TAKING STOCK OF THINGS

Nil-nil, two-two, three-nil, Yaya, Garcia; 3-5-2, 9 points, Milner, QPR...

Dear Manchester City, I stand here -- not for the first time in our long and tumultuous relationship -- a little confused. You have given us two draws in the last two games, to add to an unbeaten run into the new year. Our dear neighbours reside up the road, nine doors further along to be precise, midway up Easy Street with their feet up watching the telly. Probably eating peanuts. I am not jealous of the peanuts but am a little confused about being in second place. I cannot make up my mind whether my glass has plenty of life's eternal juices slopping around busily inside, or is leaking its odd-smelling liquid out of the massive as-yet-unnoticed crack at the back. 


- City must win all their games, says Hart
 
3-0, 3-0, 2-0, 2-0, 1-0, then 0-0 and 2-2. Tell me, is this a wobble before the fall or a pause in the middle of a quickening run towards the finishing line? Why does it echo so in here? Who has hidden my Brian Horton pills, and what is that big man in the lab coat doing with such a big syringe?
Since the annual festive collapse on Wearside, where City were easily beaten by a hitherto and indeed henceforth lethargic and sedentary Sunderland side, goals have been -- relatively speaking -- flying in. Four at Norwich, three v Stoke and Watford, two against Arsenal and Fulham, one at Stoke in the cup and two more v Liverpool. Is this a harvest of quasi-swashbuckling football, or is the goals trail actually beginning to dry up before it has properly reached a flood? None at QPR, don't forget, and that graph is definitely heading toward a pointy end, apart from the two last weekend, which, many would agree, were approximately two more than what was deserved and a mite fortunate given the run of play.

Read the full article here at ESPNFC