the England goalkeeper.

Goalscorer Richards picked up a yellow card soon after, as his persistent fouling on Torres was too much for referee Phil Dowd to let slide.

With 67 minutes on the clock, City had a third. Tevez netted the goal from the penalty spot after Skrtel had brought down Adam Johnson in the area. The Slovakian was lucky to escape a second booking.

Torres finally showed a touch of class on 72 minutes as he turned Richards inside the box and unleashed a left foot drive across the face of goal, narrowly evading the far post with Hart beaten.

The goal meant City had scored three goals against Liverpool in a league fixture for the first time since 1981 and was the first time the Reds had conceded three in a Premier League match in 29 games.

The game began to peter out thereafter, with City opting to keep possession with little urgency as Liverpool desperately tried in vein to retrieve the ball.

City held out with ease to signal their very real intentions of competing in this league. Liverpool, meanwhile, have a lot of work to do if they’re to keep with their rivals.

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini believes new signing James Milner will become an even better player at Eastlands.

The England international finally completed his £26 million move from Aston Villa on Wednesday, with Stephen Ireland moving in the opposite direction, putting to bed the longest transfer saga of the summer.

Martin O’Neill’s reluctance to sell Milner when in charge stalled the deal, while the Northern Irishman’s shock departure complicated matters in terms of Ireland agreeing to move to Villa Park .

Nonetheless, the deal went ahead and Milner becomes another expensive recruit in the project Manchester City are piecing together, and his new Italian boss is eager to get to work with his new midfielder.

“I am very happy to have James with us,” revealed Mancini. “Everybody knows we have admired him for some time. He is an excellent midfielder, who can play in a number of positions.

“This is important for the team, and I am looking forward to seeing him play for us. We have a very strong squad, and this signing is a very important one for us.

“James he is already a very good player, who has proved he can play at the very top level. But he is also young and a good character, I think he can also improve and be a great player for a long time.”

Milner, 24, put pen to paper on a lucrative five-year deal and could go straight into the City squad to face Liverpool on Monday along with fellow multi-million pound signing Mario Balotelli. However, neither have been registered in time for Thursday’s Europa League game at FC Timisoara.

New Villa player Ireland , 23, signed a four-year contract with the mangerless club but the Irishman, who is retired from international football, is relieved to have left Eastlands after falling out of favour last season.

“I have plenty of personal ambitions,” he told the club’s official website. “I want to get back to playing the way I can – I haven’t played 90 minutes in nearly eight or nine months, which isn’t normal really for me.

“I’ve kind of forgotten the feeling what it is like to come off after a game feeling tired, winning or losing. I’m not used to sitting out for so long.

“So for me, I want to get back to playing at the top of my game and I want to work hard for my team-mates. I want to see if my team-mates and myself can push on and achieve something massive this season.”

Ireland was named City player of the season in 2008-09 after scoring 13 goals and earned a five-year deal with the club as a reward, but the club has transformed dramatically since then.

The Cork-born youngster has earned a reputation as somewhat of a troublemaker in his short career but has vowed to make the most of a new lease of life and earn the trust of his teammates and the Villa support.

He added: “For me, my number one target is to work hard for my team-mates, show them what I can bring to the table, show them they can rely on me and that I am going to work hard for them week in, week out.

“I am looking forward to building up a relationship with the fans and my new team-mates. It is exciting for me to have a new challenge, move here and get settled.”

The Football Association has admitted defeat as it has lost a battle to stop the Wembley pitch from being re-laid for the tenth time in just three years.

It is thought that a number of key England players made complaints about the pitch in recent games. The complaints seem to have carried enough weight to force the FA into paying for another pitch.

The new ground has been constantly changing since it was first opened. The Egypt players said the other week when they played England that they did not have any issues with the quality of the pitch.

However, Slavan Bilic, manager of Croatia, said a couple of years ago that he was shocked at just how quickly the Wembley pitch seems to deteriorate once the players start a match.

An FA spokesperson said: “The groundstaff did very well to stage the Carling Cup, despite around 80mm of rain in the week with a further 40mm the night before the match, and they used a canopy to shield the pitch from the rain on Saturday night and on Sunday. They worked round the clock and could not have done more.”

