It feels only right to start with an admission.

If pre-season predictions are a sign of how much football knowledge someone has, I need to go back to the classroom.

I had Leicester in 19th, Watford bottom, Chelsea top and our very own Canaries in 16th. At least I can take some comfort in the fact pundits all over the country have been similarly found out.

These predictions do, however, emphasise the fact that on the whole it's been a truly wonderful Premier League season, full of shocks and surprises, twists and turns, heroes and villains.

I say on the whole because of course as far as City fans are concerned the narrative still has some way to run. But it's also been a season to prove the Premier League is very much the place to be, not just in terms of financial riches, but drama, entertainment and prestige.

I'm a big fan of the Championship, but should the season end with relegation for the Canaries I'm not about to pretend that would be anything other than a major disappointment.

Several years of truly mundane mid-table Championship fayre during the early noughties proved that it's a league as likely to be crushingly dull as it is fantastically dramatic. Just ask the fans of our rivals down the A140.

On that basis it was, in footballing terms, a dreadful weekend to follow the club and there's no denying a sense of resignation has washed over even the most optimistic of supporters.

Looking at the few games left facing City, Sunderland and Newcastle it seems unlikely that even two wins out of the next three would be enough to do the job for City come May 15.

My previous estimation that 37 points would secure safety, has now risen to 38, possibly even one higher.

Two wins and a draw, perhaps even three wins, is now the mountain to climb over eight days that will determine City's immediate destiny.

A truly Herculean task given City's recent form, but if I can offer one crumb of comfort, it is that we all know it is impossible to know what's around the corner this season.

Whatever the outcome, let's hope Norwich do not go down with a whimper and keep on fighting. We've witnessed too many depressing capitulations to round off the season in City's recent history.

That might mean it's time for Alex Neil to abandon his tinkerman approach for the final three games, in favour of a more simplistic tactic of simply trying, at all costs, to score one more than the opposition. It seems obvious but perhaps we've been guilty at times of overcomplicating the approach.

A colleague put it really well this week when he said it seems that when Norwich defend well, they can't score and when they score loads, they can't defend. That inability to get the balance right has been the club's biggest problem all season. Perhaps that's why the less sophisticated tactic might win the day.

Maybe we'll even see the return of the long forgotten system of two strikers up top. It would certainly be good to see Nathan Redmond, inset, and Robbie Brady have two proper targets to aim for in the box.

All three of City's forthcoming opponents have struggled at various points this season with their respective defences. Manchester United haven't found a settled centre back pairing and can be weak against strong domineering strikers.

Watford also favour 4-4-2 and have a keeper who can make stunning one-off saves, but whose frailties City have exposed before. Everton, meanwhile, have been prone to errors when put under pressure. Let's start on the front foot on Saturday, put up a proper fight and who knows what might happen.

MY BAD GUESSING GAME

Oh dear. Here's my prediction for how the Premier League would pan out (current position)

1 Chelsea (9th)

2 Manchester United (5th)

3 Manchester City (4th)

4 Arsenal (3rd)

5 Liverpool (8th)

6 Everton (11th)

7 Southampton (7th)

8 Tottenham Hotspur (2nd)

9 Stoke (10th)

10 Crystal Palace (16th)

11 West Ham (6th)

12 West Brom (14th)

13 Newcastle (17th)

14 Swansea (13th)

15 Aston Villa (20th)

16 Norwich (19th)

17 Bournemouth (15th)

18 Sunderland (18th)

19 Leicester (1st)

20 Watford (12th)

FAB FOUR

The City statistics which say it all

Clearly we're not short of the odd damning statistic or two, but the following really sums up where it's all gone wrong.

City have scored just 12 goals in their last 15 games of Premier League football. Seven of those came in two matches, just five in the other 13.

We've shipped 29 at the other end. Ouch, that hurts.

The final games for City winger?

My thoughts on Nathan Redmond have been aired regularly in this column, he's an outstanding talent and it's to the club's detriment that for whatever reason they haven't been able to coax the best out of him on a regular basis.

On talent and potential alone, City's team should be based around him and I'm fearful that whatever league Norwich are in next season, some other club may soon be about to reap the benefit of having him in their side.

Sending out an SOS to Vadis

One of the slightly perplexing elements of Alex Neil's time in charge so far is how some players suddenly disappear off the radar. Granted Steven Whittaker, one of them, isn't really of top-flight quality but I can't see what he did that was worse than any others.

If anyone's spotted Belgium winger Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe of late, meanwhile, let me know as it would be nice to know he's ok.

A penalty area crackdown is due

The hair pulling incident between Leicester's Robert Huth and Manchester United's Marouane Fellaini was another sign of how some referees have lost control of what goes on in the penalty area during corners and free-kicks.

That won't have gone unnoticed by the powers that be I'm sure and I predict a crackdown, with a few controversial penalties, to be around the corner sometime soon.