What did I say about jinxing the football? I knew I should have kept quiet! Within one day we’ve gone from being eight points clear and looking dominant over a lacklustre Man City to losing dismally and seeing City win 4-0, bringing them right back into the title race. Mancini had a wry grin on his face when he said after their game that it was, nevertheless, ‘finished’ – mind games of the highest order and he knows it. With five games left each it’s going to be a nerve-wracking end to the season; interesting, from a football perspective, but not necessarily as a fan. I’d rather we just won it easily.

The most interesting game will obviously be when we play City away on Monday 30 April but there are loads of different scenarios that could play out with the remaining fixtures. I’m no statistician but I do like to think about what needs to happen for us to win the Premier League title and make us champions for a record twentieth time. Here are a few thoughts:

• City need to win at least two of their remaining games, and for us to not win any, to take the title.
• Assuming we draw with City, for arguments sake, we need to win two other games and at least draw another to be sure of taking the title, regardless of what they do.
• Goal difference could play a part if we draw level on points, so we need to get some good winning margins over the next few games.

The most important thing for us is not to panic and just play our football – the results will come naturally then… hopefully.