2010–11 Manchester City F.C. season

Manchester City

2010–11 season
Parade in Manchester dedicated to winning the FA Cup and ending 35-year trophy drought[1]
Owner	Abu Dhabi United Group
Chairman	Khaldoon Al Mubarak
Manager	Roberto Mancini
Stadium	Etihad Stadium
Premier League	3rd
FA Cup	Winners
League Cup	Third round
UEFA Europa League	Round of 16
Top goalscorer	League: Carlos Tevez (20) All: Carlos Tevez (23)
Highest home attendance	47,393 vs Arsenal (24 October 2010)
Lowest home attendance	23,542 vs Timișoara (26 August 2010)
Average home league attendance	45,972
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 2009–10 2011–12 →

The 2010–11 season was Manchester City Football Club's 109th season of competitive football, 82nd season in the top flight of English football and 14th season in the Premier League.^[2] As City finished fifth in previous season's league campaign, they qualified for the recently rebranded UEFA Europa League. The Blues were managed by Roberto Mancini, who had been appointed midway through the previous season.

The season is best remembered by City's title run in the FA Cup, which saw them defeat rivals Manchester United in the semi-finals before overcoming Stoke City in the final, both by a 1–0 scoreline. The triumph ended Manchester City's 35-year wait for the silverware and signified the start of a new era under the CFG ownership. The season was also notable due to the club finishing third in the Premier League and qualifying for next season's UEFA Champions League, something that had not happened since 1967–68, when the Blues qualified for the old European Cup via their league title victory.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2022)

In the summer transfer window, the club, one of the richest in the world since its 2008 takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group, spent £126 million on players, including Jérôme Boateng from Hamburger SV, Yaya Touré from Barcelona, David Silva from Valencia, Aleksandar Kolarov from Lazio, Mario Balotelli from Inter Milan and James Milner from Aston Villa. Popular City midfielder Stephen Ireland was transferred to Aston Villa as part of a player exchange agreement in the Milner deal.^[3]

The team began this season's campaign well, collecting four out of a possible six points against Top 7 opponents Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, which was three points more than City managed in the comparable fixtures last season. The Blues then stuttered for a couple of games against Sunderland (away) and Blackburn Rovers (at home), bagging only a single home point out of the six despite completely dominating both games, with (according to manager Roberto Mancini) at least 25 missed chances in the Blackburn game alone. City got itself back on a winning track again with a 0–2 away win against Wigan Athletic, which was the first time the team had ever won at the DW Stadium, breaking what some supporters had labelled a jinx for this fixture.

After the previous season's run to the semi-finals of the League Cup, the team's performance in that competition this season was very disappointing, with the Blues falling at the first hurdle, losing 2–1 to West Bromwich Albion in the third round tie played at The Hawthorns.

City began its Europa League campaign in much better style, clocking up three back-to-back wins in its first three games. In the first leg 1–0 away victory over Timișoara in the play-off round, Mario Balotelli scored the single winning goal on his debut, but also incurred a serious knee injury that required surgery, putting him out of action for the next three months.^[4] Balotelli was not the only one of City's new crop of high-profile summer signings to fall victim to an early serious injury, with Jérôme Boateng missing out on the first six weeks of the new season due to a knee injury he picked up playing for Germany in an international friendly match against Denmark back in mid-August,^[5] while Aleksandar Kolarov seriously damaged his ankle ligaments in the opening match of the season against Tottenham Hotspur. The loss of Boateng and Kolarov – taken together with recent injuries to Micah Richards (hamstring), Wayne Bridge (thigh injury coming right on the back of a prolonged absence due to a cracked foot bone) and Joleon Lescott (groin) – meant that Roberto Mancini found himself without five of his eight main back four defenders going into City's home match against Chelsea, causing him to claim that he had a defensive injury crisis for that game,^[6] which nevertheless City still managed to win convincingly due to a stellar defensive performance from the back four (Dedryck Boyata, Kolo Touré, Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta) that Mancini was able to field.

Supplier: Umbro / Sponsor: Etihad Airways

Umbro made a new set of kits for Manchester City whilst they were in their second year of contract with the club.

