2010–11 Manchester City F.C. season
The 2010–11 season was Manchester City Football Club's 109th season of football, its ninth consecutive season in the Premier League, and its 14th season in the Premier League since it was first created with Manchester City as one of its original 22 founding member clubs. The team finished fifth in the previous season, thereby qualifying for an opportunity to compete in this season's Europa League. The club was managed by Roberto Mancini who had been appointed as manager midway through the previous season.
Season review
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.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. City then stuttered for a couple of games against Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers, bagging only a single home point out of the six despite completely dominating both games, with 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-final 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.
The team 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.
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,
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, Wayne Bridge and Joleon Lescott – 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, which nevertheless City still managed to win convincingly due to a stellar defensive performance from the back four that Mancini was able to field.
Manchester City ended their 35-year trophy drought by beating Stoke 1–0 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley, courtesy of a Yaya Touré goal in the 74th minute.
Kit
Supplier: Umbro / Sponsor: Etihad AirwaysKit information
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 the club's traditional colours of sky blue and white in a classic design modelled on the club 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".
- 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. The gold-and-black goalkeeper strip that was used primarily with the away kit last season had been retained as an alternate 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 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.
Pre-season games
;Friendly;New York Football Challenge
;Atlanta International Soccer Challenge
;Pirelli Cup
;Ferrostaal Cup, Summer of Champions
;Friendly
Competitions
Premier League
League table
Results summary
Points breakdown
Points at home: 43Points away from home: 28
Points against 2009/10 Top Four: 9
Points against promoted teams: 18
Biggest & smallest
Biggest home win: 5–0 vs. Sunderland, 3 April 2011Biggest home defeat: 0–3 vs. Arsenal, 24 October 2010
Biggest away win: 1–4 vs. Fulham, November 2010
Biggest away defeat: 3–0 vs. Liverpool, 11 April 2011
Biggest home attendance: 47,393 vs. Arsenal, 24 October 2010
Smallest home attendance: 43,077 vs. Fulham, 27 February 2011
Biggest away attendance: 75,322 vs. Manchester United, 12 February 2011
Smallest away attendance: 15,525 vs. Wigan Athletic, 19 September 2010
Results by round
Matches
FA Cup
League Cup
UEFA Europa League
Play-off round
Group stage
Knockout phase
Round of 32
Round of 16
Squad information
Playing statistics
Appearances numbers are for appearances in competitive games only including sub appearancesRed card numbers denote: Numbers in parentheses represent red cards overturned for wrongful dismissal.
Goalscorers
Includes all competitive matches. The list is sorted alphabetically by surname when total goals are equal.Awards
Premier League ''Manager of the Month''">Premier League Manager of the Month">Premier League ''Manager of the Month'' award
Awarded monthly to the manager that was chosen by a panel assembled by the Premier League's sponsor| Month | Manager |
 Roberto Mancini |
[Premier League Golden Boot] award
Awarded to the player who scored the most goals in the 2010–11 Premier League season| Player | Goals |
 Carlos Tevez | 20* |
[Barclays Golden Glove] award
Awarded to the goalkeeper who kept the most clean sheets over the 2010–11 Premier League season| Player | Clean sheets |
 Joe Hart | 18 |
[PFA Team of the Year]
The combined best 11 from all teams in the Premier League chosen by the PFA| Player | Position |
