Manchester City face Burnley in the first of two home premier league games in a row. Now the question is can they continue their great run of form into the New Year?

Manchester City continue to have injury problems up front (and will for the foreseeable future). Hopefully Stevan Jovetic will be fit enough to start for City, and link up with David Silva and Samir Nasri who have been performing brilliantly as of late.

Despite being without a striker for the past two games, Manchester City have scored 6 in 2 games, showing that when they have their heads straight, City’s players can really step up. The movement in the last few matches has been absolutely superb, with real fluidity in the midfield resulting in defenses just not being able to keep track of all the runners.

David Silva has been instrumental in ensuring Manchester remain a potent attacking team, as he not only drags players out of position with his runs, but his passes have been inch perfect. It doesn’t hurt that the Spanish play maker has added a few goals to his tally as well, with 3 in the last 2 games.

Clearly Burnley have a problem with getting the goals they need, but defensively they have been fairly sound.

Burnley may have lost their last two games against Tottenham and Liverpool, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. They scared both teams, and could have nicked a point or better in either match. Clearly Burnley have a problem with getting the goals they need having only scored 12 in the Premier League so far, but they have been saved further blushes by relatively solid defensive performances.

The inclusion of Jovetic will come in handy against this fairly robust Burnley defence, the Montenegrin providing an extra attacking threat to try and split center backs Keane and Shackell who are expected to start.

Vincent Kompany could make a return from injury as well, although given that Mangala and Demichelis have been pretty solid it may not hurt to keep him as a substitute until he regains full match fitness, especially considering the trickier fixtures later in the month.

The main worry for Manchester City will be Danny Ings, linked with a move to West Brom in the past few days. The 22 year old’s penchant to take on his man could trouble a high Manchester City back-line, so hopefully Zabaleta will be starting this time given Sagna’s tendency towards disappearing at times.

On paper, this is Manchester City’s to lose. Barring a Typical City performance, a 3-0 will is well within the realms of possibility. With Jovetic and Kompany both hopefully starting their returns, City should be going into the New Year ever more hopeful of grabbing the top spot.