• Home: The home kit was in City's traditional colours of sky blue and white in a classic design modelled on the club's outfits worn in the late 1960s. Featuring white cuffs and subtle shadow stripes on the body, the home strip was kitted out with white shorts and sky blue socks, which had a maroon turnover on the top.
• Away: The away kit was mainly navy with sky blue detailing and sported thin horizontal sky blue striping on the socks. The kit was described on the club's website as the "dark side of the moon".^[7]
• Third: The white third kit last season was retained, but was refitted with white shorts and socks, the latter sporting a red-and-black band to echo the sash on the body.
• Keeper: The last season goalkeeper kits were also retained, though a new all-black kit had been added to the collection for this season, to be used primarily with the home team kit. Last season's all-green home goalkeeper strip had been moved over to the away kit, although it was still used with the home team kit when the all-black kit was considered to be too close in colour to the opposition's strip (e.g., Chelsea and Newcastle United). The gold-and-black goalkeeper strip that was used primarily with the away kit last season had been retained as an alternate (third) choice kit for the goalkeepers. As could be determined from the foregoing, which of the three team kits these goalkeeper strips were actually used with was not a hard and fast rule since any of these strips could be swapped around (if necessary) in order to avoid kit clashes with the opponents' team strips or the opponents' goalkeeper strips, as well as avoiding clashes with the strips worn by the match officials.

On 2 February 2011, there was a minor "kit faux pas" when the Manchester City team wore its regular home team kit for its away fixture against Birmingham City at St Andrew's, a fixture that usually required the visiting Manchester City team to use one of its alternative strips (in this case, its third team kit since the midnight blue away kit also represented a colour clash),^[7] as the primary home team colours of both sides combined a blue shirt with white shorts. No explanation had ever come as to why this mix-up occurred (because as per which kits were to be worn in which fixtures was determined before the season even began), or why the referee, Kevin Friend, allowed two teams so similarly clad onto the pitch rather than insist that one of them first change its kit, although Birmingham's 2010–11 home shirt features large elements of white. Since then, there have been multiple instances of City wearing sky blue against teams in royal blue.

Friendly

New York Football Challenge

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Sporting CP (C)	2	1	1	0	4	2	+2	8
Tottenham Hotspur	2	1	1	0	4	3	+1	8
New York Red Bulls	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	6
Manchester City	2	0	0	2	1	4	−3	1

Atlanta International Soccer Challenge

Pirelli Cup

Ferrostaal Cup, Summer of Champions

Friendly

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	23	11	4	78	37	+41	80	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Chelsea	38	21	8	9	69	33	+36	71
3	Manchester City	38	21	8	9	60	33	+27	71
4	Arsenal	38	19	11	8	72	43	+29	68	Qualification for the Champions League play-off round
5	Tottenham Hotspur	38	16	14	8	55	46	+9	62	Qualification for the Europa League play-off round

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	21	8	9	60	33	+27	71	13	4	2	34	12	+22	8	4	7	26	21	+5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Manchester City	6	3	2	1	11	6	+5	11	Advance to knockout phase
2	Lech Poznań	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11
3	Juventus	6	0	6	0	7	7	0	6
4	Red Bull Salzburg	6	0	2	4	1	9	−8	2

Appearances (Apps) numbers are for appearances in competitive games only, including sub appearances.
Red card numbers denote: numbers in parentheses represent red cards overturned for wrongful dismissal.

No.	Nat.	Player	Pos.	Premier League				Europa League				FA Cup				League Cup				Total
				Apps				Apps				Apps				Apps				Apps
1		Shay Given	GK					3								1				4
2		Micah Richards	DF	18	1	4		8		1		5	2	1						31	3	6
3		Wayne Bridge	DF	3				4		1										7		1
4		Vincent Kompany	DF	37		6		8		1		5		2						50		9
5		Pablo Zabaleta	DF	26	2	8	1	11		1		7		1		1				43	2	10	1
7		James Milner	MF	32		4		5				3	1	1		1				41	1	5
8		Shaun Wright-Phillips	MF	7				9	1			3								19	1
9		Emmanuel Adebayor	FW	8	1			6	4											14	5
10		Edin Džeko	FW	15	2			4	2	1		2	2							21	6	1
11		Adam Johnson	MF	31	4	2		7	2			4	1			1				43	7	2
12		Stuart Taylor	GK
13		Aleksandar Kolarov	DF	24	1	6	1	5	1	1		8	1			1				43	7	1	1
14		Roque Santa Cruz	FW	1												1				2
17		Jérôme Boateng	DF	16		1		5				3								24		1
18		Gareth Barry	MF	33	2	8		7		1		7								47	2	9
19		Joleon Lescott	DF	22	3	1		7				8								37	3	1
21		David Silva	MF	35	4	2		10	1	1		7	1			1				53	6	3
22		Greg Cunningham	MF					1								1				2
24		Patrick Vieira	DF	15	2	2		8				8	3	1		1		1		32	5	4
25		Joe Hart	GK	38		1		9				8								55		1
27		Jô	FW	12				6	2			5				1	1			24	3
28		Kolo Touré	DF	22	1	4	1	5		1		2								29	1	5	1
32		Carlos Tevez	FW	31	20	6		7		2		6	3							44	24	8
34		Nigel de Jong	MF	32	1	9		5		1		4		1						41	1	11
36		Javan Vidal	DF													1		1		1		1
38		Dedryck Boyata	DF	7		1	1	6	1			2				1				16	1	1	1
41		Ben Mee	DF													1				1
42		Yaya Touré	MF	35	8	3		8	1	1		7	3			1				50	12	4
43		Alex Nimely	FW					1												1
45		Mario Balotelli	FW	17	6	6	1	6	3	2	1	5	1	3						28	10	11	2
48		Ryan McGivern	DF	1																1
50		Abdisalam Ibrahim	FW													1				1
53		Chris Chantler	MF					1												1
57		Reece Wabara	DF	1																1
60		John Guidetti	FW													1				1
62		Abdul Razak	MF	1																1
Own goals					3				0				0				0				0
Totals					60	74	5		18	15	1		18	10	0		1	2	0		96	99	6

