Kompany expects City to click soon

It is a sign that Manchester City have arrived among the true elite of the European game that not only was the Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho sat in the directors’ box for the latest Etihad outing but also that merely winning is no longer sufficient for the Premier League champions.

A return of seven points from the opening three games — including a trip to Liverpool — suggests a solid, if not spectacular, start to their title defence but then this is the new world of Premier League hysteria which City now inhabit and “solid” is no longer good enough.

This time last year, City were sweeping all before them, winning their opening four games at a canter while scoring 15 goals.

Move on 12 months, and with Mourinho watching in readiness for Real Madrid’s Champions League clash with City later this month, Roberto Mancini’s side made hard work of beating QPR.

Only a late deflected goal from Carlos Tevez gave the scoreline a flattering look, prompting a line of post-match questioning that made it sound as if City were four places from the bottom of the fledgling league table, rather than four places off top.

Yet Sergio Aguero and Gareth Barry remain injured, David Silva is obviously short of match fitness and the five deadline day transfer signings were watching from the stands, all of which leads City captain Vincent Kompany to conclude that City’s rivals — and the Special One — will see a very different opponent when his squad returns from the current international break.

“What’s missing? Two points out of nine, that’s all,” said the Belgian defender. “I’m leaving for internationals now and if I had to leave one message for the team it would be ‘well done guys, we’ve battled hard, we’ve shown how strong we are as a team.’

“The best is yet to come, we couldn’t have wished for anything better than this.”

Technically, they could have wished for two points “better than this” and when Yaya Toure shot the hosts into a first half lead, this latest outing should have been a stroll, certainly far easier than the last meeting between the sides, the historic 3-2 City win 16 weeks ago that secured them their first title in 44 years.

But Bobby Zamora equalised for QPR after a Silva error and only an Edin Dzeko header soon after eased the obvious nerves around the Etihad.

The watching Mourinho will certainly not have seen anything to worry him unduly although Kompany insisted his team-mates are enthused by the prospect of a European group that also includes the champions of the Netherlands and Germany — Ajax and Borussia Dortmund.

“I’m not getting involved,” laughed Kompany when asked of Mourinho’s presence. “But I’d like to think that’s why you want to play Champions League. I was looking at the draw and I don’t think at any moment I was hoping for us to draw a supposed easy game. I think we’ve always been at our best when we have to challenge ourselves and play against the best so it’s very good for us.”

City’s start to the season does seem to be the classic case of a good team gaining positive results while playing well below their best and Kompany knows these unspectacular points being ground out now could prove vital.

“I think, for us, we have massive amounts of confidence,” he added. “We could be looking at the fact that we’re not dismantling teams but just look at what’s happened this Premier League season, the amount of talent there is. That’s difficult.”

Mark Hughes, who made way for Mancini at Eastlands, can only dream of “problems” like his former club’s as he seeks to improve on a start of one point from nine. Esteban Granero, picked up for £9 million from Real in the window, looked the pick of Hughes’ attacking signings although it said a lot about his team’s rearguard action that their best player overall was a 35-year-old defender — Ryan Nelsen.

“I thought Esteban Granero was excellent all day,” said Hughes. “He showed what a great player he is going to be for us. We defended exceptionally well and it’s just a shame that Ryan’s 35, not 25. He played really well.”

MAN CITY: Hart 6; Zabaleta 6 (K Toure 74), Kompany 7, Lescott 7, Kolarov 6; Y TOURE 9, Rodwell 6; Silva 6 (Milner 81), Tevez 8, Nasri 7 (Razak 89); Dzeko 6.

QPR: Green 7; Bosingwa 5, Ferdinand 5 (Onuoha 67, 6), Nelsen 8, Fabio 7; Wright-Phillips 7, Granero 8 (Cisse 85), Faurlin 5 (Dyer 72), Park 6; Zamora 7, Johnson 7.

Referee: Chris Foy 7