Maybe money can buy you happiness after all. Three games into the new season and Roberto Mancini's expensively assembled side are unbeaten and have comfortably dispatched Liverpool - a signal that perhaps it really is time to start taking City seriously.
Missing out on Champions League football last season would have been seen as a big blow, no matter how brave a face Mancini put on it and after shelling out over £100 million on new talent Sheikh Mansour will want some silverware, any silverware.
The Europa League is probably Mancini's best chance to finally lift a trophy in City colours, with the big guns or Europe occupied with the Champions League, but they'll need to despatch with Romanian minnows Timisoara first, and needed a late Mario Balotelli goal to turn the tie in their favour in eastern Europe last week.
Penalty pain for Timisoara
Timisoara could make it two cup exits in a matter of days after crashing out of the imaginatively titled Romanian Cup on penalties to Arad ACU on Tuesday.
But in the league they continue to push the big boys at the top, thanks to Ianis Zicu's second late goal in two weeks, which earned a 2-1 win over Victoria Branesti.
Sadly it looks like they won't get to better their Europa League group stage last season, unless they can pull off the shock of shocks with a 2-0 or better win at Eastlands.
TEAM NEWS
Manchester City
Mario Balotelli will miss out - the knee injury picked up in the first leg in Romania proving serious enough to keep him out of the return.England midfielder James Milner will also sit out the match as he was not registered in time while Aleksander Kolarov, Jerome Boateng and Wayne Bridge are all ruled out through injury.
Possible Starting XI: Hart; Richards, Kolo Toure, Kompany, Lescott; Wright-Phillips, Barry, Yaya Toure, De Jong, Silva; Tevez.
FC Timisoara
Defender Marian Cisovski won't be available, after suffering what the Romanian's delightfully refer to as "muscular tension", picked up in the weekend's win over Victoria.Lukas Magera is expected to come in for the injured Timisoara man.
Possible Starting XI: Pantilimon, Luchin, Mera, Magera, Sepsi, Alexa Bourceanu, Curtean, Cons, Goga, Axente.
Prediction
Man City 3-0 FC Timisoara 
