Former skipper and cult hero Andy Morrison continues to predict City's upcoming games, this time covering three competitions and including a Manchester derby…

Last month – so far - Andy got just one result wrong but correctly predicted a 4-1 win over Fulham. Here, he looks ahead to the five games up to mid-March

City v Tottenham
Saturday 19 February, 5.30pm kick-off

Antonio Conte has set up Spurs well and they will look to hit us on the break with their pace. They will keep it tight and be well-organised, so it might be that just one piece of magic is enough to settle this for us.
Mozzer’s prediction: City 1-0 Spurs

Everton v City
Saturday 26 February, 5.30pm kick-off

There will be an energy and feelgood factor at Goodison Park if Frank Lampard has continued his impressive start. Results leading up to this game will play a big part – but most matches follow the same pattern and we usually dominate possession. Not easy, but I think we’ll edge this.
Mozzer’s prediction: Everton 1-2 City

Peterborough United v City
Wednesday 2 March, 7.45pm kick-off -TBC

It’s fair to say that every team wants to avoid drawing City  out of the hat. Peterborough were on the end of a massive shock last year when they lost to Chorley Town, so they know major upsets can happen. But Pep Guardiola is never complacent – he wants to win every game and is respectful by always putting a strong XI out. The Posh ship a lot of goals and leaky defence is not what you need against City!
Mozzer’s prediction: Peterborough 0-4 City

City v Manchester United
Sunday 6 March, kick-off 4.30pm

The derby is always tricky and I think both sets of players really believe and get involved in the rivalry on the day. That means this game becomes a one-off, and a cup final of sorts with no logic sometimes. United can be so dangerous and will want to put a spanner in our title challenge. It never seems to be an easy afternoon against them, especially at home. They are a major threat.
Mozzer’s prediction: City 2-2 United

City v Sporting Lisbon

Wednesday 9 March, 8pm kick-off
This will be an open match because they will have nothing to lose but pride at 5-0 down. Pep may blood some younger players here and to if things go to plan, we should ease to victory by a couple of goals at least.
Mozzer’s prediction: City 3-1 Sporting Lisbon

Crystal Palace v City
Monday 14 March, kick-off 8pm

Palace have been our bogey team in recent years, but I am sure we’ll want to avenge that home defeat earlier in the season. They are at home this time and it’s a tight pitch at Selhurst Park, so it will be a different game. They have got legs and energy, but I can see anything but a comfy afternoon and three more points.
Mozzer’s prediction: Palace 1-2 City

City v Brighton
Saturday 19 March, kick-off 3pm

This will be a wide open game as Brighton are one of only a handful of teams who will look to play their game and not one that they feel will stop us from playing. It will be entertaining and Graham Potter has seen his side give us a few really tough games in recent years, but I don’t see us being out-scored here.
Mozzer’s prediction: City 3-1 Brighton

Platt Lane Sports Complex, Manchester, M14: The place where legends were born.

Throughout the years, before the days of the state-of-the-art City Football Academy and Etihad Campus, City heroes were raised on Fallowfield’s hallowed turf – a stone’s throw from our beloved former home, Maine Road.

What it lacked in glamour it made up in grit, and those who remember that historic era will look back fondly at those halcyon days, and of the idols that graced those pitches and would go on to don the famous sky blue.

Housing City’s stars for 35 years, Platt Lane produced some of the most recognisable names of our decorated history – and it also moulded the most inspirational of leaders.

One of those leaders is Nick Cushing – the former City Academy boys’ coach and highly successful manager of our women’s team; now Assistant Coach at New York City FC, who clinched their first piece of silverware in December.

Having joined the Club set-up back in 2006, this is the story of one man’s incredible journey through the City Football Group from budding football coach to serial winner: from Platt Lane to Portland, Oregon…

“I remember when I first started,” Cushing recalls. “I was coaching at a grassroots club where I lived in Ellesmere Port – Vauxhall Motors – and one of the coaches had coached with Terry John at City’s Junior Academy but had finished.