“Conditions were better ahead of the England match, but the pitch was still not good enough for our liking. Ultimately, it has not fared well through what has been an extremely harsh winter and it needs to be replaced. The stadium caters for football and non-football events, so replacing the pitch more than once a year is the reality of a multipurpose venue.”

The point is that there are so many talented groudsmen all over England that never got a look in at the top flight because of their association with some of the lower league clubs in England.

James Milner, Aston Villa player, said he had played on better League One and League Two pitches when he spent time on loan early in his career. This marks quite a contrast in the quality of pitch handling at the highest and lowest levels.

It is fair enough to say that Wembley does get used for other sporting occasions, but these sporting occasions are very limited. There is plenty of space to host NFL matches and still maintain a good quality pitch.

Many more football clubs have to keep their ground in a good condition and it gets played on every single week. Some teams also allow rugby clubs to play in their stadium, which drastically damages the turf.

Wembley should have one of the best pitches in the world because it is an iconic stadium for football and for many other sports. The cost of a relay each time is going to mount up and it is an area the FA could cut back on if they reviewed the people in charge of the pitch.

England also need to be playing on a slick and neat surface ahead of the World Cup in South Africa if they want any chance of having some success.

England had a lot of the ball in today’s (June 29th) final of the U21 Euro Championships in Malmo, Sweden. The problem was, they didn’t really know what to do with it, and Germany did. However, there probably weren’t too many people out there who would have bet on a 4-0 Germany victory. To those who did, then congratulations.

England were behind the eight ball from the get go, due to the suspension of strikers Gabriel Agbonlahor and Fraizer Campbell, along with number one goalkeeper Joe Hart. But that’s the nature of football, and sports in general for that matter. You need to be prepared for anything and England clearly weren’t. While Theo Walcott, and James Milner are players with some admirable offensive skills, they’re not pure strikers.

In fact, England didn’t have any other strikers to suit up in the final and that shows the sorry state of football today as well as terrible management by England’s Stuart Pearce and his staff. How you can only take two strikers out of a squad of 23 to a major tournament is beyond me. But that just goes to show you how much importance is placed on scoring goals in today’s game.

Scott Loach, who played with Watford last season, started in goal, while many supporters thought Peterborough United’s Joe Lewis would have been a better choice. But in the end, it doesn’t really matter as you’re not going to win any football games if you don’t score at least one goal.

England got off to a good start, but Gonzalo Castro put Germany ahead with a beautifully timed run and an excellent pass from Mesut Ozil. Castro neatly slid the ball past the oncoming Loach. That goal held up until half time, but once the second period started it didn’t take Germany long to double the lead as Ozil let a screaming free kick go from 35 yards, that Loach totally misplayed and while he got his hand to it, the ball dribbled over the line.

That seemed to take the starch out of England, and while they did create a few chances, Lee Cattermole nicked the crossbar with a long-range shot in the 57th minute and two others were cleared off the line, but none of them actually forced the keeper to make a save, and Germany punished them further with goals by Sandro Wagner in the 79th and 84th minutes. He could have had a hat trick, but blew a sitter in the 77th minute after being set up by Ozil, who was a thorn in England’s side all night long.

The game was definitely decided by this point and it was just a matter of how many goals Germany might bang in. But, the scoring was over and Germany added the U21 title to go along with the U19 and U17 championships which they currently hold as well.

While Pearce will be seen as some type of hero in many experts’ eyes, let’s look at the facts here. He didn’t bring along enough attacking strength and paid the ultimate price for it after his strikers were suspended. And his team didn’t respond well in the big games. After taking a 3-0 lead against Sweden in the semi final, England then surrendered seven straight goals. So they didn’t look too good in the defensive end of the pitch either. I’m no expert, but that’s no way to win a championship.

The fact England beat Sweden on penalties after a 120-minute, 3-3 draw didn’t really come as much of a surprise as many experts thought it would go down to the wire, (including England manager Stuart Pearce), but the way the game played out took quite a few people off guard.

In what looked like to be a walkover for England, after taking a 3-0 lead into the dressing room at half time, suddenly became a game of life and death for them as they blew the lead and looked certain to go tumbling out of the European U21 Championship semi final in a most humiliating way.

