The Gary Owen Column

IF anybody at the top end of the Premier League thinks they’ve already secured a Champions League spot for next season, they’re kidding themselves.

This league has had plenty of twists and turns this season, and there will be a few more to come between now and May.

That point was proved at Aston Villa on Saturday. There were times early on when they couldn’t get the ball, and then they scored from pretty much their first attack.

It wasn’t a good goal to concede – David Silva was muscled off the ball, we didn’t close down Ashley Young, and then we weren’t fast enough to respond when Darren Bent followed in on Joe Hart’s save.

I was invited to the game by a business colleague, and so watched it sitting among the Villa fans. And I can tell you that they were convinced throughout the second half that it was only a matter of time before we scored.

To be honest, I’m not sure how we didn’t. Even Villa manager Gerard Houllier acknowledged that his side had a bit of luck.

Our aim hasn’t changed all season – and that is to better last year’s fifth-place finish and get into the Champions League.

But as the season has gone on, the opportunity has presented itself to aim for the top spot.

I would still agree with the comments Brian Kidd made recently, that the title is United’s to lose.

But Arsenal have shown they can beat anybody, Chelsea will surely pick up after their bad spell, and Tottenham will press hard as well.

Fair play to United for remaining unbeaten in the league, but I’d like to see the odds on them carrying that through to the end of the season – because I think every team will lose games before we get to the finish line.

We’ve still got to go to United, while they have to go to Arsenal and Chelsea. The top teams will drop points, so we mustn’t let the Villa defeat put us off our stride.

A run of two defeats in 18 games suggests we’re heading in the right direction. Let’s see where the ride takes us.

A SEVEN goal thriller, the second-best away record in the league, and some of the most breathtaking football seen anywhere.

And STILL there are media folk out there slaughtering City as dull and defensive!

I can only think that some people are basing their arguments on watching ten-minute highlights rather than the full 90 minutes of each match.

At times on Saturday we were probably too open. Before the game we had the outright best defensive record in the league but that was spoiled slightly by Wolves bagging three.

But what those people who constantly indulge in a Tottenham love-in don't tell you is that Harry Redknapp's side, for all it is lauded as an attacking force, have scored SIX less goals than City this season.

And they all seem to have forgotten Harry's son Jamie saying on TV after our 4-1 win at Fulham that the first half was the best football he had seen in the Premier League this season.

While some of our defending might not have been brilliant against Wolves, the purple patch in the second half was worth the admission fee.

Carlos Tevez boringly dribbled his way round two or three defenders, and we all gave a big yawn as he slotted it through the keeper's legs.

Hopefully, by the time we start to get the credit we deserve, there will be a trophy or two in the old cabinet.

Some of our defending in the last two games has been slight cause for concern, especially big lads being given free headers from set-pieces, which almost saw us knocked out by Leicester in the first game, and

gave Wolves a lifeline on Saturday - although I still maintain the ball didn't cross the line from Ronald Zubar's effort.

But these things have to be put in the context of the season, and defensively we have been second to none in the country - which is a different thing to being negative or boring.

It was encouraging to read Roberto Mancini's words in the M.E.N. last night warning his team that to win things you need to be able to kill the opposition at 4-1.

As he said, we won't keep getting away with it. The only teams in the

league who have scored more than us this season are United, Arsenal and Chelsea, and they have all recorded wins by six or seven goals. 

For me, a win like that would be a real signal of intent in the title race.

JUST days to go before the transfer window creaks open, and it seems certain that City will be strengthening for the final push.

We know that City are hot on the trail of Edin Dzeko, and for me he could be the final attacking option that we need.

I remember him scoring a header against United for Wolfsburg in the Champions League, and have seen quite a bit of him playing European football for the German side.

He's a big lad, about six ft three and decent in the air, but also looks to have a good touch and scores goals on the deck as well.

For those reasons, if City sign him and when he does adapt to English football, he could be exactly what we have been lacking.

I am amazed that we have gone beyond Christmas and still not scored a headed goal in the Premier League, and even more amazed that without

that weapon in our armoury we are so well placed.(written before lescotts header against villa)

Carlos Tevez has been unbelievable again, as he was at Newcastle on Boxing Day, and is so strong at holding the ball up and fashioning chances for himself.