“I was 20 at the time and I was really enjoying coaching, and he told me he felt I’d be good at City – that they were looking for young, enthusiastic coaches – and I said I’d love to go. I met Terry and started coaching voluntarily on Sunday mornings with the Under-5s, 6s and 7s with Nick Power, alongside a day coaching job in schools where I lived, and then I started doing more nights.

“I was given a full-time job when the Club decided to do the Schools Programme. I’d been going around the Development Centres in Milnrow and Failsworth, and Barry Poynton in Recruitment decided he wanted to send coaches into schools around the Manchester area and look for talent.

“My area was Warrington and Runcorn and we did that while coaching younger kids – Under-5s, 6s, 7s, 8s and 9s – but that was more recruitment and I knew I wanted to coach. I expressed that to the Academy Director at the time, Mark Allen, and then in 2009/10, I was moved across to the Academy, coaching signed players.

“I loved it but I also wanted to play to win and be involved in the professional side – up there with the U18s, U23s and first-team – although I knew I wasn’t ready. I was in my early 20s and lacked the experience and the knowledge. I was still developing, myself.

“I used to go out at the grass pitches at Platt Lane, watching other coaches, helping them and learning from them. Alex Gibson and Paul Power had huge effects on my career. People could see that I wanted to progress and then in 2013, the Club decided to bring women’s football full-time and I remember really clearly being pulled into the office.

“At the time, I’d moved from 8-a-side to 11-a-side, working with the U12s and U13s, supporting Gareth Whalley and Jason Wilcox, learning from them but not actually coaching, and I was told this would be a good opportunity to work with the team and be part of developing a team, recruiting players, preparing games to win... I didn’t know much about women’s football but I was really excited.”

It was the perfect match. After starting off in a joint coaching role with former City Ladies manager Leigh Wood, Cushing was handed the managerial reins and guided the FA Women’s Super League newcomers to an incredible period of trophy success: six pieces of silverware in six years and two Champions League semi-finals. It was an exceptional accomplishment but the time had come for a new challenge.

“I could have managed that team for the rest of my career,” he says, “but I felt that for my development – to take my coaching to the next level – I needed to go and work for a more experienced manager and get out of my comfort zone.

“I didn’t want to leave the CFG because I’m so grateful for the opportunities they’ve given me and for my development; for the opportunity to work with people who have really improved me both as a person and a coach.

“I needed to be put into an environment where I would be able to contribute to the team but also where the team would push me to be better so that in the future, I could be a better Head Coach. It was an opportunity to work in a new, incredibly competitive league in the MLS, a new country and also to work with Ronny Delia. He had developed players into better players, who had gone on to play in higher leagues, and I knew that working for him would be great for me.”

After bidding an emotional farewell to Manchester, Cushing’s new chapter could not have endured a more challenging start. Jetting across the Atlantic a matter of weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision was forced to move his family over months earlier than originally planned before the borders closed. For the first weeks of his new role, he and his family were alone.

“It was strange,” he reflects. “We moved during lockdown so we couldn’t really meet anybody!

“I’d come over two days after the Arsenal game [his final game in charge of the women's team]. Claire and the family were due to come in April but on 15 March, the President announced that in 24 hours, the borders would close for England and Europe so on the Saturday night, the flights were booked and the family flew over at 9am the next morning!

“I had no furniture, New York weren’t playing any games and the kids didn’t start school for seven or eight weeks. Then within seven days, I had to fly to Florida and then we played eight weeks of the season in a bubble – but it settled down. The kids are enrolled in school now and they have their own soccer teams, we know our way around where we live in the city and it’s nice. The kids are even using American words and my daughter has a little American twang!

“It’s good they were able to get over because they wouldn’t have for the next four, five or six months because the exemptions for professional sports didn’t start until then.”

Having left behind friends, family and familiar surroundings, Cushing was handed a baptism of fire in his new home. Joining New York four weeks into their pre-season, he had to quickly form new relationships and find his bearings, with the help of Google Maps!

