City Need Away Wins To Topple Top Four

There was an old saying in the league years ago; If you win your home games, draw your away games you’ll win the league. It was an adage that rung true and it was a standard that every team that was serious about winning the championship strived to achieve.

Unfortunately in today’s game it no longer applies. Winning home games and drawing away will probably leave you with a fourth place finish so the emphasis on winning away games is greater than it was twenty years ago.

And that is where the blues tend to fall down, season after season. So far City have clocked up just three wins on their travels and while it is a slight improvement on last season, it is nowhere near the kind of standard the blues should be setting themselves.

For some unknown reason, City just cannot perform away from Eastlands. Last season, a 3-0 win at Sunderland in August was not repeated until the team travelled to Everton and won 2-1 last Spring. This season, after winning their first two away games, they then failed to win until a 3-0 victory over Wolves during the festive period.

City have one of the best home forms in the Premier League and is only beaten by Chelsea but the away form leaves a lot to be desired. If City would have picked up maximum points at Hull, Wigan, Birmingham and Bolton, which were all attainable, it would have given up an extra nine points, just five behind Chelsea and a good outside bet for the title.

Instead, we are fighting it out for fourth place with Liverpool, Spurs and Villa. With away games such as Arsenal and Chelsea still to come, City need to start making matches against the likes of Hull and Stoke an expected away win, rather than an anticipated defeat.

Winning games rather than avoiding defeat, is the key to toppling the top four.