City 1 - 0 Boro

• A fourth consecutive home league win; it had slightly more in common with the Wigan and Newcastle games than the demolition of Hull, but was nevertheless our best footballing performance since the 5-1. The scoreline may suggest similarity with the Wigan win, but it was a better all-round performance than that. We had four or five very good chances, and lots of final third possession.

• Its place beneath the Hull and Portsmouth wins but above the Wigan and Newcastle ones on the ladder of excellence was due to the performance of one of our creative geniuses. In the 6-0 and the 5-1 Ireland and Robinho were both brilliant, against Wigan and Newcastle neither were. Today we had Ireland's best game in 2009, but a strikingly ineffective performance from Robinho. Ireland was tireless, artistic and could have easily scored a goal or two. Robinho, though, was poor.

• It was a real vindication of Hughes' transfer policy. Given, Bellamy, de Jong and Bridge were all good (to varying degrees) and gave us the quality and solidity that we needed. The choice to go for experience and reliability in the transfer market, rather than big names, potential, or YouTube clips was absolutely the right decision. How good a job would Bojan Krkic have done today? Or João Moutinho?

• I'd like to see some evidence on this (I'm looking forward to the Guardian Chalkboards on the game), but it seemed to me like more of a 4-4-2 today. Wright-Phillips, on the right wing, was deeper and wider than usual, while Robinho seemed to be playing closer to Bellamy as another centre forward. If you were there, particularly in the top tier, and have a good sense of this please let me know.