Strikers are the theme of the day in the papers – that and Liverpool’s perceived demise – and no one puts the argument better for City than Paul Hayward in the Guardian.

Talking about a lack of firepower at Anfield in the absence of Fernando Torres, Hayward points to the Blues hitmen as one of the reasons we may challenge this season.

“Of the Premier League title contenders only Manchester City sport a quartet of largely interchangeable A-list strikers,” he declared.

“United have three – Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, and Owen plus abundant midfield strength. Arsenal have tried to replace Emmanuel Adebayor through clever pack shuffling while Chelsea are heavily dependent on Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.”

The Red Tops are pretty much devoid of City news this morning but the Guardian’s natural competitors do give us a mention – even if the two stories are pretty old by www.mcfc.co.uk standards.

Hence the Times tells us that ‘Micah Richards’ has dismissed claims that he wants a transfer. See our Micah Richards story from last Friday here.

The Independent, meanwhile, catches up with Vincent Kompany in a story that City fans could also have read first on this website. Read our Kompany story from Monday.