Tuesday, August 24, 2010

James Milner delighted with debut Manchester City win over Liverpool.

James Milner is delighted to have got off to a winning start to his Manchester City career as his new club beat Liverpool 3-0 at Eastlands.

Milner had a hand in former Aston Villa team-mate Gareth Barry's opening goal, laying the ball back for the midfielder to stroke home.

The England international, who was making his first appearance for the club just days after signing, was pleased with the manner of the victory.

"I just needed to get out there and get on with the job at hand and that's play football," Milner told
Sky Sports.

"Lucky enough I was selected and I'm delighted, it was always going to be tough against Liverpool but to get three goals and a clean sheet - which is always nice at home - is a great start to the season."

Milner believes Barry's opening goal set the wheels in motion for City's convincing win.

He said: "There hadn't been too many chances before that, it was a good finish from GB [Barry] to get in front, I don't think they caused us too many problems in the first half.

"Second half, they came out fighting, hit the post, Harty's [Joe Hart] has made a couple of fantastic saves and shown what a good 'keeper he is and like I say, it's pleasing to keep a clean sheet."

The versatile midfielder also hopes the club can now progress having notched their first Premier League win of the season.

He concluded: "You look at the club, it's moving forward, we've signed a lot of great players.

"You can see it's a great stadium, the fans were right behind us tonight, it's a fantastic atmosphere and it's great to be able to play in front of that every week.

"There's great competition for places as well, that's healthy for any team, and hopefully we can build on this result and kick on."

Meanwhile, Micah Richards insisted City's second goal, credited to Carlos Tevez, was his after his initial header was helped in by the faintest of touches from the Argentinian.

"It's definitely mine, I'm definitely going to claim it," Richards said. "If he [Tevez] didn't score the penalty he could've had it, but I'm claiming it.

"He had a fantastic game and he wanted to cap it off with a goal, but he got his penalty so I'm going to claim it."

Richards agreed with Milner that, despite boasting a large squad, City will benefit from a battle for a place in the starting XI.

He added: "Obviously with the new signings it's always going to be hard for everyone, everyone's fighting for places and the competition is very hard, but if we work hard we'll get our chance and if we put in 100 per cent, we'll get the right result."

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