After a tough start in which the team endured six defeats, there was a familiar sense of disappointment with the Club yet to achieve success and having failed to overcome previous hurdles – but between them, Cushing and Delia instilled a belief.

“We knew that it wasn’t acceptable,” the former City women’s boss admits. “Ronny is a winner and I’d won things, and we had to be competitive and successful, playing good football.

“We developed the team and worked hard, and followed a very similar process than I had at the women’s team, and we improved.

“When I arrived in 2020, one thing I noticed was that the Club was incredibly ambitious but the disappointment of not winning had also almost strangled the Club. It got to the point where when we when had first Play-Off game against Orlando, you could feel the tension – there was a desperation to win, having come so close previously.”

A rollercoaster campaign the following year would finally see New York make the breakthrough. Reward for negotiating Atlanta at home and New England away in the Play-Offs – the latter on penalties following 120 tiring minutes – the team beat a much-fancied Philadelphia on their own turf to win the Eastern Conference, conquering the tests of fatigue, a five-hour time difference and six-and-a-half-hours of travel.

The triumph set up an MLS Final clash with the Portland Timbers, who were hoping a long-awaited home advantage would pull them through. Against the odds, New York drew first blood through Valentín Castellanos but were struck a devastating blow as Felipe Mora levelled in the dying seconds, sending the game to extra-time and ultimately, another penalty shoot-out.

Drowning out a boisterous home crowd, Sean Johnson saved the home side’s first two spot-kicks, while successful Castellanos and Maxi Moralez efforts sandwiched Alfredo Morales’ miss for the visitors. With the hosts’ next two efforts converted, as well as Talles Magno’s, it was up to Alexander Callens to net the decisive penalty.

More than 3,300 miles may separate Manchester and New York but in ‘Typical City’ fashion, silverware would be secured in the most dramatic of circumstances, as Callens smashed home to clinch the cup, emphasising a crucial mental shift from challengers to Champions.

“It’s the highest elation you can have,” Cushing smiles. “It was an amazing feeling.

“We’d learned a lot across the season – we had a lot of experiences: ups and downs – and to have won in an incredibly competitive league was real reward for the work everyone had put in to develop the strength and the character we had.

“We knew we could win, we believed we could win and we developed the team in the right way. It has been an incredible experience and it just makes you want to do more, win more and work harder to do that.”

From a fresh-faced, football-loving young man, taking his first steps into his career, to one of the CFG’s most inspiring success stories, Cushing possesses a glittering CV and alongside so many of his protégés, now boasts ‘international experience’ amongst his accomplishments.

Looking back on his path, the 37-year-old acknowledges the significant milestones, adding he owes some of the best moments of his life – not just his career – to the CFG, and holds immense pride for the remarkable journey of the Group and for the exciting future that lies ahead.

“It’s incredibly different from when I started,” he laughs. “At Platt Lane, we had two grass pitches, one Astroturf pitch and one indoor dome for 8-a-side but when I reflect on those days, they were really enjoyable.

“Once the transition began under the Club's new ownership, things started to really develop quickly and moving into the CFA was a huge step in the development of all teams to becoming winning teams because the facility gives the opportunity to develop in so many ways.

“The opportunity go to New York was one I couldn’t turn down. Stepping away from being a Head Coach to being an Assistant is a great way to develop myself.

“I didn’t see it coming but one thing the experience has really shown me is that you never know what’s around the corner. It’s been – and still is – an amazing journey.”

Some players are inventive, some send a message and some are well-rehearsed in training… welcome to the world of goals celebrations, Manchester City-style...

The Techtonik: Aymeric Laporte

Only one place to start and that’s with Aymeric Laporte’s truly unique goal celebration. Named after the Electro ‘Techtonik’ dance, it’s not for the faint-hearted as if you get it wrong, you could end up in knots or strike passers-by. Very original and, as yet not used by anyone else in world football that we know of.

