MANCHESTER City could come up with a Tottenham-style thrashing of an opponent sooner or later - but for now they will take a clean sheet or two!

The arrival of Hull at the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday offers an excellent opportunity to avoid a club record seventh consecutive draw, and the fans are hungry to see City turn on the style.

First team coach Eddie Niedzwiecki wants his charges to begin an important week on the front foot, by pulling the Tigers' tail, but believes they need to sort out the defensive side of their game in order to do so.

The visit of Phil Brown's side is swiftly followed by the Carling Cup quarter-final clash with Arsene Wenger's young Arsenal team, and then the yardstick Eastlands clash with Premier League leaders Chelsea.

Although they have not quite matched Tottenham's nine-goal feat against Wigan, scoring goals has not been a real problem for the Blues, with five in the last two games.

But leaking them at the same rate has caused City to slip out of the top four places, and handed the initiative in the league table to Harry Redknapp's Tottenham.

The mantra repeated by manager Mark Hughes and his staff has been that it will take time to gel, especially for the back four.

And Niedzwiecki added that a succession of niggling injuries has seriously affected that process, with the first-choice defensive quartet of Pablo Zabaleta, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge actually only managing two full sets of 90 minutes twice this season.

"We possibly have a Tottenham-type performance within us, but firstly we are looking for consistency," said the former Chelsea goalkeeper.

"You have to remember we are a new team gelling together. Against Burnley it was only the second time that back four had played together over 90 minutes.

"We keep being disrupted. It happened again on Saturday, with Kolo coming off with an injury and Nedum coming on for his first game of the season.

"Little things like that don't help, and it takes a little bit of time to get it working. You look at Chelsea, who have only conceded one goal in seven league games at home - they have a very settled back four in place.

Growing

"Fulham are another ideal team to look at from last season. They had a settled back four as well, and were very successful with it.

"Getting everyone together and gelling is important. It's a team game, and we are learning and growing together, and I can assure the supporters that we are as frustrated as them about being in winning positions and not being able to see the game out."

That failure to secure victories after having been in the lead against Liverpool, Burnley and Fulham has been occupying the thoughts of the management and coaching staff all week.

And the need to intensify focus after going ahead was a big theme when a team meeting was held after training yesterday.

Niedzwiecki said that the lessons from the Burnley game have to be learned, and that a home game against Hull was a perfect starting point to prove that they have.

"Any game in the Premier League is a big one, but we need to get back to winning ways," he said.

"We are frustrated at the moment because of the run of draws, and the fact we have been in leading positions in some of those games.

Errors

"We have also played some really good stuff at times in those games, but individual errors - the little details we keep talking about - have cost us.

"We got bitten again at Anfield, but it's something we will keep working on. What is needed is that extra little bit of focus that is needed when we have scored a goal."

Hughes will be at the KC Stadium tonight to watch Hull take on Everton, but Niedzwiecki says it is up to the Blues to take a grip on the game on Saturday.

"We will be watching Hull tonight, but it's a home game so the initiative is on us," he said. "It's a game in which we will be firing on all cylinders and going out to win.

"It's the start of a big week, with some massive games coming up.

"We have waited for so long at this club for a trophy, but it's also important to keep kicking along at the top of the league.

"Tottenham's result on Sunday is worth another point at least to them, with those nine goals, so we can't let the gap get too big.

"We need to keep it nice and tight and see where it takes us in the new year."