Hughes: City blip will soon be at an end

Mark Hughes insists Manchester City's current dip in form will prove to be temporary.

After his big-spending stars lit up the early weeks of the Premier League, beating Arsenal and scoring three times in defeat at Manchester United, City are suddenly struggling.

A run of draws was extended to five yesterday as, after fighting their way back from two goals down against Burnley at Eastlands, City conceded a late Kevin McDonald goal that allowed the Clarets to claim a 3-3 draw.

Instead of pushing the title contenders, Hughes' side are trying to avoid plummeting any further.

Yet the Welshman is not concerned about the long-term prognosis.

The City chief said: 'We are just having a little period where we are not quite able to make best use of the advantages we have.

'But it will turn out to our benefit very soon. I am sure about that.'

In a way, City are victims of their own success.

By making such a flying start, Hughes' expensively assembled outfit gave the impression of having got their settling-in period out of the way ultra-quickly.

It has proved to be something of an illusion, with significant flaws appearing in key areas.

Left-back is one, Wayne Bridge failing to produce the consistency Hughes expected when he spent £10million last January to lure the England international north from Chelsea.

Bridge went AWOL as the excellent Steven Fletcher put Burnley two ahead, and Clarets boss Owen Coyle admitted it was an area his side tried to exploit.

'People might view this as a bonus point, but we believed in our gameplan,' said Coyle, of Burnley's first away point since their return to the top flight after a 33-year absence.

'I felt if we took care of the ball in the middle third we would create opportunities, and we raided down the right very well during the first half in particular.'

The picture for City is certainly not a totally depressing one.

Craig Bellamy remains in top form; Shaun Wright-Phillips is not far behind, and both Shay Given and Gareth Barry have both proved themselves extremely useful additions.

But Joleon Lescott is taking time settling in, giving away the penalty Graham Alexander stuck away to put the visitors in front; Pablo Zabaleta is neither a pacy attacking presence nor solid defensively at full-back, and Emmanuel Adebayor has not quite found the form which saw him score four times before serving a four-match ban in September.

Hughes concedes: 'Maybe we are suffering because of increased expectation.

'We did start the season very strongly. But obviously teams have had a chance to look at how we are going to set up, what personnel is going to be playing and what formation we are going to use.

'It is giving them the chance to frustrate us and capitalise on areas where they think they can gain an advantage.

'What we have to do is make sure we recognise what teams are trying to do - and still win games.'

The problem for Hughes is that - while he is about to head to Abu Dhabi for a friendly with the United Arab Emirates on Thursday which would have been a perfect opportunity to sort out those issues - with the exception of Stephen Ireland and Javier Garrido, the fit members of his senior squad will depart for various destinations on international duty.

It will leave little preparation time for the visit to Anfield on November 21, when City need to start turning draws back into victories.

Hughes believes: 'We are 11 games into the season and we have done okay - no more, no less.

'As I warned everybody before the start of the season, at times we will look what we are - a team coming together and trying to gel. On other occasions, it will happen for us - and we will look an outstanding side.

'There are elements of our play that we need to tighten up on. When we do that, the threat we have in an attacking sense will stand us in good stead.'