The Knighting: Bernardo Corradi

In 2006, a struggling City took on Fulham at the Etihad. Bernardo Corradi didn’t score that many during his fairly brief stay with the Blues, but this was an emphatic finish from the edge of the box that flew into the roof of the net. The Italian then headed for the corner flag where Joey Barton knelt before him and Corradi duly tapped him on both shoulders with the pole, effectively knighting Barton.

The Golf Swing: Carlos Tevez

Having been suspended by City during the 2011/12 season, Carlos Tevez returned to try and spur our flagging title challenge – and what an effect he had. In explosive form away to Norwich, he completed his hat-trick as the Blues thrashed the Canaries 6-1, then ran over to the City fans where he took a golf swing into the away end. He held his hand up to say it wasn’t a dig at the travelling support – but a definite message to some journos that had maybe been mischievous about his actions during his absence.

The Spectacles: Ellen White

As iconic as the woman herself, England's all-time record goal-scorer is famed for her invisible frames! The Lionesses legend marks her goal-scoring exploits by bringing her hands to her eyes in a gesture of a pair of glasses. Now her trademark, it was inspired by French forward Anthony Modeste. Big Bundesliga fans, White and her husband Callum saw the Cologne striker net a last-minute winner, don the 'glasses' in celebration and joked that she should adopt the move as her own... and thus: the 'White-tinted spectacles' were born!

The Knee Slide: Paul Dickov/Rodrigo

You have to get a knee slide right or you could end up with carpet burns. It’s not unusual to see a player start the slide on grass then move onto the AstroTurf surrounding the pitch and come to a sudden and awkward halt. The best examples of getting it spot-on at City have been Paul Dickov’s epic slide after his goal against Gillingham and Rodrigo’s late winner at Arsenal – albeit even if he ran the wrong way to celebrate!

Catch Me If You Can: Nicky Weaver

Back to Gillingham 1999 and Nicky Weaver’s one-off – but unforgettable celebratory run after City won the penalty shoot-out. Weaver set off over the advertising hoardings before being chased by team-mates trying to grab him. A Benny Hill-style run was then ended by Andy Morrison’s ‘gentle’ wrestle to the ground. Then it was a schoolyard ‘pile-on!’

I Can’t Hear You: Carlos Tevez

This is a much-used celebration that, when timed well, says so much. There was no love lost between Carlos Tevez, his former manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his ex-United team-mates. So when he bravely headed City ahead in the League Cup semi-final against United at the Etihad in 2010, he ran to the centre of the pitch, faced the United bench and cupped his ears in his hands. It was a kind, ‘Er, what were you saying?’ message. It was fantastic.

Why Always Me? Mario Balotelli

There are moments etched into the DNA of Manchester City and Mario's goal celebration at Old Trafford is one of them. Having drilled a low angled shot home at the Stretford End to put City ahead, Mario's only movement was to reveal a T-shirt with 'Why always me?' written on it. Genius.

The Shirt Off Celebration: Sergio Aguero/Yaya Toure

We end with maybe the best of the lot. First, we’ll acknowledge Yaya Toure’s shirt-above-head moment after hitting the winning penalty against Liverpool in the 2016 Carabao Cup final. But, though it had been seen in football many times before, Sergio’s version as he raced away waving his shirt around his head having scored the title-winning goal against QPR, beats the lot, for the sheer joy plus the magnitude of the moment. Epic.

Our talented City and England defender answers 18 questions in 90 seconds…

What time do you arrive at the training ground? 9am

What is your pre-match meal? Pasta

What is your cheat meal? Fish and chips!

How was your first training session? It was incredible! The pace, the players - everything went up a notch.

First mate at City? Joe Hart

Nickname growing up? Stonesy!

Best City goal seen scored? Leroy Sane's against Liverpool that went in off the post.

Your celebration is: Arms out, shouting!

How do you explain you (allegedly) being a great dancer? Rhythm!

Best advice you've ever received? Be happy

First post on Insta? Getting on the plane with England. Not a bad start!

Beatles or Oasis? Oasis

Best gig? Never been to one, at least not a festival-type. We don't get time!

