Last weekend, the tinkering of Roberto Mancini suggested that, for as much as Man City now seem to have a settled 4-2-1-3 system, the versatility of his squad allows for certain individuals to be moved around within the formation. Yaya Toure – having played as the furthest forward of the midfield three- dropped back to a more defensive role and James Milner was also moved from his wide left position into the advanced centre midfield position Toure had previously occupied in the last few games.

For as long as the City manager’s penchant for inside-out wingers continues, though, it seems that Adam Johnson will always- when picked- be played on the right wing. The Blackburn game was Johnson’s third league start on the trot, and with two goals in his two England appearances in the same position last week, his form is continuing to flourish with a consistency of selection.

Johnson went into the game with 3 goal attempts and 3 Key Passes (that led to goal attempts from team mates) previous to the meeting with Sam Allardyce’s men, but his performance doubled both those stats on Saturday.

Despite having 65% possession, City failed to put their visitors to the sword, mainly down to a mixture of bad finishing and good goalkeeping from Paul Robinson. Johnson- as the City player with most shots on target- can consider himself unfortunate not to have found the net, as Robinson denied him the goal his performance deserved on three separate occasions. Johnson had four shots in total, all around the penalty area, as the chalkboard on the right shows.

Not only was Johnson a goal threat, he also made 3 Key Passes that led to City goal attempts. As these next chalkboards show, 60% of all his passes were in the opponent’s final third of the pitch, compared to 45% in the club’s previous home game with Liverpool, suggesting Johnson is becoming more of a menace in the areas of the pitch that really matter.

Having joined the club as a left-winger, he is clearly growing more accustomed to the role, and, with time and confidence, is becoming central to City’s play in every sense of the word, by drifting inside into dangerous areas rather than staying out wide near the touchline. As Johnson recently said himself:

To be honest, I don’t mind which side of the pitch I play on. I’ll play anywhere, either wing. I probably do my best work down the right but I grew up as a left ­winger and I’ve played more there. Going down the outside to get crosses in seems to be going out of the game. It’s more about cutting inside and playing off the front man.

These average position maps illustrate this perfectly; again taken from Man City’s last two home games, Johnson (number 11) perhaps played slightly further forward against Liverpool, but in the main, he stayed way out wide right, almost what you‘d expect of a right-footed winger.

In the Blackburn game though, his average position is practically level with Carlos Tevez (number 27), an indication of his ever-growing confidence and interpretation of the inside-out role. Johnson picked up 2 Bonus Points in each of these games, and with a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) price of just £6.5m, would be surely snapped up by more managers if only his place in the starting XI was assured. Going on his recent performances, though, it would be nothing short of an act of folly from Mancini to bench him right now.

With City having won just one of their first four games, they are already seven points behind leaders Chelsea and cannot afford any more slip-ups already. With a run of fixtures that read (wig, CHE, NEW, blp, ARS, wol, wba, MUN) City need to take advantage of the home ties with their main rivals, as well as ensuring they take full points in their somewhat easier away ties over the next couple of months.