Bad (blue) moon rising

At Eastlands talking to a Manchester City official I know about the prospects for the match, I remarked that Blues had not been given a tonking by any team in the Premier League this season - yet.

The firepower Manchester have and the mood they were in, I had a bad feeling.

The gentleman I spoke to said if Manchester didn't score early they found it difficult and, noting Blues usual parsimonious ways, he had a bad feeling, too.

Just shows you, doesn't it?

Blues ended up getting tonked and the ended the lesson as dispirited as they have been since coming off the pitch at Villa Park two years ago.

But is it a calamity, the end of the world? Not quite.

This team is made of much tougher stuff than the Blues side relegated back in 2008. And that Villa team was nowhere near as good as Manchester's current crop.

But it was a sobering experience and one that, it could be argued, was timely in way.

It focused minds on Blues shortcomings and the very fact at how well they have done this season, how much they have over-achieved.

If individuals are off-key, or lose concentrate and misjudge situations, they can be punished ruthlessly against such opposition.

Had Blues come away with a typically battling draw, maybe a false sense of security would have remained through to May.

Centre-halves Scott Dann and Roger Johnson were exposed and frazzled by the movement and quality of Manchester's attackers, and Blues leg-weariness and perhaps mental fatigue showed somewhat too. The resistance of the midfield wasn't there.

To the charge that Blues never got into Manchester and closed them down, don't think they didn't try; Manchester were just too good in spells, they used the full spread of the pitch and Blues couldn't get near them. It happens.

Blues had possession but not the guile or penetration to really damage one of more questionable defences among the big guns.

That mad five minutes before half-time still puzzles. Blues are usually compact, composed but they weren't then. Four goals - including Cameron Jerome's - came in a bunch.

And at the start of the second-half, Blues actually took the game to Manchester, Keith Fahey fluffed two chances, and then rank bad defending gifted Manchester goals four and five.

So it wasn't as if Blues were pulverized from first to last by, for example, seven goals going in at regular intervals.

The result, and aspects of the performance, should not only have given Alex McLeish food for thought, but also Carson Yeung.

He has not yet seen Blues defeated at St Andrew's since taking charge of the club. He must have believed this Premier League lark was a doddle.

It isn't and the need for quality players to come through the door in the summer - with legs and athleticism, and enough of them to see Blues all the way through the season - was underlined by the bashing in the North West.

It has been a remarkable effort by Blues all things considered. Can you imagine them again going on a 15-game unbeaten run, having the same team for 12 league games in a row? Not losing to any of the top six at St Andrew's?

That's why McLeish has been talking about the need for significant funds just to keep up with the Jones's; forget about trying to catch the likes of Manchester City.

Martin O'Neill has spent millions at Villa, but for all their honest endeavour they only huffed and puffed and never hurt a below par Chelsea side in the FA Cup semi-final; and we know what happened at Stamford Bridge a fortnight earlier.

To replicate this season's exploits will certainly be tough for Blues. They are a known quantity now, they have the respect of the rest of the Premier League.They are taken more seriously than they were in August.

They need some freshness and something different to give them an extra dimension to the solid base and fine attitude and esprit de corps they possess.

McLeish is on the trail of Standard Liege's Dieudonne Mbokani, a tall, fast and potent striker. He's been very cagey about the groundwork he and his scouting staff have been putting in, but it is understood they are down the line with a couple of other potential signings too.

McLeish doesn't want Blues to stand still. And the result at Eastlands, the tonking, shows that the club cannot rest on the laurels of a better than expected campaign back in the Premier League after the last promotion.