Of course the victory was one to savour, and thoroughly deserved, as we completely disabled Chelsea's much-vaunted midfield 'engine room' to the extent that their frustrations caused them to be drawn into reckless fouls, but already many in 'The Meeja' are questioning, and rightly so, whether this is just another instance of a one-off, 'Cup Final' occasion.
Superficially, its not, as it wasn't the classic 'backs to the wall' defensive effort of yesteryear, as we had so much to offer, offensively, but, more importantly, psychologically, it could be.
Undoubtedly Hughes, and the players, have had an earful of 'bottlers', and 'overpriced', and 'lacking the heart' ringing in their ears for weeks now, and Hughes might even, for the first time in his tenure, begin to hear the dreaded 'vote of confidence', about to be announced publicly.
So its quite possible that, individually, and collectively, they determined to prove the scoffers wrong, by going all out to down the team universally acknowledged as the best in the Premier League,...perhaps even Europe.
But now the real test begins: now we've got to be quick out of the blocks for every game,...to strangle the life out of the Wigans, the Boltons, the Burnleys, the Stokes.
And then kill them off with our glittering array of firepower.
Yesterday proved we have the talent in all areas of the field: Hell, not just Joleon Lescott, but even Micah Richards, for the first time in over a year, showed that he might just deserve a place in a genuine title challenger.
But it will all have been for nought if once again, next week,....we get undone by lack of discipline in the midfield and defnsive areas, due to an over-emphasis on 'The Beautiful Game'
Mark Hughes and his coaching team now have the blueprint: its just a case of studying the tapes, learning the lessons.
And implementing them, consistently
The mancityfans.net football forum
The BEST FORUM in all the land and all the world