He suits our basic style, which is a patient passing game, but there comes a time when a different option is essential, the need for someone who can make something out of a ball slung high into the box.

Stoke and Newcastle have both shown how effective that side of the game remains, and while I wouldn't want or expect City to go down the same long-ball route as teams like that, it is something which adds to

the variety in your side.

One ball lumped to a big man in the box can be every bit as effective as 20 pretty passes, and sides which can do both are difficult to combat.

It seems pretty clear that Roberto Mancini wants Dzeko and a central defender in this window, and my money would be on Benfica's David Luiz as the latter.

This is turning into a big, big season for us, and if a couple of additions in January can improve us from top four contenders into a side capable of chasing the league title and one of the cup competitions, there is no doubt the owners will back Roberto's judgment, which has been pretty sound so far.

THE days when the tail wagged the dog are long since gone, and Carlos Tevez and his advisers had better realise that quickly.

Players these days have got it into their head that they can do pretty much what they want, and the way things have gone in recent years, they have a fair point.

But at the end of the day, they are employees, albeit very handsomely rewarded employees, and the contract they signed is not a flimsy piece of paper to be adhered to when it suits,, and ripped up when it doesn't.

I don't know what the reasons are behind Carlos wanting to leave, quite simply because the message keeps changing.

At first he said it was because he is homesick, and that is something anyone with a heart can have some sympathy with, as he has two young daughters growing up 7,000 miles away.

But within a day, the reason had become that his relationship with some City suits, presumably chief executive Garry Cook and football administrator Brian Marwood, had broken down.

That puzzled me completely, because in my experience the only time, as a player, you come into contact with people like that is when you sit down to talk about money and contracts.

That would appear to indicate the problem is about money, because any personal issues he has with executives of the club should be thrashed out by sitting round a table.

The man Carlos answers to on a daily basis is Roberto Mancini, and he says that while he has professional differences with Roberto, there is no personal problem.

It didn't look that way from the look on his face, and his body language when subbed against Bolton, but if Carlos says there is no difficulty between them, fair enough.

From all that, it would appear that the difference of opinion is over cold, hard cash.

We know that his advisers have, on more than one occasion, tried to pressurise City into re-negotiating a contract which still has three and a half years to run.

City have made the point that they don't re-negotiate deals until the end of the season - it's a club policy, and they are quite right in sticking to their guns and refusing to break it for any individual.

Carlos is already one of the highest-paid players in the world, and he shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he is one member of a very good team.

His goals and his leadership have been the catalyst for City over the last two seasons, but to treat him as a special case would, quite frankly, be an insult to Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong and the others who have all made big contributions.

A few years ago City would have been utterly dependent on a player like Carlos, but no more.

He was made skipper this season, but for me that armband could have gone to any number of players.

I'm sure that if you conducted a poll among City fans right now, that Vincent Kompany would get most votes as the next captain.

His face when West Ham scored a consolation goal in added time on Saturday was priceless - you would have thought we had just lost the Champions League final.

That is the kind of commitment, and the kind of player we want to keep at City, and bring to City in future.

Having said, that, I will be very surprised if Carlos does not remain with us until the end of the season at least. Players of his stature don't often move in the transfer window.

And even with a cloud hanging over him, you can't imagine someone like him giving any less than 100 per cent once he crosses the white line, especially if he is eyeing up a move to Real Madrid or Barcelona.

As captain, he has a responsibility to lead the team off the field as well as on it, and this is not a very good example to set, the way he has handled this situation.

He has threatened to simply walk away if his transfer request is not granted, but that would be a very hard thing to do.

There will be clauses in his contract, which is a legally binding document, saying he has to turn up for training, stick to club rules and make himself available to play when required.

Nothing shocks me in football any more, so I won't say that he won't do it, but if he did walk away from that, he will be in the wilderness, without any income - and even possibly open to legal action by City for breach of contract.

It's a sorry situation, especially as City fans should have been basking in another totally professional performance and a share of top spot.

But this club is now big enough and strong enough to move on from here, with or without Tevez.

There will be a few managers around Europe having sleepless nights on hearing this news, because they know that if the situation cannot be resolved, City will be moving back into the transfer market in a big way.