 Vincent Kompany | Defence |
| Carlos Tevez | Attack |
Etihad / OSC ''Player of the Year'' awards
Etihad ''Player of the Month'' awards
Awarded to the player that receives the most votes in a poll conducted each month on the MCFC OWS| Month | Player |
| August | Joe Hart |
| September | Vincent Kompany |
| October |  David Silva |
| November | David Silva |
| December | David Silva |
| January |  Edin Džeko |
| February | Micah Richards |
| March | Vincent Kompany |
| April |  Yaya Touré |
[Tuttosport] ''Golden Boy'' award
Since 2003 awarded annually by the Italian daily sports newspaper to the young player that receives the most votes from a panel consisting of 30 sports journalists selected from across the whole of Europe| Year | Player |
| 2010 | Mario Balotelli |
Best Groundsmen of the Year award
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 U.K.Transfers and loans
Transfers in
| Date | Pos. | Player | From club | Transfer fee |
| 1 July 2010 | DF |  Jérôme Boateng | Hamburger SV | £10,000,000 |
| 2 July 2010 | MF | Yaya Touré | Barcelona | £24,000,000 |
| 14 July 2010 | MF | David Silva | Valencia | £24,000,000 |
| 24 July 2010 | DF |  Aleksandar Kolarov | Lazio | £16,000,000 |
| 13 Aug. 2010 | FW | Mario Balotelli | Inter Milan | £24,000,000 |
| 18 Aug. 2010 | MF | James Milner | Aston Villa | £18,000,000 + p/x |
| 7 Jan. 2011 | FW | Edin Džeko | VfL Wolfsburg | £27,000,000 |
| Date | Pos. | Player | From club | Transfer fee |
| 10 June 2010 | MF | Alex Henshall | Swindon Town | £250,000 |
| 7 July 2010 | MF |  Albert Rusnák | MFK Košice | Undisc. |
| 31 Aug. 2010 | MF |  Mohammed Abu | Sporting Club Accra | Undisc. |
| Nov. 2010 | MF | Andrea Mancini | Bologna | Free agent |
| 13 Dec. 2010 | FW |  Gai Assulin | Barcelona | Free agent |
Transfers out
| Exit Date | Pos. | Player | To club | Transfer fee |
| 17 May 2010 | MF |  Andrew Mitchell |  Rangers | Free |
| 8 June 2010 | MF |  Karl Moore | UCD AFC | Released |
| 11 June 2010 | FW | Róbert Mak | 1. FC Nürnberg | Undisc. |
| 12 June 2010 | GK |  Tobias Johansen | Kongsvinger | Free |
| 15 June 2010 | MF | Paul Marshall | Walsall | Free |
| 30 June 2010 | FW | Jack Redshaw | Rochdale | Free |
| 8 July 2010 | GK | Filip Mentel | Dundee United | Free |
| 31 Aug. 2010 | MF | Adam Clayton | Leeds United | Undisc. |
| 31 Jan. 2011 | FW | David Ball | Peterborough United | Undisc. |
Loans out
| Start date | End date | Pos | Player | To club |
| 21 July 10 | 3 Jan. 11 | GK |  Gunnar Nielsen | Tranmere Rovers |
| 11 Aug. 10 | 31 May 11 | DF | Nedum Onuoha | Sunderland |
| 17 Aug. 10 | 31 May 11 | FW |  Craig Bellamy | Cardiff City |
| 19 Aug. 10 | 31 May 11 | MF | Vladimír Weiss | Rangers |
| 31 Aug. 10 | 31 May 11 | FW |  Felipe Caicedo | Levante |
| 21 Oct. 10 | 1 Jan. 11 | DF |  Greg Cunningham | Leicester City |
| 12 Jan. 11 | 31 May 11 | DF | Wayne Bridge | West Ham United |
| 14 Jan. 11 | 31 May 11 | FW |  Roque Santa Cruz | Blackburn Rovers |
| 14 Jan. 11 | 31 May 11 | MF | Abdisalam Ibrahim | Scunthorpe United |
| 20 Jan. 11 | 26 Feb. 11 | DF | Javan Vidal | Chesterfield |
| 26 Jan. 11 | 31 May 11 | FW |  Emmanuel Adebayor | Real Madrid |
| 31 Jan. 11 | 31 May 11 | GK |  David González | Leeds United |
| Start date | End date | Pos | Player | To club |
| 13 July 10 | 12 Jan. 11 | FW | David Ball | Swindon Town |
| 30 July 10 | 15 Jan. 11 | DF | Ryan McGivern | Walsall |
| 6 Aug. 10 | 31 Aug. 10 | MF | Adam Clayton | Leeds United |
| 7 Aug. 10 | 31 May 11 | DF | Kieran Trippier | Barnsley |
| 9 Aug. 10 | 8 Nov. 10 | MF | Andrew Tutte | Rochdale |
| 31 Aug. 10 | 30 June 11 | MF | Mohammed Abu | Strømsgodset |
| 12 Oct. 10 | 2 Dec. 10 | FW | James Poole | Hartlepool United |
| 25 Nov. 10 | 3 Jan. 11 | FW |  John Guidetti | Burnley |
| 25 Nov. 10 | 3 Jan. 11 | MF | Andrew Tutte | Shrewsbury Town |
| 1 Jan. 11 | 31 May 11 | DF | Ben Mee | Leicester City |
| 31 Jan. 11 | 31 May 11 | MF | Andrew Tutte | Yeovil Town |
| 24 Mar. 11 | 31 May 11 | MF | Donal McDermott | AFC Bournemouth |
This provides the latest progress update on most of the players listed above that are currently still out on loan at other clubs.