Rarely has a game between second bottom and third top been billed as such an intriguing, evenly-contested game. Can QPR maintain their recent improvements and give Man City a game at Loftus Road on Saturday evening?

Queens Park Rangers (19th) v Manchester City (3rd)

I still catch myself chuckling away on the tube sometimes to the classic Viz top tip about teaching young children how tax works by "taking all their sweets away and telling them to fuck off." Or the one about thickening up a runny low fat yoghurt by "stirring in a spoonful of lard".

Perhaps a more relevant letter to this Saturday's encounter with Manchester City at Loftus Road was the recent submission from Joey (please God no) who mused: "I'm sick of sports commentators saying 'You couldn't write a script like this'. If people can write scripts about dystopian futures where life is in fact a simulation made by sentient machines to harness humans' heat and electricity as an energy source, they can probably write ones about Gary Taylor-Fletcher scoring a last minute equaliser against Stoke."

For there are certainly a few scripts in the works ahead of this meeting between last year's Premier League champions and the Championship play-off winners at Loftus Road. It's a classic underdog tale. One team down on its luck and scraping along the bottom of the table, trying to conquer the might of what Richard Keys may refer to as the "best league in the world" between misogynistic comments and prehistoric bantz, facing up against the finest defenders money can buy and offering them a long ball to Bobby Zamora playing with a bad hip by way of a threat. The other a billionaire's play-thing, lavished with gigantic men of supreme footballing ability at colossal expense, expected to ride onto the shabby White City Estate in transport more space-ship than bus, and crush whatever they find like a bug. Peter MacNicoll standing at the side of the pitch shouting "Fools, he is Vinnie, you are like the buzzing of flies to him" as Charlie Austin's England chances are torn asunder.

But wait. Vinnie is injured. And David Silva too. And all the oil money and fancy training grounds in the world cannot, it seems, buy you mental strength. City are on the brink of collapse (one win — against Man Utd — in five games and third in the league counts as a collapse these days, keep up), scared of their own shadows and mediocre Russian footballers. QPR have found an effective way to play, and used it to put the frighteners on Chelsea and Liverpool of late. Could it be third time lucky? Will City wilt in the Loftus Road floodlights, beer breath filling the cold November air as the people of Shepherds Bush make the most of a delayed kick off by drinking all the Carling Black Label their stomachs can hold? Rangers are 9/1 to win, no 8/1, no 7/1, no 6/1. It's dropping. It's dropping fast. Punters across the city leaving their desks early to race across the road to Ladbrokes before it drops to fives. Panic on the streets of London. 'Arry 'as a fully fit squad to choose from. City barely have 11 players to call a team. We’re gonna do it, we're gonna do it, ring the fucking bell.

It always worries me a bit this sort of thing. Because QPR rarely do what you think they will, or should. They rarely live up to expectations. QPR have always been that team that climbs to fifth in the Premier League, sweeping Arsenal and Spurs and Liverpool before them, but then misses the chance to go second by losing 1-0 at bottom of the table Swindon Town who hadn't won in 16 attempts prior to that and were down to ten men from 15 minutes into the game. That's QPR. QPR don't play well against Liverpool, play well against Villa, play well against Chelsea and then play well again against Manchester City and secure a priceless victory against a side low on confidence. Nah, they lose 3-0 here, pathetically, puncturing the optimism, taking everything back to square one, sending everybody into the international break miserable as sin, shutting all the Manchester City criticism up, slashing their odds for relegation and all the rest of it. Then they come back in a fortnight and put the rounds of the kitchen through Newcastle. That's what QPR do. All this optimism is terrifying. It's the hope that kills you, haven't you learnt anything? We've been following this lot for so long.

QPR's season so far has been the footballing equivalent of teaching a stroke victim to walk again. Everything that was good about Rangers by the end of last season — the shape, the plan, the togetherness, the spirit — was apparently all lost during the summer break. Rangers started the season in a lethargic manner — unfit, under-cooked, under-committed, lazy, slapdash. It's why for the past few games the rhetoric has been about simply competing in games, rather than actually winning them — an indictment of just how far off the pace Rangers were in a 2-0 defeat at West Ham, that fans simply wanted to see a few tackles made and players giving a bit of a toss.

That attitude is probably valid for one more week at least. City, despite recent results, despite the press coverage, and despite a couple of injuries, are still the second best team in the league by a street. QPR will not face a better striker than Sergio Aguero in the next 20 years. Expect to see the value of James Milner in this game. Expect Pablo Zabaletta to be wonderful. Watch out for Navas. Watch out for Jovetic. It's not bloody amateur hour this. QPR will knock it up to Zamora and sees what happens. They should, on paper, lose comfortably.

