Betting tips / Richard Aikman / 16 April 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Tevez's hat-trick at Norwich was sublime and brought smiles to the Man U faithful, but RIchard Aikman feels his dressing room antics may have been the difference between success and failure.

For those not of a Manchester City persuasion, there was a good deal of schadenfreude about their 6-1 victory over Norwich. Carlos Tevez was outstanding.

Unfortunately for them, though, for most of the season he has been out.

And if, as is likely, the Manchester outfit fall short in the title race, Roberto Mancini will not have far to look for a scapegoat.

After the emphatic win at Carrow Road, Mancini attempted to deflect any notion that City might be standing in a healthier position than two points off the pace (which he fully expected to become five the following day after United played Aston Villa) had Tevez availed his services for the whole of the season. But his argument was far from compelling.

"The team did well for six months without Tevez and were fighting for the title," he said.

"Our problem was also that we lost [Sergio] Agüero for two matches for stupid reasons, and [Vincent] Kompany for a month and [Joleon] Lescott for four weeks."

Yes, Roberto, but had Tevez not been wintering in the sunny climes of Buenos Aires, and been playing for the club he is paid hundreds of thousands of pounds a week to represent, Aguero's absence would have been far more easily absorbed. Your side wouldn't be [5.1] for the title with four matches to go.

Tevez is a remarkable player. For all his off-field antics it cannot be disputed that, unlike Mario Balotelli, he consistently makes the difference to the side when he plays. He never stops running his heart out, he has the gift of seeing and playing the right pass at the right time and has developed an eye for goal which he never had in either his West Ham or Manchester United days. He managed seven goals in 26 league games to keep the Hammers up in 2006/07, scored 19 in 63 while at Old Trafford, but at City, in spite of his four-month sabbatical, he has still rattled off 48 goals in 75 league appearances.

Mancini would not go so far as to say that had the Argentinian international stayed, City would have won the league, but he did concede: "I'm sure if we had Carlos with Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko probably we would have scored more goals."

More goals equals more points. As they say Stateside, you do the math.

City are the classic example of a club who believe money is all it takes to win the title. But you need more than an expensively assembled collection of high maintenance footballers to win the league. You need players with mental as well as physical strength. Chief football operations officer Brian Marwood has explained before that extensive research goes into the background of players before City decide to sign them, with dossiers compiled to detail everything from "a player's attributes, personal and family background, command of English, 'experience of transition', 'cultural fit', international calendar issues, agent's details, press cuttings - everything."

So how on earth did they come to sign the ticking time-bomb that is Balotelli?

They do not even have the excuse for not knowing what he was like, as Mancini worked with him at Inter Milan. Little wonder City's owners are apparently set to conduct a "root and branch" enquiry into the inner workings of the club, with reports that Marwood could be on his way to QPR.

If he does go, he will be another victim of the collateral damage caused by City's destructive players. It is not that they are not good players (although Balotelli can disappear at times) but that they are a liability. Only the inner sanctum of the City dressing room really knows the extent of the harm that has been caused by Tevez.

All of which makes the prodigal son's celebration against Norwich the more unpalatable.

As if playing golf in Argentina while his team-mates were labouring in pursuit of City's first title in 44 years were not bad enough, marking his hat-trick goal with a golf swing was the ultimate display of arrogant defiance.

As the Arsenal fans sang at the Emirates Stadium last Sunday: "He plays when he wants, he plays when he wants, Carlos Tevez he plays when he wants."

And in a season when the title was there for the taking, City are paying the price.