Biggest moaner in the squad? Zinchenko because he's always crying about something in training!

A secret about a team-mate... Bernardo named his dog after me!

One thing you love about Manchester? Our fans.

One thing you hate about Manchester? The weather!

The thing you love most about football? Impossible. I love everything about football!

In this month’s Fantasy Premier League segment, we’ve put together our very own ‘FPL Dream Team’, containing the highest-scoring City players in the popular game so far this campaign. Find out who makes the cut below… 

Goalkeeper

Ederson 

The Brazilian has earned more FPL points than any other Premier League stopper so far this season. 

With an impressive 14 clean sheets to his name, Ederson is on course to claim the Golden Glove award for a third successive season, with Liverpool’s Alisson his closest rival with 12 shutouts. 

In FPL, our stopper has earned 109 points– a feat bettered by just three other City players so far this season. 

Defenders 

Joao Cancelo 

Cancelo has amassed a whopping 141 FPL points, the most of any City player and third in the entire Premier League. 

That phenomenal tally comprises 13 clean sheets, eight assists, one goal and, for good measure, a further 20 bonus points in recognition of his consistently excellent performances. 

Aymeric Laporte 

Laporte has grabbed more Premier League goals than any other City defender this season, including a vital equaliser away to Southampton in late January. 

The Spaniard has averaged a hugely impressive seven points per match in his last nine games.

Ruben Dias 

With 27% of FPL managers selecting Dias in their team, the defender is the second-most popular City player in the game behind Cancelo. 

The Portuguese international is on course to better his tally of 142 points across his debut campaign in English football, sitting just 28 shy of that total at time of writing. 

Midfielders 

Bernardo Silva 

City’s No.20 is enjoying his most fruitful campaign in English football to date, grabbing seven goals and four assists in the Premier League so far. 

Bernardo has earned 114 FPL points, with only Cancelo bettering that tally among Pep Guardiola’s squad, while he also sits eighth in the entire competition. 

Ilkay Gundogan 

The German might not have been as prolific as he was across the 2020/21 campaign, but his 75 points so far this term still earns him a spot in our FPL Dream Team. 

Gundogan has grabbed four goals and four assists in the Premier League so far, with his 13-point haul against West Ham United back in November also seeing him feature among the 11 best players in Gameweek 13. 

Kevin De Bruyne  

De Bruyne is looking back to his brilliant best for Guardiola’s men, with only Raheem Sterling grabbing more FPL points so far in 2022. 

The Belgian has two goals and one assist in his last three Premier League matches.

Phil Foden 

Although Foden has often operated out wide for City this season, he slots seamlessly into our FPL Dream Team midfield on this occasion. 

The England international has grabbed six goals and four assists across the 2021/22 Premier League campaign, totalling an impressive 89 points to date. 

His 18-point haul in our 4-1 win away to Brighton is also the most of any City player in an FPL Gameweek so far this season, matched only by Raheem Sterling (Norwich 0-4 City) Joao Cancelo (Newcastle 0-4 City) and Ferran Torres (City 5-0 Arsenal). 

Forwards 

Raheem Sterling 

City's highest-scorer in FPL across 2022, Sterling is also the third most in-form player in the Premier League according to the game's form indicator.

The England international’s conversion rate means he also boasts the highest FPL threat indicator of anyone at City, with the category assessing which players are most likely to score goals when presented with an opportunity. 

Gabriel Jesus 

The Brazilian has already registered an impressive seven Premier League assists so far this campaign, with only Joao Cancelo able to better that tally in the City squad. 

According to FPL, Jesus is also the third-most creative striker in the Premier League, behind only West Ham’s Michail Antonio and Newcastle’s Allain Saint-Maximin in terms of generating goal-scoring opportunities for teammates. 

Riyad Mahrez 

The Algerian completes City’s FPL Dream Team having scored in five of his last six Premier League appearances. 

In that time, Mahrez has amassed an astonishing 57 points, averaging out at 9.5 per match.