Includes all competitive matches. The list is sorted alphabetically by surname when total goals are equal.

No.	Nat.	Player	Pos.	Premier League	Europa League	FA Cup	League Cup	TOTAL
32		Carlos Tevez	FW	20	0	3	0	23
42		Yaya Touré	MF	8	1	3	0	12
45		Mario Balotelli	FW	6	3	1	0	10
11		Adam Johnson	MF	4	2	1	0	7
10		Edin Džeko	FW	2	2	2	0	6
21		David Silva	FW	4	1	1	0	6
25		Emmanuel Adebayor	FW	1	4	0	0	5
24		Patrick Vieira	DF	2	0	3	0	5
27		Jô	FW	0	2	0	1	3
13		Aleksandar Kolarov	DF	1	1	1	0	3
19		Joleon Lescott	DF	3	0	0	0	3
2		Micah Richards	DF	1	0	2	0	3
18		Gareth Barry	MF	2	0	0	0	2
5		Pablo Zabaleta	DF	2	0	0	0	2
38		Dedryck Boyata	DF	0	1	0	0	1
34		Nigel de Jong	MF	1	0	0	0	1
7		James Milner	MF	0	0	1	0	1
28		Kolo Touré	MF	1	0	0	0	1
8		Shaun Wright-Phillips	MF	0	1	0	0	1
Own goals				2	0	0	0	2
Totals				60	18	18	1	97

Awarded monthly to the manager that was chosen by a panel assembled by the Premier League's sponsor.

Month	Manager
December Archived 15 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine[8][9]	Roberto Mancini

Awarded to the player who scored the most goals in the 2010–11 Premier League season.

Player	Goals
Carlos Tevez	20*

(*shared with Manchester United's Dimitar Berbatov)

Awarded to the goalkeeper who kept the most clean sheets over the 2010–11 Premier League season.

Player	Clean sheets
Joe Hart[10]	18

The combined best 11 from all teams in the Premier League chosen by the PFA.^[11]

Player	Position
Vincent Kompany	Defence
Carlos Tevez	Attack

Player/Event/Organisation	2010–11 season awards[12]	Notes
Vincent Kompany	OSC Player of the Year	OSC = Official Supporters Club
Mario Balotelli	OSC Young Player of the Year
Vincent Kompany	Jaguar Players' Player of the Year
Carlos Tevez	Goal of the Season	Manchester City 3 – 0 Stoke City 17 May 2011 (65th-minute goal)
Joe Hart	Performance of the Season	Tottenham Hotspur 0 – 0 Manchester City 14 August 2010
FA Cup victory	Moment of the season
Patrick Vieira	CITC Player of the Year	CITC = City in the Community
Manchester City Supporters Club	CITC Partner of the Year
Lee Jackson	Outstanding contribution	Awarded to club Head Groundsman

Awarded to the player that receives the most votes in a poll conducted each month on the official website of Manchester City.

Month	Player
August[13]	Joe Hart
September[14]	Vincent Kompany
October[15]	David Silva
November[16]	David Silva
December[17]	David Silva
January[18]	Edin Džeko
February[19]	Micah Richards
March[20]	Vincent Kompany
April[21]	Yaya Touré

Awarded annually since 2003 by the Italian daily sports newspaper to the young player (on an initial short list of 40 'under 21' players) that receives the most votes from a panel consisting of 30 sports journalists selected from across the whole of Europe.

Year	Player
2010[22][23]	Mario Balotelli

Awarded annually at a meeting of the Institute of Groundsmanship organisation as a result of voting by professional football grounds management teams from the whole of the UK.

Year	Professional Grounds Management Team of the Year
	Grounds staff	Club	Stadium
2010[24]	Roy Rigby and staff	Manchester City	CoMS

This 'loan watch' report Archived 23 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine provided the latest progress update on most of the players listed above that were out on loan at other clubs.