Pearce harbouring European ambitions

Despite his side currently sitting in twelfth place in the Premiership, and with a couple of tricky games coming up over the Christmas period, Stuart Pearce has declared that even without additions to his squad it should be good enough to gain a European place come the end of the season:

“The way the league is at the moment, it’s a two-horse race
to win the Premiership. Beyond that, you’re going to have Liverpool and Arsenal
finishing third and fourth; I don’t know in which order.
“Beyond that,
I honestly feel it’s down to a bit of consistency. From fifth place downwards,
it’s open to anybody".

Whilst on the face of it it seems a far off achievement, it is something that could (and should?) be attained.

As Pearce says, the top-four positions are all but locked up. I believed that Tottenham would push them hard to claim fifth spot but have been inconsistent this season and are in a similar position to ourselves, which doesn't leave any outstanding candidates for the two UEFA places to be gained via league positions.

We are currently theee wins off fifth and sixth spot, but for me all the sides above us at the moment have either played above themselves (Portsmouth, Reading, Villa) or have been as inconsistent as ourselves (Everton, Wigan, Tottenham).

It may be that one of the surprise sides continue with their form over the first part of the season, or one of the inconsistent sides gets their act together but there is a chance for ourselves to make a go of it, and on paper (and maybe through blue-tinted specs) there aren't many sides outside of the top four that are stronger than ourselves.

The concern is our squad isn't strong in depth, and if we continue to be hit by injuries for the remainder of the season this will undoubtedly affect us.

But the major problem is of course one which has affected City since time began, and looking back over course of history has always been our downfall - consistency. And until we can put a consistent season rather than ten game spell together, we will continue to achieve no better than the mid-table position we currently reside in.