svennis pennis
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Manchester City boss Mark Hughes vehemently denied his side are facing a relegation battle after they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage. Benjani gave the visitors an early lead but Jimmy Bullard's equaliser means Hughes' outfit have only won two of their last ten league games.Despite having the financial backing of the Abu Dhabi United Group for Investment and Development, City have just 18 points from 16 games and were a perilous three points above the relegation zone before the rest of Saturday's games.
But Hughes isn't worried and says City will improve significantly in the second-half of the season.
"No, we're not in a relegation battle," said Hughes in his post-match press conference. "We're down there but we've got quality that's not available.
"We need to pick up points sooner rather than later but we're looking upwards not downwards.
"We've got a lot of players out at the moment but once we get everybody back we'll hopefully we'll be stronger in the second half of the season, which all my teams are historically.
"We just need to get a few bodies back and make sure the games we have coming up, which are winnable, we get points on the board."
And Hughes said he would definitely look to spend in the January transfer market - although he called the speculation over his potential targets as 'hysterical and ludicrous' after City were linked with a £129m bid for Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas last week.
"It's a little bit hysterical and ludicrous at the moment to be perfectly honest," explained the former Blackburn boss.
"When we go to the market, we'll discuss players with the clubs direct and if we can do some business, if we generate the resources to do that and if we can bring in a bit of quality to the club then that's what we'll try to do.
"I don't think there'll be many clubs spending a great deal in January so maybe it's competitive advantage that we have in this window.
"But clubs can refuse to release players we covet so it's not an exact science. There are a lot of boxes that need to be ticked to bring players through the door."
Until we get said players back, we are in a relegation battle. Clubs with more points than us have said they are in a battle so why arent we.
I am encouraged by his transfer comments though. I understand he has to be cautious but id like to think privately he is really going to go for it.
Had to laugh at the tit on sunday supplement this morning who said we should just stick with what we have got. Why is that? so we stay away from the top 4?