Keegan's cavaliers aim to keep smiling

Kevin Keegan has never been backward in coming forward as far as tactics are concerned. His Manchester City side are guaranteeing thrill-a-minute football on their return to the Premiership, and on past experience few would bet against Keegan's smiling cavaliers pulling it off.

City have spent the last decade in the shadows of Manchester United, but after lifting the First Division title in typical Keegan fashion with a hatful of goals and some kamikaze defending last year, the target now is to join Sir Alex Ferguson's Red Devils in the upper reaches of the table.

To call City a yo-yo club in recent years is an understatement. But after five years outside the top flight, including one season in the Second Division, a change in leadership in the form of Keegan has brought an entertainment value to the club, and he is not one to settle for mere survival.

The former England manager transformed Newcastle United into a major player in the Premiership thanks to Sir John Hall's open chequebook and a boldness that made others take notice. That approach is evident again in the new-look City. Not only are they back in the Premiership with a host of talented internationals in their ranks, they will also move to the new City of Manchester Stadium, venue for a highly successful Commonwealth Games, at the end of the season.

Keegan's summer spending has secured the services of Nicolas Anelka, Marc-Vivien Foe, Peter Schmeichel, Sylvain Distin and Vicente Vuoso, allied to the talents of Ali Ben-arbia, Eyal Berkovic and Darren Huckerby from last season's successful promotion squad. The guarantees are that City will take the game to anyone this year, in the same way Newcastle did, and a scenario of goalless draws at Maine Road is improbable.

Steve Howey, a stalwart of the Newcastle side that came close to lifting the League in 1996 and 1997, is now a fixture in the back line at Maine Road. Knowing Keegan as he does, the central defender is happily expecting to be heavily exposed again this season.

"It's going to be in everyone's mind not to concede but at the end of the day, the best form of defence is attack," said Howey, who earned international recognition with England despite Newcastle's so-called failings in defence.

"The team are going to play the way he wants us to play, that is attractive, flowing football and attacking at every opportunity. The manager has always been one who wants his teams to win in style. You manage to let in four but you score five."

With players of the ilk of Anelka, midfielder Benarbia, who will take over the captain's armband from Stuart Pearce, and the Israeli playmaker Berkovic, Keegan has the men capable of asking questions of big reputations. Despite injuries to their goalkeepers Schmeichel and Nicky Weaver and striker Shaun Goater, pre-season has been profitable for City, with only one defeat, to Keegan's former club Hamburg.

The newcomers have settled in. Anelka is, according to Keegan, "a Rolls-Royce of a striker. He is top-class, and if you're looking for a leading scorer in the Premiership he will certainly be in the top six or seven names." The emergence of youth-team midfielder Chris Shuker, 20, has been a bonus, as has the success of Karim Kerker, an Algerian trialist persuaded to come to Maine Road by Benarbia, who has extended his stay in Manchester in the hope of a contract.

While Leicester started life in their new home, the Walkers Bowl, down in the First Division against Watford yesterday, Manchester City's switch next summer to the City of Manchester Stadium – capacity 48,000 – should come on the back of success rather than relegation.