City’s Serbian defender Matija Nstasic has started life in Manchester promisingly and it hasn’t escaped the attention of the nation’s media.

Chris McGrath has written an excellent opinion piece in today’s Independent, praising Roberto Mancini’s judgement for bringing the 19-year old in from Fiorentina in the summer.

“In their rush to condemn Roberto Mancini for “tinkering with a winning formula”, few have given him any credit for that remarkable, calculated show of faith and the long-term agenda underpinning it,” McGrath writes.

“Sure enough, by the time the return fixture was played on Wednesday, Nastasic had quietly carved a niche in both the starting XI and the affections of City fans. Only this time, in neutralising an ego as extravagant as that of Cristiano Ronaldo, it proved impossible to continue incognito.

“Mancini’s gamble should not be underestimated. He deserves congratulations for taking a long view – tolerating short-term risks to develop Vincent Kompany and Nastasic as the future bedrock of his team.

“And already the boy is cruising through games, preternaturally taking positions and choices that might otherwise reflect years of experience.”

Elsewhere, as per every Friday, Mancini’s quotes in the pre-match press conference at Carrington have been carved into very similar headlines across all of the newspapers.

This week, they reckon that the Italian has taken a ferocious swipe at a “jealous” Jose Mourinho.

"Mourinho is not my chairman. He is not my owner. What Mourinho said is for me not interesting. Mourinho wants to talk about everything. For me it is not important," Mancini said.

Like a ball to the side of Sami Khedira's head, I'm not sure there's much in that one.

Meanwhile, Yaya Toure is up for African Player of the Year, going up against his countryman Didier Drogba for the award.

Toure is named on the five man shortlist to win the award along with Didier Drogba, Andre Ayew, Demba Ba and Alex Song

Finally, Rafa Benitez has been settling into the managerial hotseat at Sunday’s opponents Chelsea, stating that he believes he knows how to get them playing again.

'I’m sure they will be pleased like they were with Di Matteo who, by the way, was doing a great job,' the Spaniard diplomatically said.

“It’s a good squad, a good team. If I’m here, it’s because I think we can win with them.”

Hopefully not starting Sunday…