Extraordinarily, Stoke lost today at QPR, thumped 3-0… so City still top the league. The icing on the cake was that Stoke’s captain, Andy Griffin, was sent off and will therefore be suspended for a while, which gives me more than a frisson of schadenfreude. Make that a shudder.

And the cause of all this difficulty for Stoke? Their manager, Tony Pulis, formerly of City (and many other clubs, all of whom seem to loathe even the memory of his employment), won the Championship Manager of the Month award for February. This award has proved to be a curse for many, and Pulis is no exception – since he got it, his team have lost twice and conceded 5 goals. Our own dear Sir Gary has been nominated 4 times this season, so far without success, so let’s just hope that, at least in the MoM awards, he continues his losing streak!