City's win 1-0 victory away to Wigan at the DW Stadium last Monday ended a run of four games away from home without a win - a run of two wins and two draws since winning 3-2 away to QPR way back on November 5^th - and a long time since the heady days of Autumn encapsulated by the emphatic performances away to Tottenham and Manchester United.

The three points at Wigan helped restore the lead at the top of the table (actually extending it over Tottenham, who could only draw against Wolves), but it was a performance that was more functional than fluent; more laboured than dynamic.

One area where City have been consistent though this season is at home. Continuing their fine form from the tail end of 2010/11 City have been dominant at The Etihad Stadium in the Premier League through 2011/12, winning all ten games, scoring 31 goals and conceding just four in the process. In fact, looking at the ten games, City have posted margins of victory of four goals twice, three goals four times, two goals twice and just one game with a solitary goal cushion. Home comforts have indeed been the bedrock of City's ascent to the top of the Premier League and helped them become just the fifth side to crack the 50 points barrier so early in the season (21 games).

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There is a good interview piece from Ian Herbert in todays Independent with Micah Richards that touches on a number of topics and is well worth a read.

Particularly interesting are his thoughts on some of the nuances of the managers he has played under, and how this may have translated to the success that he is currently enjoying. Of Roberto Mancini's approach he says:

"Well certain managers will see you make mistakes and they'll tell you about it and then they've told you once and if you do it again, then it's up to you. He makes sure that if you make a mistake and you make it again you are out of the team. D'you know what I mean? And that's the difference. There are players in our team who ... I wouldn't say they are scared to make mistakes, but they wouldn't make the silly mistakes they normally make because they know [the consequences]."

Reading the the whole article, this is clearly a different approach than he faced under either Mark Hughes or Seven-Goran Eriksson - where his performances were punctuated with far less consistency than he has showed over the past eighteen months or so; consistency that has seen him become amongst the leaders at the club during a period when his fellow Academy alumni have all slowly, but surely fallen by the wayside.

Well worth a read.

The column inches are growing as the derby is now all but twenty-fours away (check out today's links for some of the best) but there is one that does stand out; an interview with Mark Hughes in The Telegraph.

He touches on a number of topics, with much of it open to question, but there was one area of particular interest that relates to Roberto Mancini's approach in handling his squad:

"I don't know the guy personally but looking at him from outside he comes across as autocratic. It's either his way or the highway.

"I'm not sure he indulges players; tries to get to know players or understands players, I'm not sure he's that type of manager. He looks very focused and very driven in terms of what he gets from his players. But whether or not they will all love him when he leaves, I would think probably not."

Interesting in the sense that because during his time in charge of City, Hughes was very single-minded in his desire to tear apart the culture that he felt had manifested itself under Sven-Goran Eriksson. This involved not only a change of mindset and attitudes at the club from top to bottom (a process dubbed 'Sparkyisation' by Jack Pitt-Brooke), but, importantly, a change in personnel; players he felt did not subscribe to his ethos, his vision, his plan of how the club should be run were jettisoned (my way or the highway?).

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Less than forty-eight hours on and the recriminations and speculation continue to gather pace in equal measure.

Even before many had awoken the morning after the night before we had witnessed both Roberto Mancini's declaration that Carlos Tevez would 'never' play for the club again and Tevez's subsequent attempt to clear the issue up as a mere misunderstanding.

The announcement that the club had fined Tevez two-weeks wages and suspended him for two-weeks (including from training) soon followed. It was a sensible, if obvious move; the action was decisive and swift, gets Tevez away from the club for a time and affords an opportunity for cool heads to prevail.

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I joined the guys from Cottage Talk earlier today to discuss City's trip to Fulham tomorrow afternoon. I jump in at around the 30 minute mark:

Last night's historic Champions League match against Napoli exposed the human side of the new big bad City squad. 

As the players came out to the field to the tune of famous Champions League tune, nerves were on end. The culmination of sweat, blood, and tears before us. 

Vincent Kompany for The Guardian, explained; "It's a special occasion, everything is completely different to what we are used to in the Premier League."

As it should be but in the end, the expectation might have gotten to some of the players. Gareth Barry's back-hell dubbed "stupid" by Mancini ultimately cost them Cavani's opener, and further trouble came up when Kompany, instead of making a routine play, tried to save the ball by returning it to Hart, who had to scramble.  

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Edin Dzeko's rise to international fame has indeed overcome countless obstacles, and brought a war ravaged nation into the international football spotlight for the very first time.  

Edin Dzeko's four goals against a shell-shocked Tottenham was indeed impressive.  Last week I did a piece on Dzeko's latest football form but neglected to mention perhaps one of the most important characteristics of his reportoir, his incredibly friendly demeanor, and his always smiling face, that has become symbolic of the way the Bosnian people have treated years of war, destruction, and rebuilding in the face of nationalism and ethnic cleansing.  

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Flop, overpaid, dud, lampost.  All of these and more have been used to describe the Bosnian hitman acquired by Roberto Mancini in the 2011 January transfer window but City fans have found a new word to describe the big man from the Balkans; simply brilliant.

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