Martin Cranie silenced the Swedish crowd after just 53 seconds with a goal off a corner from James Milner. Then Nedum Onuoha doubled the lead in the 27th minute on another Milner corner. Sweden has been brutal all throughout the tournament on set pieces and in the 38th minute they failed to clear another corner and Mattias Bjarsmyr eventually ended up putting it in his own net for what looked like to be an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

The second half started with England looking adventurous. Theo Walcott made a brilliant run in the 51st minute which showed why he’s so important to England’s future. Pearce had no choice but to play the speedy youngster today as it would have shattered Walcott’s confidence. Here’s a kid who is good enough to score a hat trick in a World Cup Qualifier away in Croatia for the senior team, but isn’t always getting into the U21 squad. He has to play for the U21s or he’ll obviously begin to have doubts about his ability. There’s no way England can afford to screw with this guy’s mind. When he’s healthy and available, he has to play. It’s as simple as that.

Sweden cut the lead to 3-1 in the 68th minute when Marcus Berg was left unmarked in the box and he right-footed a shot home. It was his sixth goal of the tournament. This brought the crowd back to life

The stadium got a lot louder just seven minutes later as England gave up a ridiculous free kick just outside of the box and Ola Toivonen slammed it home.

Berg then raised the roof off of the stadium with his seventh goal of the event as he leveled the score at 3-3 in the 81st minute. England had completely lost the plot and Pearce’s substitutions need to be questioned as he couldn’t leave things alone when they were going well for the team. As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Sub Fraizer Campbell, who came on for Gabriel Agbonalahor in the 59th minute, darkened the skies more for England as he was sent off in the 84th for his second yellow card in 25 minutes.

It was one-way traffic from then on as Sweden opened the floodgates, but couldn’t find the winner, even though Berg came close to scoring his third of the game in extra time, but his header ricocheted off of the crossbar.

England managed to hang on until the final whistle and Pearce’s prediction of a penalty shootout came true. I’m not sure if he was dreading it though, as he’s been on the losing end of them twice as a player and once with the U21s in that marathon 32 penalty shootout to Holland in the semi finals two years ago, or if he was actually looking forward to it, to finally get the monkey off his back.

Either way, Milner stepped up to take the first kick and promptly ended up on his ass while taking one of the worst spot kicks in the history of football. But English keeper Joe Hart saved Sweden’s first penalty to even things up. Hart then took the next penalty and got England on the board. Things were level at 4-4 after five penalties each. Kieran Gibbs, put the visitors ahead 5-4 and then Guillermo hit the post on Sweden’s sixth shot and that what all she wrote. England had won a rare penalty shootout and will now face Germany, who beat Italy 1-0 in the other semi final, in the championship game on Monday June 29th.

Things won’t bee easy though as Hart, Agbonalahor, and Campbell will all miss the match because of suspension.

England Under-21s have secured their place in the semi-finals of the European Under-21 Championships with a 2-0 win over Spain Under-21s.

With Germany having earlier moved top of the group after beating Finland 2-0, manager Stuart Pearce knew his side would regain control with victory over the Spanish.

After a relatively low-key first half, which saw James Milner miss a penalty, Pearce’s men came back out and goals from substitute Fraizer Campbell and Milner saw off their opposition, who now look like joining Finland on the road home.

Campbell, a first-half replacement for the injured Gabriel Agbonlahor, capitalised on some woeful Spanish defending as Mario Suarez’s misplaced pass sent the Manchester United forward through on goal.

He still had work to do, however, as he cut inside Javi Garcia onto his left foot before drilling an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner past the heroic Spanish keeper Andres Sergio Asenjo.

The introduction of Theo Walcott, who was surprisingly left on the bench, galvanised the English youngsters and he was instrumental in Milner’s strike which effectively wrapped up the points.

Walcott used his electric pace to beat the Spanish defence down the left flank before squaring for Milner, who made amends for his earlier miss, as he thumped the ball past Asenjo.

It was just the response Pearce wanted from Walcott, and Franco Baldini, who was scheduled to attend, will probably send a glowing report back to England boss Fabio Capello.

