AFTER WORRYING START EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED FOR BLUES

REWIND 51 days and the picture was a worrying one for Manchester City. Not only had they lost two of their first three Premier League fixtures, but they seemed to be trapped in the trend of last season.

- By TYRONE MARSHALL

That was a campaign pretty much everyone at the Etihad wanted to forget, but that was hard to do when every game brought flashbacks to a season that went off the rails and never properly got back on track.

The first three results of this season were identical to last season.

Not only that, the manner of them was pretty similar as well. A win at Wolves was followed by a home defeat to Tottenham, who exposed the Blues on the break, as they did last term, even if that was under a different manager.

Then came the trip to Brighton and by now the sense of deja-vu was overwhelming. City took the lead on the south coast, should have scored more when on top, then ran out of gas and saw the game flipped on its head.

That all led to an early reckoning in September.