Our shot at fourth

We're just four days away from what feels like an endless and borderless fifteen day break, and so focus is returning to the one relevant question in our season: can we come fourth?

Nigel de Jong thinks so:

"(We have a) good chance, I mean Liverpool lost yesterday so it's going to be a tight race at the end.

"Everybody goes for fourth place of course but I think we can do it.

"We've got one game in hand (over Spurs), we've got a couple of good games against our opponents as well at home so you've just got to try to keep going and focusing, try to get those three points in every game and we'll see where we end (up)."

While Gareth Barry pointed out that ruthlesness against the lesser teams is going to be as important as those definitive home ties with Spurs and Villa left to come:

"Three points are massive in the Premier League and we need to keep collecting them," said Barry.

"I'm not sure why we haven't done it against lesser teams.

"Earlier in the season, we had a slump where we failed to win four or five games in a row which we should have won.

"Hopefully, we can put that right before the end of the season, which is the vital part."

This is absolutely right. Looking through our remaining fixtures, it's very clear that Spurs and Villa at home are the biggest games. But given that this is a four-horse race, and that only the narrowest of margins separate the contenders at this point, every match and every point is crucial. Sunderland away, Fulham away, Burnley away, and West Ham away are just as winnable, and just as valuable as our big name home ties.

And are we going to do it? I honestly don't know. It's unlikely - even if we're favourites we've still probably got at best a 35% chance of doing so, as the odds will show. To be very frank, I find it hard to form rational opinions on this sort of thing. Years of supporting City have conditioned me against it. There are lots of attractive elements to the DNA of Manchester City but triumphs and ruthlesness aren't exactly in the mix - if you want dramatic victories from the jaws of defeat on a regular basis there's another Manchester club who will regularly provide it for you. My prediction? We'll go 2-0 down at on the final day, but pull it back to 2-2. We'll think 2-2 is enough for success, based on results elsewhere, and take the ball into the corner flag. Everyone in the ground will know it's not. But word won't get onto the pitch in time, and we won't get that winning goal.

If you don't want neurotic and fatalistic predictions check out Norfstander's vox pops on this issue.