February sees City's season start to take shape. True, there is a derby defeat - later to be avenged in style - and no sign of the elusive away win, but there is already the whiff of a Cup run at Carrington as Roberto Mancini takes his turn in goal.

The Blues, who remain third in the table, ease past the hapless Greeks of Aris in the Europa League but it is the 5-0 thrashing of Notts County in a fourth-round FA Cup replay that will prove the more significant knockout come May.

Edin and his goal at Aris home game

Edin Dzeko might be finding Premier League goals hard to come by, but it’s a different matter in the cup games. He follows his late equaliser at Notts County with an early brace against Thessaloniki that show why he’s a sporting idol in Bosnia ...  

Edin and Alex at the blind dog training centre

He’s never idle on his days off, though, and you’re allowed to groan at that one. Edin happily joins his Serbian pal Aleks Kolarov on charity duty with Guide Dogs, and you can insert your own joke about pedigree chums here ...  

Flying Micah at notts game

Micah Richards is flying high, and not just in this super action shot against Notts either. He’s in the finest form of his career, as England coach Fabio Capello notes, and a replay goal against County merely cements his Player of the Month award ... 

Shay and Joe help out Marco with a cook off to launch MCFC healthy eating project strike a balance

Ha, no wonder Roberto had to go in goal. Joe Hart and Shay Given are trying out Marco Pierre White’s idea of oven gloves for goalies, but they’d give it the thumbs down if they could. As for Joe’s shiner, there’s a brief scuffle over who gets to wear the really flowery one ...

SWP starts work on the new tennis and football centre at Mcfc with a little help

Hey, none of that cooking mallarkey for Shaun Wright-Phillips, who opts for a quick induction course to work on the new tennis and football centre. Wrighty, when the boss was talking about drilling in a cross, this isn’t what he meant ...