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MANCHESTER CITY v MIDDLESBROUGH BIG MATCH FACTS
Manchester City have never beaten Boro in the Premiership and our hosts today have lost the last three against Wigan and Chelsea in the Premiership and West Ham in the FA Cup.
A win today puts Boro level on points with Manchester City with a European place through the league unlikely but certainly not impossible.
This is City's 175th home fixture in the Premier League and the fourtieth since Stuart Pearce has been in charge. Of those fourty, they've won sixteen and lost sixteen.
Boro's record of recent years against Manchester City is excellent. It's over nine years since City last beat Boro at home and a quarter of a century ago since they beat us in Manchester in the top flight.
Of the last ten Premiership fixtures between the two clubs, Boro have won four and drawn five but the head-to-head total of all time favours City who have fourty-two wins to Boro's fourty with twenty-five draws.
Of games played in Manchester, City have thirty-four wins and Boro have eight with eleven draws but it's a different story in the Premiership with Boro chalking up three wins to City's nil with three games drawn.
Three of the four home fixtures have been drawn, including last season's 1-1 stalemate in which Mark Schwarzer saved a last-gasp penalty from Robbie Fowler to give Boro the point they needed to land a place in this season's Uefa Cup.
HERE'S HOW IT HAPPENED!
Sorry City fans but that little piece of commentary sends a shiver through me every time. You haven't scored in 187 minutes (three hours seven minutes) of Premiership football by the way and have lost five of the last seven in all competitions.
Here's that Skippy penalty save commentary again, in case you missed it the first time...
Boro go to the City of Manchester Stadium for what will be our sixteenth fixture since the beginning of February. Defeat will mean our one-hundredth all-time away defeat in the Premiership.
Yakubu is two goals short of fifty English League goals and if he plays, Gareth Southgate will be making his 200th appearance in a Middlesbrough shirt.
David James is the most experienced goalkeeper in the Premiership. He's made 431 appearances which makes him the third most experienced player in Premier League history behind Gary Speed and Alan Shearer.
James also holds the longest current unbroken run in the Premier League. He has appeared in goal in every League game for City since David Seaman played his last match on 10th January 2004 and that run stands at eight-four matches.
But James has conceded more goals than any other keeper in Premier League history (479), but has kept 130 clean sheets. Only Seaman (141) and Nigel Martyn (137) have kept more.
Today's referee is Mike Riley of Leeds. We like him.
Mark Schwarzer's penalty save at The City of Manchester Stadium, May 2005.
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