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The first time City played Birmingham in the Midlands, it was under the guise of Small Heath versus Ardwick back in the 1890's. Small Heath won that encounter 3-2, but hopefully history will not be repeated when the two sides meet on Sunday. In many respects, this game is a real bellweather for City and should be seen as a "must win" by Hughes and his team - following the disappointing draw against Fulham, we really need 3 points to both stay in the leading pack in the league and, more importantly, get back that winning mentality that has ebbed away in the premiership.

Fortunately, the Carling Cup tie against Scnuthorpe will have raised spirits and saw the likes of Santa Cruz, Kompany, Johnson and Sylvinho get important match time under their belts. Despite the fact that Scunny were not top-level competition, Hughes admitted that certain players had given him food for thought for upcoming fixtures, so it will be interesting to see if RSC gets the nod over Adebayor - the Togo striker is struggling with a back injury. Steven Ireland was substituted during the cup game, apparently due to injury, but there is no official word on his status as yet. With Kolo Toure, Ned Onuoha and Robinho the only other doubts for Sunday's clash, Hughes has a strong squad to take with him to Birmingham.

Dangermen for the Midlands outfit don't exactly jump off the page, but they do have a few decent players in McFadden, Benitez and Larsson, all causing Sunderland some problems last weekend. The recent takeover by Carson Yeung seems to have given the club some fresh impetus; on-loan Birmingham goalkeeper Joe Hart believes that his current team can beat City, but interestingly many Brum fans are not lamenting the fact that Hart is ineligible to play on Sunday, preferring veteran Maik Taylor to the youngster. Alex McLeish will no doubt have noted City's defensive frailties, so expect plenty of diagonal balls into Shay Given's area - the additions of Pablo Zabalata and Vincent Kompany should, on paper, go some way to countering these issues, but we'll see. It is apparent that Nigel De Jong, despite his undeniable qualities, occasionally makes a costly error which puts pressure on the defense, and both he and Zaba will need to be disciplined on Sunday in what I expect to be a fiery encounter. Assuming there are no new injury concerns, this would be my team

---------------------Given-------------------------------

Zabaleta------Kompany-----------Lescott-----------Bridge

---------------------De Jong------------------------------

SWP-----------------------------------------------Bellamy

------------Tevez-----------------Ireland-----------------

----------------------RSC---------------------------------

Bench; Taylor, Richards, Sylvinho, Barry, Petrov,
Weiss, Adebayor

I've gone for a positive approach for this game - we need a win. With only one "holding" midfielder in De Jong, SWP and Bellamy need to tackle back assiduously. Zabalata needs to balance his defensive and attacking duties, but he is a great crosser from the right. When possible, SWP should move inside to allow for the overlap and link up with Ireland and Tevez, with Bellamy and Bridge doing the same on the left. Hopefully, RSC has another 90 minutes in him, but possibly Ade or Tevez may have to play the lone striker role at the 60 minute mark. I left Barry out for this one for a rest, but if City gain the lead, he could come on for Ireland or Tevez to shore things up if required. If the game is not going our way, I'd consider taking off De Jong for Barry and SWP for Petrov. Toure needs to recover properly from his injury, so he stays at home.
BLOOVIC