Five-star City get in the mood for Bayern

THE contrast is just too obvious to ignore.

From the certainty of displays like this that have rocketed Manchester City to the top of the Premier League table, they go into the final round of Champions League matches effectively powerless.

They can make things interesting by beating Bayern Munich but they still have to hope that a Villarreal team that has failed to pick up a single point from their five games can stop Napoli.

The two situations are utterly puzzling and there is a sense that City have still not come to grips with why they have struggled in Europe when, at the same time, looking so imperious in the Premier League.

When Gareth Barry and David Platt looked ahead to this defining week it was almost tempting to look at the Champions League in the past tense, so slim are the chances that their participation will extend beyond the next three days.

Of course they could beat Bayern – the Carlos Tevez incident totally overshadowed the way City dominated the opening half an hour of their 2-0 defeat at the Allianz Arena in September – but the Bavarians have a real solidity to them in Europe despite their recent struggles in the Bundesliga.

And of course Villarreal could do something against Napoli. It is all possible but the chances of both things happening are so remote that they look certain to be entering the Europa League, which, other than the Poznan celebration, has only brought them hassle in recent years.

“Goals for” – 48 and counting from 14 matches – dominate the thoughts when you consider City in the Premier League but the stat that irritates Roberto Mancini as he cycles to the Carrington training ground each day is that City have conceded six goals in their five Champions League matches.

“It would be a massive disappointment,” Barry said. “We’re not going to lie and just say that we can concentrate on the Premier League, it would be a big disappointment but it’s the first time the club has been in the Champions League although we feel we’ve got the quality to progress it is another learning curve.

“We’ll just concentrate on the rest of the games, the Premier League and the other cup competitions.

“We’re confident. We believe that Villarreal have got the team that can get a result and the bottom line is that we’ve got to beat a very good team here in Bayern Munich so that will be a hard target in itself.

“That’s our main aim. It’s tough but we can do it and it’s just fingers crossed that Villarreal can do a job for us.”

City’s owner Sheikh Mansour gave a rare interview last week and he was correct to say that the Premier League remains City’s priority. It was a statement that made a lot of sense and although it is incorrect for Mancini to maintain that this season’s campaign has simply been a learning curve, if they win the league there is no dressing this up as a campaign of failure.

Doing this week after week, it is not possible to think of a team that can finish above them, although the games against Chelsea and Arsenal that follow Bayern’s visit will tell us a little bit more.

Norwich did not even play too badly and they left with a five-goal hammering. Packing the midfield worked for 31 minutes before Sergio Aguero’s sparkling turn and shot put the hosts ahead.

The outstanding Samir Nasri scored a second with a crossed free kick and Yaya Toure curled in a third before Steve Morison headed in for the visitors.

Even then the reinforcements did their bit, with Mario Balotelli scoring a fourth with his shoulder before Adam Johnson drove in the final goal of the game.

“Last year we did not have the characteristics of the players that we do now,” Platt said. “What Roberto has done this year is he has gone on and added to it with Aguero and Nasri. We have got players on the field that means we can’t actually play defensively because of the characteristics of the players. We don’t really have a choice.”

Unfortunately the same can be said of their Champions League aspirations.