The best and worst of Man City

Journalist and City fan Steve Anglesey discusses Ali Benarbia, ‘The Greek Tragedy’ and Pep’s sideburns

XI

BEST: Ederson; Tony Book, Vincent Kompany, Tommy Booth, Willie Donachie; Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Colin Bell [right]; Sergio Aguero, Francis Lee

WORST: Simon Tracey; Laurent Charvet, Tal Ben Haim, Simon Colosimo, Jason van Blerk; Ged Brannan, Alfons Groenendijk, Eddie Mcgoldrick, Adrian Heath; Gerry Creaney, Lee Bradbury

PLAYER

B: David Silva (“I’d let him have sex with my wife” – Noel Gallagher) W: Danny Mills [right]: marginally more competent at right-back than Charvet, but he gets this honour for his continuing antipathy towards the club and its fans

MOMENT

B: 93:20, 13/5/12 W: Timewasting at 2-2 when we needed a win to avoid relegation on the last day in 1995-96

KIT

B: 1971-72 home: round neck; badge in the centre; white shorts; striped maroon and white trim at the top of blue socks W: 1994-95 away: thin red and black stripes; white V-neck with red recess; bizarre grey patches on the shoulders... the nadir of several awful Umbro tops

AWAY TRIP

B: Brighton (at the Amex) W: Brighton (at the Withdean)

AWAY-DAY FOOD

B: Wembley Boxpark W: Lou Macari’s chippy, Old Trafford

MANAGER

B: Pep Guardiola W: Phil Neal: he won two of 10 games as caretaker, after saying in a press conference, “I’ve been told I am the manager for the unforeseeable future”

GAME

B: 6-1 at Old Trafford in 2011: it should have been 10 W: 8-1 at Middlesbrough in 2008

HAIRCUT

B: The 2014 chop that did for Martin Demichelis’ ’80s action movie villain ponytail [right] W: Former chairman Peter Swales and his Andrew Neil-style Brillo combover

NICKNAME

B: Kiki ‘Chris’ Musampa; Georgios ‘The Greek Tragedy’ Samaras W: Michael ‘The Fonz’ Frontzeck: bald and rarely kept his cool

CULT HERO

B: Tony Coleman: 1960s flying winger who told Princess Anne before the 1969 FA Cup Final, “Give my regards to your mam and dad” W: Jamie Pollock: inexplicably popular at the time

OPPONENT

B: Jermain Defoe: he always seemed to score against us W: UEFA

SEASON

B: The Centurions of 2017-18: every significant league record smashed. But yeah, it was Mo Salah’s season, really... W: 1982-83: In a Swales-led financial crisis, City flogged Trevor Francis and Joe Corrigan; bought and then sold David Cross (when he was top scorer); saw manager John Bond resign; and were top in September before taking only 11 points from the last 19 matches and getting relegated after a goalkeeping mistake in the 83rd minute of the final game, having not been in the bottom three once all season

SIGNING

B: Ali Benarbia: stylish mastermind of the 2001-02 promotion campaign, who chose City over Sunderland after being impressed by the salmon lunch he’d had at the training ground W: Jo: his 20 Brazil caps remain a mystery

FACIAL HAIR

B: Gerry Gow’s Sgt Pepper-era moustache [above] W: Pep Guardiola’s silver sideburns in the summer of 2017

CELEBRITY FAN

B: Ian Curtis of Joy Division; Mark E Smith of The Fall; Alan Rickman of Nakatomi Tower W: Stuart Hall

CHANT

B: To the tune of When the Saints Go Marching In: “Oh David White, is fucking fast Oh David White is fucking fast He is fast, fast and more fast Oh David White is fucking fast” W: “If you hate Man United clap your hands”

HARD MAN

B: Mike Doyle (“People always said I hated Manchester United but it was more of a very strong dislike”) W: Brittle ’80s winger Steve Kinsey, known as ‘Steve Flimsy’

MERCHANDISE

B: Unofficial smiley face T-shirt in the acid house era, with the slogan: ‘Forget acid, I’m high on City’ W: The ‘friendship’ scarfs that are on sale every derby day

GOAL

B: Apart from the obvious, Trevor Francis’ 85th-minute winner against

Wolves, which meant City ended 1981 top of the league – a superb long-range drive, criminally unfilmed W: Jamie Pollock’s dink-and-header own goal which effectively relegated us to the third tier in 1997-98