City 0 - 1 Tottenham; Credit to Spurs, creativity void

On the strength of City's games against Tottenham this season, they have fully deserved to take the fourth spot. Although we competed far better last night than we did at White Hart Lane, the game began to get away from us towards the end and Marton Fulop can be thanked for making some impressive saves.

Not that City didn't start well, I thought we applied a good amount of pressure in the first half especially, just without ever really threatening to convert it into an advantage. It was testament to Tottenham's defensive prowess that the closest we came to scoring was a long range effort from Adam Johnson and a near own goal. Our actual goal threat in the second half was minimal. I would be much happier seeing King and Dawson pairing up for England this summer than the crocked Ferdinand and faltering Terry.

King and Dawson exposed the fact that Adebayor is not a target man and as City got a little more desperate towards the end, Ade had no chance in the aerial contests. As they continued to dominate, Ade started to look for success in wide positions and with Tevez lying quite deep, this left no one in the box to capitalise from our particularly woeful crossing. The number of corners we have had in the past two games that have been entirely wasted on this front is worrying. We did at least have more consistent success when Barry was taking them earlier in the season.

In the first half, Tottenham frustrated City by sitting deep and then either releasing the pace of Lennon and Bale or, more often in the first half, pumping it up to Crouch - which caused a few problems. I wasn't too concerned about Tottenham's threat in the first half (even though they did come close on a couple of occasions), but it was their Champions League-class defensive display that resurfaced old arguments.

When the transfer window opens, I would hope City will prioritise a creative central midfield player. Not only do we not have the sort of player who can break through a stout defence, but we don't have the sort of player who can turn defence into attack. Before I got out of the car pre-match, I heard Mark Lawrenson saying that City look attacking on paper, because of the front four, but the rest of the team is concentrated on defence. I think this is true and the lack of fluidity and the lack of options it creates is perhaps our downfall when we cannot use the counter-attack. This is partly down to personnel.

When Hughes arrived at the club, we had too soft a centre for the Premier League, so he concentrated on signing 'tougher' players, whilst sidelining the Elanos to some extent (to some justification of course). Hughes had been banking on the form of Ireland, which you can't criticise him for either, but with Ireland's demise this season, we have been left with no other options. So, once again, we have struggled with this lack of spark to overcome a very well organised team (see Everton too).

Overall, though, Spurs' dominance against us this season makes it hard to argue that we deserved to finish above them. We have qualified for Europe for the first time on merit since 1978, hopefully we have finished fifth in the Premier League (please), and we are improving all the time. Next season we will be even stronger and there is no need for impatience for Champions League football. It is not as if this was our last chance - which may not be said for Villa, for example - and City are a team on the up ("the blue moon is rising", as they say). So with the inevitable frustration at getting so close, we should be patient and await the probable success of years to come!