As you’d expect, the majority of today’s media focus is on tonight’s fascinating clash between City and Liverpool.

With the Blues still smarting from football’s version of highway robbery at Sunderland, and the Reds boosted by the likely return of Luis Suarez and the fit-again Steven Gerrard, the Press pack agree this will be a stern test of City’s title credentials.

David McDonnell, writing in his Daily Mirror feature entitled  ‘We need to man up’, says: “Roberto Mancini has admitted he may struggle to lift his Manchester City players and get their faltering title challenge back on track.

“Mancini will bring star men David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Mario Balotelli back against Liverpool to try and halt City’s title wobble which has seen them pick up a solitary point from their last two games.”

Though the words ‘faltering’ and ‘wobble’ may seem a little dramatic, journalists point to the fact that failure to score at West Brom and Sunderland merits one or two question marks.

Of course, three questionable refereeing decisions in the past three away games could have painted a completely different picture had a penalty been awarded at Chelsea, Mario’s goal been given at The Hawthorns and an offside flag been raised at the Stadium of Light – but all teams suffer bad luck during a campaign at some stage – the Blues just seem to have theirs all in one go!

The Sun’s Martin Blackburn follows a similar theme, adding that an in-form ex-City favourite could make the clash with Liverpool even tougher.

“Mancini has demanded his team bounce back from a disappointing Christmas which has seen them take just one point from six,” he writes.

“But they could find a familiar face in their way in striker Craig Bellamy – who left the Etihad in August after never seeing eye to eye with Mancini. The City boss said: ‘Bellamy is just one player, but he is in good form.

“’I hope my players can have a positive reaction, we lost a big chance to go clear of Manchester United.’”

We shall have to wait until tomorrow morning to see how the Press react to tonight’s game – hopefully, it will be as positive as City’s result…