MANCHESTER CITY

Born: 1880.

Home: City of Manchester Stadium (capacity 47,726).

Average attendance: 33,341.

Highest: 84,569 v Stoke City, March 1934.

Icon: Joe Mercer (above).

High: Winning 4-3 at Newcastle in a real end-of-season humdinger to clinch what was only the club's second league title in 1968.

And what was all the sweeter for Bell, Lee, Summerbee and co was the sight of pipping Manchester United for the champagne that season.

That title victory launched a silverware spree which would see City add the FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup over the next three years under the celebrated guidance of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison.

For United-hating City fans, however, it only just overshadowed the sight of Denis Law's back-heeled winner at Old Trafford helping condemn the Reds to relegation in 1974.

Low: Relegation for the first time in the club's history to what is now League Two in 1998 (along with Stoke City) meant Man City became the first-ever club to win a European trophy and be subsequently relegated to the third tier of their domestic game.

What followed was the indignity of losing to the likes of Lincoln, Wycombe, Oldham and York City.

It would have been worse had an astonishing comeback against Tony Pulis's Gillingham not won them promotion at the first time of asking in a Wembley play-off final 12 months later.

Record buy: £32.5m for Robinho (2008).

Record sale: £21m for Shaun Wright-Phillips (2005).

Trophy cabinet: League titles (1936-37, 1967-68), FA Cup (1904, 1934, 1956, 1969), League Cup (1970, 1976), European Cup Winners' Cup (1970).

Premier League: 1992-96, 2000-01, 2002-present.

Last season: 9th.

Newcomers: Robinho (£32.5m from Real Madrid), Pablo Zabaleta (undisclosed Espanyol), Shaun Wright-Phillips (£9m Chelsea), Jo (£18m CSKA Moscow), Vincent Kompany (£6m Hamburg), Tel Ben Haim (undisclosed Chelsea).

Curiosity: After losing eight Manchester derbies on the trot between 1992 and 2002, City have now won four out of their last six meetings with United on home soil.