Isn't it amazing how 3 weeks can change things?

All I've read in the media, is praise for Pep's inventive, attacking philosophy. Euphemisms and platitudes fill the papers...yet only 3 weeks ago, Pep was described as a fraud, exposed in the PL as a coach who has been lucky and that his successes were down to the fact he had all the best players at his disposal as Barca and Bayern, with little competition - "I could win the league with those players", "Overrated manager who will struggle in the PL", "It wouldn't surprise me if Pep walks away or may be sacked", "City are in crisis and Pep is in meltdown"....just a few of the comments from the articles.

A prime example is Martin Keown calling City's shape like a 'flower coming into bloom"...yet a few weeks ago, he was saying that City wouldn't make the top 4 because no matter how many goals we score, our defence are likely to concede the same amount or more....we're now favourites for the top 4 ahead of Spurs, Arsenal, LFC and United.

I think most of us said at the beginning of the season, that top 4 is a priority and a cup win would also be a decent start. Of course, after 10 games, we were thinking "hmm, maybe the title as well"...

As it stands, with 15 games to go, we're 1 point off 2nd place, next round of the CL and FA Cup.

We'll probably get beat at some point in the next month or so, and then, we'll probably hear the same people writing headlines like "blown it"....

Yes, defeats against Leicester and Everton were pretty embarrassing, but I guess they were inevitable whilst Pep was trying to get the team playing how he wanted them to. I'd be happy for us to get beat 4-0 by someone between now and the end of the season, if we see the kind of football we have done over the past few weeks, because I think we're starting to see Pep's philosophy taking shape.

He said he needed time to learn and he has done. He's made mistakes, but he's learnt from them....that shows that he's not stubborn or foolish, nor is he trying to change English football. He's just trying to build a style of play for the future, which has taken time for the players to get up to speed with, in a new league and country for some.

The future is looking very bright, not just this season, but for years to come in my opinion.

We are a fickle bunch blue, although the press are a different level of fickle.

If we can get a fit Vinnie for the rest of the season it will do wonders for that defence, and who knows we came back from this sort of deficit for our last title.

However as scary as this sounds I think our best hope could be the CL this season as fantasy land as that sounds?  We handed Barca a pasting already and there are some tough match ups in this last 16, so there are going to be weaker teams in the last 8.

Pep took a couple of big risks with the goalkeeper situation (getting rid of the good Joe Hart and bringing in the clown Bravo) and not getting another CB in case VK's legs went again.

He made matters worse by sticking by Bravo even though he was proving to be crap.

It's taken him a very long time to drop him which has allowed the press to attack him and made many fans pissed off.

We've not been terrible all season with only a handful of games where we've let ourselves down. We're the best team in this league that plays the best football; we're just not as consistent as we need to be.

Jesus has made a difference as has Sane's sudden return to form and Pep's all out attack with a proper press has worked wonders.

We have to remember, there were many games which through poor reffing or the odd lapse in concentration by a defender or the keeper, led to a draw and a loss of two points, or a defeat, plus missed penalties etc.

Some of those games we played brilliantly in and deserved all 3 points....and it wasn't down to Pep. A defender can have a great 80 mins, but then have a head wobble and cost us a goal, or the keeper for that matter - maybe a different player might have been worse?

The thing is, Pep should be afforded a year to get this right. 

Martin Keown made a good point though. He said people will point to Conte and say "but look where Chelsea are in his first season" - the thing is, Conte hasn't had to change Chelsea much. Even a change from 4 to 3 at the back is a minor change to their style of play.

Pep is trying to completely change the philosophy at City from back to front, front to back....and that takes time, not only for the existing players to get used to, but time to get the 'right' players into the system to start with.

I think he was spot on with this observation.

Personally, I think the Everton thumping could prove to be the watershed moment in our season. We were hammered in the press on the back of that result to an unprecedented scale. Spurs came to us and most people including myself expected them to steamroller us. I didn't care about the result that day cos I could see we were by far the better team and as long as they carried that level of performance forward that we were gonna give teams a proper good pasting.......what has also helped is we have stopped giving unmissable chances away as well......and all of this has kept the Pep haters quiet. For the time being anyway.....

We've been far the better team many times this season and have come away with nothing or only a point (Everton, Chelsea and Spurs at home just being three games where we missed out on 7 points that we should have got).

Those extra points would have silenced pretty much all of the critics because we'd be sat in 2nd place on GD.

It's fine margins at times (and wrong calls by the officials) that can make all the difference.

Another factor that can't be underestimated is the impact Jesus has made.....all of a sudden we have a purpose to our play....he has given us another creative dimension as well as looking like a tough bugger.....exciting few months ahead.....all of this in time for the CL...

I think we've seriously missed that excitement that young players can bring. He ain't taking no shit from nobody.

Not sure about his temperament though, he's going to be targeted by the cloggers and Pep needs to make sure he's prepared for the intimidation and does not react, i'd hate to lose him during a game for a silly red card.

If refs are going to go easy on the yellow cards like the game against the spammers, then players will inevitably get wound up. There were a few poor tackles that deserved yellows but the ref didn't give them. That allowed hammers players to keep going in with a bit too much enthusiasm. The good thing is that he stood up to them, just got up and carried on.

Maybe Pep has to go on and on about this in press conferences...