Pearce will be praised as well because his youngsters are now in the semi-finals, with a Group B match against Germany to spare.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, who was strongly opposed to his youngster travelling to Sweden after representing the seniors against Kazakhstan and Andorra, cannot complain either as Walcott has only played 75 minutes in the tournament so far.

Pearce battled to keep Walcott in his squad, dismissing fears of burn-out ahead of next year’s World Cup, but then responded by removing the highest-profile player of the tournament after a quiet 45 minutes against Finland.

“Reputations and being well-known count for nothing,” Pearce said on the eve of the finals, and he kept his word by replacing Walcott with Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson against Spain.

Pearce’s attitude is that players may have to “fall on their sword” for the good of the team, so Walcott started on the bench and Mark Noble retained the captaincy despite the return of Nedum Onuoha from a thigh complaint to replace suspended Michael Mancienne.

As he admits himself, Pearce is still learning as a manager and his decision not to train at the ground almost cost his youngsters an early goal.

Onuoha over hit a backpass, misjudging the pace of the turf, with Joe Hart racing back and clearing on the line. Even then, it required England to hack away as the Spaniards closed in.

Hart also sent a clearance along the floor straight to Javi Martinez, a possible Manchester City target, but the Spain midfielder could not direct his finish. Milner’s crosses appeared England’s most likely route to goal.

The Aston Villa midfielder put one on Agbonlahor’s head which got deflected over, then from the corner Onuoha and Martin Cranie had close-range efforts blocked.

Milner earned and took England‘s penalty just after the half-hour mark. Spain lost possession in their own half and Johnson fed through Milner, who twisted his way past Javi Garcia before getting brought down.

It was a well-struck penalty but Sergio Asenjo was down sharply to his right to palm away.

Worse was to follow for England as Agbonlahor had to be taken off six minutes before the break but it was Campbell, not Walcott, who came on.

Hart had a rush of blood to the head 10 minutes after the restart, racing out to meet Martinez even though there was little danger.

The Spain midfielder rolled the ball towards goal and Cranie was needed to clear off the goal line.

There were jeers when Barcelona’s Bojan Krkic was taken off for Diego Capel just before the hour mark, with two of the biggest stars of the tournament on the bench at that stage.

That lasted until the 62nd minute, when Walcott was introduced for Johnson.

Five minutes later, England were ahead.

Milner won the ball in Spain territory and poked the ball through for Campbell, who cut inside Garcia before planting his finish in the bottom corner.

Smoke then came out of the stand at the end Campbell scored in, but the situation appeared to be in control.

Pearce danced down the touchline when Walcott set up the second goal, racing behind the Spain defence by outpacing Garcia, then cutting the ball back for Milner to smash home.

The only sour point was Milner’s late booking, which rules him out of the Germany game although it did appear as though the Villa man knew what he was doing.

Pearce has defended his decision to leave Theo Walcott on the bench in the wake of the winger’s second half demolition of Spain Under-21s.

Walcott’s introduction in the second half of the Group B clash prompted an explosion of life into the team as England opened the scoring just five minutes after he replaced Adam Johnson.

“I felt with the game going to be being stretched in the second half he’d have an impact – he proved me right,” Pearce said after the game.

“But then I know Theo and I know what he’s capable of and little Adam Johnson had done nothing wrong for me.

“He took the sting out of the Spaniards to start with and enabled Theo to come on and put on the virtuoso show that he did.

“I must mention at this stage Theo Walcott’s attitude.

“We spoke before the game about how he answers not being in the starting line up. You know, it’s difficult for him to understand how he’s played for the seniors and then he didn’t start here.

“The only way you answer a managerial team selection is to put in a performance of both attacking and defending that he did and credit to him, but I expected no less from him.”

The European Under 21 Championships kicked off in Sweden on Monday (June 15th) with a couple of pretty good games.

England got the three points they so desperately wanted with a 2-1 win over Finland. However, there were a few rocky moments for them a long the way, with the worst one being the sending off of Michael Mancienne in the 31st minute for a professional foul on Berat Sadik in the penalty box.

