Yesterday first goal by Robinho in Serie A, today another great goal, the first one by David Silva in Premier League.
The Italian managers in Premier League are doing very well, also Di Matteo at West Bromwich Albion.
For the average English football star in 2010, sexual liaisons have caused nothing but trouble. Wayne Rooney's encounters with a prostitute have ruined his form and might still end his marriage. John Terry lost the England captaincy after allegations he had an affair with the ex of an England team mate. Peter Crouch was also publicly humiliated after betraying his pregnant fiancée in a one-night stand in Madrid.
But according to the Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini, womanising is far preferable to drinking. Or so he advises his players.
His sense of humour is just as engaging as Ancelotti's, as can be seen from the way he delivered an otherwise serious sermon on the dangers of drink in the wake of Joe Hart's escapades in a Spanish bar.
In the lead-up to today's match between City and Blackpool, the Italian revealed that he cannot believe the level of drinking by English players and tells them to concentrate on women instead.
"I do not understand players drinking until they are drunk. We do not have that culture in Italy. We would prefer to go off with a woman," he said. "That's what I liked to do after a match, and I tell my players now it is better that they go with a woman than drink."
Mancini first arrived in the Premier League almost a decade ago to play for Leicester. Returning to manage City after guiding Inter Milan to three successive Serie A titles in Italy, he said that the post-match pint still bewilders him. "I know it is part of the English culture to drink after a game. When I first went to Leicester we went straight to the pub after training and drank I don't know how many beers," Mancini said after being asked about Manchester City's goalkeeper Joe Hart's recent drinking binge in a Spanish bar. "When you are young you feel you can do what you like, and maybe in your early twenties you can recover easily," he said. "But when you are 28 or 29 you begin to pay the price. If you look after yourself you can have a much longer career, maybe many more years at the top. I don't know if you remember the Italian Pietro Vierchowod, but he played until he was 40 for me, at 100%."
In England, as Rooney and others could tell him, ill-advised sex can stall a career far sooner than that.
It seems safe to say Mancini is adapting to life in England just fine, except he possibly fails to understand that the culture among young, affluent males in this country is to do everything to excess. Footballers especially have been known to stack up women, cars and jewellery, as well as drinks, sometimes all at the same time. Italians, with their elegant minimalism, may never be able to get their heads around that. It is probably an Anglo-Saxon thing, or something to do with the climate. But then Graeme Souness used to say that most of the Italian players he knew smoked, even though they were aware it was a far worse habit than the occasional drink. They did it because they thought it made them look cool. The worst thing of all, he added, was that they were right.
Mm...I think it's not the climate, in Spain it's hot but they drink a lot.
For the average English football star in 2010, sexual liaisons have caused nothing but trouble. Wayne Rooney's encounters with a prostitute have ruined his form and might still end his marriage. John Terry lost the England captaincy after allegations he had an affair with the ex of an England team mate. Peter Crouch was also publicly humiliated after betraying his pregnant fiancée in a one-night stand in Madrid.
But according to the Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini, womanising is far preferable to drinking. Or so he advises his players.
His sense of humour is just as engaging as Ancelotti's, as can be seen from the way he delivered an otherwise serious sermon on the dangers of drink in the wake of Joe Hart's escapades in a Spanish bar.
In the lead-up to today's match between City and Blackpool, the Italian revealed that he cannot believe the level of drinking by English players and tells them to concentrate on women instead.
"I do not understand players drinking until they are drunk. We do not have that culture in Italy. We would prefer to go off with a woman," he said. "That's what I liked to do after a match, and I tell my players now it is better that they go with a woman than drink."
Mancini first arrived in the Premier League almost a decade ago to play for Leicester. Returning to manage City after guiding Inter Milan to three successive Serie A titles in Italy, he said that the post-match pint still bewilders him. "I know it is part of the English culture to drink after a game. When I first went to Leicester we went straight to the pub after training and drank I don't know how many beers," Mancini said after being asked about Manchester City's goalkeeper Joe Hart's recent drinking binge in a Spanish bar. "When you are young you feel you can do what you like, and maybe in your early twenties you can recover easily," he said. "But when you are 28 or 29 you begin to pay the price. If you look after yourself you can have a much longer career, maybe many more years at the top. I don't know if you remember the Italian Pietro Vierchowod, but he played until he was 40 for me, at 100%."
In England, as Rooney and others could tell him, ill-advised sex can stall a career far sooner than that.
It seems safe to say Mancini is adapting to life in England just fine, except he possibly fails to understand that the culture among young, affluent males in this country is to do everything to excess. Footballers especially have been known to stack up women, cars and jewellery, as well as drinks, sometimes all at the same time. Italians, with their elegant minimalism, may never be able to get their heads around that. It is probably an Anglo-Saxon thing, or something to do with the climate. But then Graeme Souness used to say that most of the Italian players he knew smoked, even though they were aware it was a far worse habit than the occasional drink. They did it because they thought it made them look cool. The worst thing of all, he added, was that they were right.
Mm...I think it's not the climate, in Spain it's hot but they drink a lot.