To a netural with a passing interest in football saturday's scoreline may just have looked like City alomosr staged a dramatic come back, displaying bags of fight and passion; not quitting even at 3-0 down, Proving that City have too much fight about them to go down. We all know that could not be further from the truth than Venus is from Earth, the game could easily been in the Manchester City score class it would not have been any injustice. The team hardly played like a team fighting for thier premiership lives or showing any thought for the travelling thousands who turn up every away game, no matter the distance.
I will give Chris Hughton some credit for facing the reality of the game when he said afterwards; " "We didn't deserve to be in that position," Southampton rarely got out of second gear all afternoon, they didn't need to. But these scorelines have become a habit with 48 goals conceded to date,City have the third-worst defensive record in the division, with (wait for it) only the bottom two of Cardiff and Fulham having shipped more.
A quick look at the other end of the pitch and you will see only Cardiff and Crystal Palace have scored less, for City fans it is embarressing and depressing to read. I am sure it wasn't supposed to pan out like this, with the board giving their blessing to spend big money (For Norwich) in the summer; notably on the Dutch pair Leroy Fer and Ricky van Wolfswinkel. This was in the attempt to steer clear of a scrap at the bottom of the league
You don't have to be a mathematician to see that that idea hasn't worked, as two wins in the last 15 Premier League games prove only too clearly. In fact the haul from those 15 games amounts to 12 points that is cast iron relegation form. I would say that at any other club it would have meant the sack a long while ago.
Since Saturday Hughton has also stated that he is not losing the support of the fans, I have to agree with him there, he is not losing it, he has already lost that support of a vast amount of the faithfull; some of whom are struggling with that faithfulness, over renewing season tickets.
I suppose it is the state of the game today, managers and players have to show little loyalty to the current employers, there may just be new pastures round the corner, this group of players need to think hard and long about that, I don't see a long list of clubs from the premiership that will be making offers. Norwich City offers them the best chance there is, of playing Premiership Football.
It really is NOW or NEVER to start showing some Fight, Passion by picking up three precious points against Sunderland this coming weekend. If we fail again, then the task is looking far beyond them. The players need to forget talking with the media making such crass statements, and do the talking with their feet.
While Hughton and the players take the majority of the blame, the board of directors are not blameless, they hold the power, along with making the decisions, they have seemingly sat on their hands content in pulling strange, but concerned faces for the Television cameras to see. That may sound harsh and cruel but life is like that in the championship, relegation is a fate worse than death.
We need to see that all the talk is translated into action on the pitch....and not just for home game either.