England were already in the lead by then though, as Lee Cattermole gave them an early lead in the 15th minute after Gabriel Agbonlahor set him up. Tim Sparv tied the game up at 1-1 in the 33rd minute as Mancienne’s red card had led to a spot kick for Finland. Sparv sent keeper Joe Hart the wrong way with a fine penalty.

England’s brightest star and national squad member Theo Walcott of Arsenal was taken off at half time and replaced by Fraizer Campbell.

Micah Richards scored on a fantastic header in the 53rd minute off of a corner by James Milner to give England the 2-1 win and they did enough the rest of the way to hang on to the win. They are a huge three points as Spain, and Germany are also in Group B with them.

While England manager Stuart Pearce was happy with the points, especially with 10 men, he said the team needs to get better if they have any chance of winning the tournament.

“What we need to show is more ability. That performance, for this standard of team, wasn’t good enough. They know it before I even tell them. We have to improve on that. I’ve got three points, I’m pleased. I’m delighted with the points. We need to get better than that and we are better than that.”

They won’t have to wait long to see if they are better as they take on Spain on Thursday (June 18th), and Germany will take on Finland.

In the other Group B game, Spain and Germany played to a 0-0 draw in a game that produced quite a few good scoring chances along with some pretty good saves. The result was actually the best thing England could have hoped for as it allowed them to sit atop the group on their own for the time being.

Spain had most of the possession in the first half, but the Germans’ counterattack was pretty impressive. Spain came close to taking the lead, but Jose Chico was beaten by a good save from keeper Manuel Neur, and Marc Torrejon, saw his powerful header slam off the crossbar.

Germany then hit the post just before the half time whistle as Marko Marin’s shot nicked the outside of the post.

Germany had the better chances in the second half, but Spanish keeper Asenjo pulled off a series of fine saves to earn his side a point. None of them were bigger than in injury time when Anis Ben-Hatira almost won it for Germany, but Asenjo again the hero.

D-Day has nearly arrived for Newcastle United and Hull City, as both teams will fight to avoid relegation on Sunday. Newcastle face a tricky tie against Aston Villa while Hull will take on the once again crowned Premier League champions, Manchester United.

Sunday looks set to be the biggest day the Premier League has ever seen, as the stakes have never been higher. Relegation could mean millions while survival from the jaws of defeat could mean consolidation for either of the clubs.

Preparation is not going as planned for Newcastle who have both first choice full backs out of action. Habib Beye and Jose Enrique are both carrying injuries, which means they are highly doubtful to play any part in the bid for Newcastle’s survival.

Michael Owen is looking to pass a late fitness test and Alan Smith has now fully recovered from a thigh injury. Sebastian Bassong and Joey Barton are both still suspended.

Aston Villa could name key player Ashley Young in their starting line up who has been struggling with a calf problem. Right back, Luke Young, will not play, which could mean that James Milner has to take a step back from midfield and fill in the position.

The likely outcome for the match will be a draw. Newcastle will get stuck in from the very first blow of the whistle but Aston Villa could prove to be too high quality opposition.

For Hull City’s game with United, Kamil Zayatte and Bernard Mendy could play after missing out last week, hence they have been given time and space to fully recover. Caleb Folan could start as Manucho is not allowed to play against the club he is on loan from.

Who Sir Alex Ferguson will play to wear the red shirt of United is a mystery. However, it is highly unlikely, owing to the amount of respect in the league, that United will field a reserve side. They should use a combination of raw youth and experienced players that would be capable of winning any football match.

Whoever comes out on Monday with their Premier League status in tact will be the team that simply wanted it more. Both sides will have to fight from the off and hope that should they both win, Sunderland slip up and end up with egg on their faces as they would then take the last spot back down to the Championship.

The managers are also likely to play a big part in proceedings. On the one hand Phil Brown of Hull City is a lot more experienced than Alan Shearer. He will have a very deliberate game plan in mind of how to defend against United and then counter. A point would be a good result for Hull but it would mean that they are then hoping that results go their way.

Alan Shearer has the advantage of guaranteed inspiration. He is a Newcastle legend and should have no problems at all in getting his pre-match message across to the players. A betting man would steer clear of this weekend but it is why we love the game so much.