CITY are starting to look like a boxer who needs a good whack in the mush before we even start to swing our fists.

It happened again at Anfield on Saturday, when the game was dead until the point when Liverpool scraped a set-piece goal when they had not really looked like scoring.

That was our cue to get on the front foot, and two goals followed without too much trouble.

I understand exactly why Mark Hughes went to Liverpool with his team set up that way, with five in the middle of the park, looking to frustrate them.

The Scousers are in one of the worst runs in their history, and the pressure was on them, so setting out to frustrate them and irritate the crowd was a fair strategy.

As we have seen many times in the past, any Liverpool side can be a formidable proposition if the crowd gets behind them.

It was important not to give them the initiative.

Their backs were against the wall, and they could not afford to lose, especially to one of the teams aiming to supplant them in fourth place.

Martin Skrtel's goal, as well as relieving the pressure on them, also galvanised us into action, something we seem to have needed in recent games - Burnley being a classic example.

The problem with that, as any boxer will tell you, is that the blow can sometimes be a knockout, and there is no coming back.

But once Emmanuel Adebayor had equalised, there only seemed to be one winner, only for another worrying recent City trait to resurface - the tendency to let teams back into games which should be killed.

That made it six draws on the trot, equalling our record, and statisticians will tell you that we have only lost once all season.

That stat looks good, but the truth is that being undefeated does not get you into the top four - it is actually winning games that does.

We need to start putting a few wins together, and there can be no better chance to do that than facing Hull at home on Saturday.

But this is the Premier League, and Hull have continued to show, as they did last season, that their spirit is intact. So the battle will have to be won before we can impose ourselves on the game.