City’s recent stutter is put under the spotlight in Alan Hansen’s poignant column in The Daily Telegraph today.

Whether you agree with the Match of the Day pundit is another matter, but he makes some salient points in his piece – rather dramatically entitled ‘City are facing a full blown crisis’. Don’t hold back, eh, Alan?

Hansen suggests the next two games will be pivotal to whether the Blues restore normal service and kick on again, or whether confidence ebbs away completely.

A little over the top? Yes, but read on…

“When you are part of a team who are winning every game in sight and it suddenly stops happening, it is a scary position to be in, but that is where Manchester City find themselves as they prepare to face Wigan Athletic in the Premier League on Monday night,” writes Hansen.

“Having suffered four defeats in eight games, tonight is a test of nerve for Roberto Mancini and his players.

“They are in a mini-crisis and, if they pick up anything less than four points from Wigan and Sunday’s clash with Tottenham, then you are looking at a full-blown crisis because there is a chasm of difference between feeling invincible and wondering where your next result is going to come from.”

Hansen played in the all-conquering Liverpool side of the late 1970s and 80s so he knows a thing about being out in front.

He qualifies his thinking by adding: “All title-chasing teams suffer a blip at some point, but it is amazing how quickly things can slip and City’s performance during the Carling Cup defeat against Liverpool last Wednesday was alarming.

There was nothing there. There was no leadership on the pitch and it was a dead performance

...Hansen (Daily Telepgraph)

“So City now face the bottom club tonight with questions being asked and there will be players looking around the dressing room at the DW Stadium, wondering just who will be the man to lift them out of this malaise.

“City’s problem is that their two best players this season, Vincent Kompany and Yaya Touré, won’t be there to help them.

“Those two, along with David Silva, have been shining lights for City this year, but Kompany still has three games to run on his suspension and Touré will be away until mid-February with Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations.”

Will Hansen be proved right? Hopefully not – a win at the DW Stadium will go a long way to restoring any confidence that might have lost in the last few weeks, but the football world is watching…