Hughes looks to calm the nerves

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: MARK HUGHES is scheduled to travel to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for a summit meeting with Manchester City's new owners.

Should he use some of the seven-hour flight to peruse an Arabic phrasebook, the Welshman will not fail to note the ubiquity and importance of "inshallah" in Middle Eastern vocabulary.

It means "if Allah wills" and tends to punctuate conversations throughout a region across which numerous televisions will be tuned into tomorrow's Premier League game between City and Harry Redknapp's renascent Tottenham Hotspur at Eastlands.

After a series of erratic results, Hughes can only trust that Allah ordains a reassuring home victory for his new paymasters to celebrate on the shores of the Gulf.

If not, he must hope they appreciate that at the moment City are rather like chameleons, constantly changing their colours.

When Hughes's side show off their brightest and most thrillingly kaleidoscopic aspect they can be breathtakingly good. But their psyche also harbours an alarming fragility, especially away from home.

While the manager's avant-garde, hugely flexible deployment of 4-1-2-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations is capable of making traditional 4-4-2 ensembles such as Aston Villa appear woefully pedestrian, the need to shoehorn five fine attacking talents into the starting XI sometimes takes its toll.

Worryingly short of midfield enforcers - Vincent Kompany is in decent nick but the veteran Dietmar Hamann now looks to be beyond his best - City's manager also needs to somehow keep content a selection of richly gifted individuals, including not only Robinho but also Shaun Wright-Phillips, Steven Ireland, Elano and Jo.

Presumably, he will look to address this imbalance when transfer policy is discussed in the Gulf. "We haven't got that many defensive midfield options," said the manager, whose old Blackburn side was built largely on tough tackling in this department.

Patience, however, is nearly as important as the right new signings to complement the glorious, €40 million skills of Robinho - or Robi, as Hughes calls the Brazilian forward who has indicated that he can elevate City to a new and hitherto undreamt of level.

"We're going to be inconsistent because we're still in development," said Hughes, who has presided over a little too much kamikaze defending of late.

"Once we get the balance right between being threatening and keeping clean sheets then we'll be very difficult to overcome. We'll always score goals but we're not quite there yet.

"What we have to do better in is one-on-one situations. We need to come out with the ball more often."

Behind the smooth, immaculately suited image which recently prompted the former Spurs manager, Martin Jol, to call him a "cool mother", Hughes is no stranger to insecurity, particularly given that the club's Arab owners are likely to demand Champions League qualification next season.

They will want to be sure there is real substance behind Hughes's style and they could be perturbed if he appears to be tactically outwitted by Redknapp in tomorrow's match.

"It's been difficult," said Hughes. "Our last two away defeats at Middlesbrough and Bolton hurt. We've been weak on occasions and some of the different things we've attempted to try and make us stronger haven't always worked. We need to make amends against Spurs."

It will not be easy. "Tottenham's high-standard players are starting to perform well again under Harry," Hughes said.

"They weren't playing to their ability but Harry has quickly addressed the problems."

City's old difficulties centred around a certain dullness in their play, but at least the times when they would go months without scoring at Eastlands are well and truly over.

"It's been a little bit of a rollercoaster," Hughes said. "We'll continue being positive. On occasions it's not good for my health but I think everyone who comes here enjoys what they see. In time we'll be a very good side."

By the end of next week he will know that sentence really should have been concluded with "inshallah".

• Guardian Service