We have forty points on the board and we're sitting comfortably in the top ten in the Premier League with the Capital One Cup safely in the trophy cabinet but let's hope that we don't let our season slip from here on the back of three successive defeats.

Now don't get me wrong as we are nowehere near pressing the panic button nor are we suggesting that we have become a bad team overnight. I'm also fully acknowledging that two of those defeats have been against Arsenal and Tottenham, both of whom are chasing a Champions League spot which needs to put results into perspective.

But what we have to do at the moment is remember that the performance we have come to expect was that which we saw in the last 60 minutes on Saturday and not the first 30. For 30 minutes, as we were for most of the Arsenal game and the second half of the West Brom game, we looked very ordinary at best.

The intensity that we have shown in games leading up to the Cup final seemed to have reduced dramatically and we were struggling to get past teams and and we seemed likely to conceded goals where as for months we never really looked like that as we built an impressive catalogue of results that lifted us into the top 10 and to safety before March had arrived.

We saw glimpses on Saturday that we were getting those levels of performance back but by then we were two goals down and chasing a game. We threatened Tottenham though and had Nathan Dyer capitalised on the game's golden chance then it could have been so different but it was not to be.

I don't believe that we are about to see our performances continue to slip and I still firmly believe that we will end up in the Top 10 because other performances will dicatate that we deserve to and we will get the results that we desire.

We always knew that the run in would be tough - and it remains so as the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea both wait for us but we still have the games and the opportunity tio pick up the points that we desire but it will take a step up in performance to get those results.

The one thing that we do know is that we have not become a bad team overnight and that we are where we are because of our ability as a team. That ability is still there and there is no need to panic because we have been beaten by two teams in the Premier League's top 5. We should be slightly worried that for periods in those games that we haven't looked the team that we have been but the performances are hidden in there. The first half against West Brom we should have been a couple up and we more than deserved to take a point from Tottenham. And even against Arsenal we missed a gilt edged chance before we faded away having been the better team for the first 15-20 minutes.

Anyway, its onto Norwich from here and the chance to put the wrongs right but one for the quiz enthusiats out there - when was the last time we lost four league games on the bounce?

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