City boss Manuel Pellegrini has a lot on his hands after his side lost against Liverpool and effectively dropped out of the title race

Optimism is a practice that I personally swear by. It is a characteristic of mine that my friends and family are very much aware of. But no matter how much I love to remain optimistic in trying situations, there will be occasions when being realistic is the best option because there is in fact nothing much to be optimistic about. The current state of my beloved Manchester City is one of those sorry situations. When the season began, there was a very upbeat feel to our campaign, and of course, why wouldn’t there be one. Starting the season as champions of England was a terrific experience, but the problem is, the taste of success keeps you wanting for more. And that is exactly why our present condition is unbearable.

Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho scored a stunner in the final quarter of the game to hand the Reds a win over the champions

Last Sunday’s defeat at the hands of Liverpool has, at least in my opinion, ended any chances we had of pipping Chelsea to the Premier League title. Roman Abramovich’s men have a five point lead and a game in hand over us and with just ten games left this season, the chances of us over taking our rivals are almost nil. The only way we can get our hands on the League title is if Chelsea somehow lose the plot and go on a terrible run of games. And the chances of that happening are also nonexistent. Standing in the situation that we are in right now, all we can do is look forward to the next game and try our best to get a win while also hoping against hope that the Londoners manage to drop points. The hot topic for discussion amongst City fans is of course where it went wrong. In my eyes, our post Boxing Day form is the reason for us dropping out of the title race. The run that we had in January and the first week of February saw us pick up only six points from a possible 15. In that same time period, Chelsea picked up 10 points. The four extra points that Mourinho’s men picked up back then is still proving to be the deciding factor even now. While losses at the hands of the big boys may still be acceptable, the disappointing draws that we had against Hull City and Burnley at the Eithad, and QPR at Loftus Road are in no way what is expected from a team that has aspirations of winning the Premier League title.

City custodian Joe Hart has admitted that he and his team mates have not been playing up to the mark in recent times

City have already drawn two more games this season than they did in the whole of the last and another loss would put them on par with the number of losses they racked up last time around. With ten games still left to go in this campaign, we should have been nowhere near these figures had we been truly challenging for the big prize. What’s done is done however and all we can do is look forward and hope to make second place our own because the top spot looks to be well beyond our reach.