Fair to say that the media smells blood when it comes to Mark Hughes and just about every outlet is running some kind of story about how Hughes is about to lose his job. I don't get it. December 5th Hughes was overseeing a great revolution; Eleven days later the guys a bum that couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag! Weird, to put it mildly.

My opinion on Hughes is I think fairly obvious and has been presented ad nauseam, but this I just don't understand. If instead City had lost to Chelsea and beaten Spurs convincingly then would we be talking about how Hughes had turned it around? In this recent run there are only three poor results, the home draws to Fulham, Burnley and Hull. Normally an away draw is considered a decent result. I think it is fair to say that if City had won two of those you'd have the press pushing for canonization.

The press is also full of the story that Garry Cook sounded out the agent of Guus Hiddink to see what his situation would be in the summer. If indeed the agent has been quoted correctly, which I doubt, it still doesn't mean that City are about to dump Hughes. If you made a list of the top five managers in the world Hiddink would be on that list and if Hiddink becomes available City and about a dozen other clubs would have to consider whether such a guy would be an upgrade. And that being said I don't see Hiddink coming to City for very practical reasons. Roman Abramovich has financed the Russian national team and is very attached to the Dutchman. If Hiddink comes back to the Premier League it will be in some capacity at Chelsea not as City's manager.

So the media is circling and Hiddink is allegedly being sounded out and yet City are signing their players to long term contracts, Pablo Zabaleta is the latest. You don't do that if the expectation is that a new manager will be brought in and who will inevitably want to build their own team.

The past few days strike me as the media collectively attempting to create a crisis and there being just enough actual substance that the story is taking on a life of its own.

Within this context arrives the visit of Sunderland who have traditionally been perceived as an easy victory. As you will recall I pegged Sunderland as my surprise package of the year in the pre season and despite their recent travails - which can be tied specifically to the loss of Lee Catermole - this has the potential to be a very tricky fixture. One huge positive for City is that Sunderland captain, Lorik Cana is serving a suspension for his recent sending off. His replacement in the Sunderland midfield is likely to be... Lee Catermole.

City also have an important absence with Nigel de Jong out of the line up. This is an opportunity for City to partner Gareth Barry with an attacking option in the middle of the field. Alternatively Barry could play Left Back and Kompany or Zabaleta could anchor the middle. I've seen reports that Robinho and Adebayor will be dropped after their perceived lack of effort against Spurs. Harsh on Adebayor who is not getting the service that he needs to be successful. Potentially we could see a true 4-3-3 with Bellany, RSC and Tevez up front and a midfield of Barry, Kompany and Ireland (or Weiss) on the right.

If you had asked me before the run of draws what Saturday's result would be I'm pretty sure that I would have said a draw. Right now that's about the last thing Mark Hughes needs.