Matchday: Wolves

• Great news on the defensive front is Kolo Toure returning to fitness. There is no doubting we have missed his partnership with Vincent Kompany - which only shipped 4 goals in 10 games, compared to the 7 goals in the last 3 games without him.

• The full back choices are again less obvious. Micah Richards was excellent against Arsenal and may well retain his place, possibly with Jerome Boateng filling in at left back. Kolarov is expected to take some part of Thursday's game so we are not far off our first choice defence.

• Carlos Tevez will miss the game with a dead leg. He has flown to Argentina to spend the weekend with his family before returning to training on Monday. A major doubt for Thursday's game against Lech Poznan, although he probably would be rested anyway.

• In his absence, it's likely that Emmanuel Adebayor will continue to deputise. Mario Balotelli is pushing for his first start, but I have my doubts whether he would be chosen as the lone striker. Mario is much more of a supporting ST, if he does start tomorrow I suspect it will be up front alongside Adebayor, with David Silva playing behind them at the tip of a diamond midfield. I'm planning on writing a full post on the diamond formation and Mancini's preference towards it later this weekend.