City 1 - 1 Fulham

• Oh, the annual second-half surrender at home to Fulham in the league. How I've missed you. You are the truest reminder that while some things change other things do not; as much of a reassurance that City are still City as the colour of the shirts or the songs in the stands. This is four years on the run, now, that we have gone ahead in this fixture and failed to win.

• As it goes, it was the least painful iteration yet. As with stoppage time derby defeats, or losing to Spurs, or losing to Everton, the repetition lessens the pain by robbing its surprise. The 3-2 under Eriksson stole my soul for a good week, even outweighing my thrills at the Sun/Ball/Corluka/Elano back four. The 3-1 in April 2009 was just pathetic, the 2-2 last year was better. As I said, predictability is a strong antidote.

• Of course, dropping two points is a problem. Finishing fourth is important, even if it's not as important as finishing first in one of the cups. That said, given we've still got Spurs at home and Chelsea away things are still in our own hands. More worrying than the result is the performance. Our reliance on David Silva was made clear by a display that was barren of any wit, pace or imagination. I could write for a while about how Gareth Barry and Yaya Touré don't set a good enough tempo, or how our two new full-backs aren't as quick as they ought to be, but you've seen it for yourselves before this season.

• Still, some big performances in the big games and we'll still get fourth. A nice distraction from the league this week, with an FA Cup fifth round game with Aston Villa.