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• City's manager upbeat despite four consecutive draws• 'We're in the top four because we've lost the fewest games'One of Sir Alex Ferguson's favourite phrases, usually uttered with a thin smile, is that Manchester United's rivals have a tendency to "cut their own throats" by persistently taking points from each other.
And yet, at Manchester City, they are hoping for some blood on the carpet at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
By the time United kick off, City could be three points behind - despite drawing their last four matches.Mark Hughes's brief is to break into and break up the Big Four, a task he concedes has been made easier by their collective inconsistency.
"Chelsea have lost two games, Manchester United have lost two and Liverpool have lost some games," said the City manager.
"We have dropped points ourselves, but the pleasing thing is that we are in the top four because we have lost the fewest games."However, what might be expected to gnaw at Hughes is the realisation that had Manchester City - who host Burnley tomorrow - won two of those four drawn games, they would be solidly entrenched in the Champions League positions by early November."Some of those draws were hard earned," he said.
"Away at Aston Villa we came back and showed some good qualities while at Wigan we were down to 10 men and able to get a point.
But it has been the last two games that have been disappointing for different reasons.
Against Fulham we were in a winning position [two goals up] and didn't capitalise on that.
Last weekend at Birmingham we didn't achieve the level we were looking for."But Hughes pointed out that, if this new and expensively assembled side was to drop points, the likeliest time was at the start of the campaign, before they had a chance to gel.
"You can always look back with hindsight and ask: 'What if?' Everybody does that.
If you look at how we have done over the initial part of the season, we have got to be reasonably pleased.
We are a new team, bringing players together very quickly, and we have been able to perform.
Yes, there are certain games you think: 'What if?' But, if you do it too much, you will drive yourself nuts."Hughes accepted that for Manchester City to make the Champions League, they needed players like Emmanuel Adebayor, men who like Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford or Didier Drogba at Stamford Bridge, could conjure an improbable victory with a single flick of the boot."We have a number of players who are able to produce the unexpected out of nothing," he said.
"Every team at the top end has one, a player who can produce things when you are not playing particularly well .
Ade is one of those type of players.
You need these guys with a little bit of stardust to take the game away from the opposition."
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