But after this latest break for another round of absolutely crucial, not-at-all-pointless, terribly interesting international fixtures, the expectation has to go up again slightly. Against Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and so on QPR fans will happily accept defeats if the team sticks it to them a bit — and so far they've done that. But you don't stay up with brave defeats and moral victories. The games through December — particularly matches with Leicester, Burnley, West Brom and Palace at Loftus Road - look crucial to Rangers' hopes of staying in the league.

If the recent performance levels are maintained, Rangers are well capable of bloodying City's nose on Saturday night. But it's those four games in December where they really need to pull their fingers out, rather than regressing simply because the opposition isn't quite as good. A shock win — and it still will be that if it's achieved — on Saturday tees the whole thing up brilliantly.

It' all an intriguing prospect — which is more than it seemed like it was going to be a month ago.

Links >>> After the Lord Mayor's show - Opposition Focus >>> A title hangover or something more serious? - Opposition Interview >>> Francis' QPR run riot against Reid's 1992 City - history >>> Sinton on the dock of the bay — podcast >>> Dean takes City visit — referee >>> QPR fancied at sevens for upset — betting >>> 'Arry's triffic presser

QPR's Andy Impey and Manchester City's Steve Lomas square up during a 2-2 draw between these sides in a First Division match at Loftus Road in October 1996. Both teams had been relegated from the Premier League the year before and Rangers surged into a two goal lead in the first half thanks to goals from Trevor Sinclair and Paul Murray. City pulled one back before half time through Ian Brightwell and equalised late in the day through a Georgi Kinkladze penalty after Impey handled a goal-bound shot on the line and was sent off. Lomas would later make 57 appearances and score two goals for QPR in a two year spell between 2005 and 2007.

Saturday

City are missing key duo David Silva (knee) and Vincent Kompany (calf) as well as Aleksandar Kolarov. Frank Lampard has recovered from a thigh problem to take his place in the line up.

Elsewhere: Brenton's latest tactical masterstroke — playing a weakened team in a Champions League defeat to further the club's bid to qualify for next season's Champions League — has heaped more pressure on his own shoulders than was really necessary ahead of the Saturday lunch time game against Big Racist John and the Boys. A home defeat there wouldn't have been much cause for hand wringing and invasive autopsies, given Liverpool's poor start to the season, until Wednesday night's team selection in Madrid, but now expect a bank of photographers to be massed around the dugout pre-kick off. Still, we've got to Friday without a tremendously interesting "war of words" breaking out between Jose Mourinho and an irrelevant other so we should be grateful for small mercies.

What else? Not much really, that's what Sky would call "the game that matters" (although, shhhh, it's on BT). See two bald men fight over a comb as Burnley host Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah; see the latest fascinating instalment in the story of Behold Louis Van Gaal as he takes on Crystal Palace by himself; see Southampton begin their inevitable descent from a lofty second position with a home win against Leicester; see Big Fat Sam's Big Fat Brand of Entertaining Football pummel Aston Villa into submission in a week when the Birmingham club's official website had to publicly cancel a Goal of the Month competition for October because there were no Aston Villa goals in October.

Then it's Sunday, and as you emerge, breathless, hungover, looking like death, with kebab sauce and God-only-knows what else smeared around your gob, blinking into the light, remember please that after four journalists have soaped up and worked themselves into a cum frenzy on Sunday Supplement, and Chris Kamara has once again demonstrated his complete and utter lack of knowledge of the rules of association football — interspersed with news of who Kevin Phillips has been playing golf with — there are still four more matches to come. Three of them kick off at 13.30 — because everybody wants to go to a football game at 13.30 on a Sunday in November — and all of them look bloody hideous. Sunderland v Everton, Spurs against Meticulous Mark and the Taffia, West Brom against Pards Pardew's Resurgent Newcastle.

Then at 16.00 you can watch Swansea and Arsenal try and pass each other to death, like a dramatic recreation of the Somme with the bullets replaced by marshmallows and the shells with water balloons. Anybody ready for the close season yet? Come on, you can tell us.

Referee: With 42 yellow cards and three reds in just nine appointments so far this season, penalty award enthusiast Mike Dean comes to Loftus Road on Saturday evening in card-happy form. It's his first QPR appointment since a 2-2 draw at Millwall in the Championship just over a year ago. Prior to that the R's had lost three in a row with this official, including an embarrassing 4-2 home defeat to MK Dons in the FA Cup and that world-famous 3-2 set back at City on the final day of the 2011/12 season which gifted the home side the league title. For his extensive QPR case history and stats, please click here.

Form

QPR: Rangers have seven points so far this season and all of them have been won at Loftus Road with victories against Sunderland (1-0) and Villa (2-0) as well as a draw with Stoke (2-2). Charlie Austin has been involved in six of the nine goals the R's have scored so far this season — scoring five and setting another up for Eduardo Vargas against Liverpool. Rangers tend to either lose or win — they've drawn only one of 11 fixtures this season — and have been beaten in all six away games so far scoring just two goals and conceding 15.

Man City: The news that Vincent Kompany is missing for City has further boosted hopes that QPR could spring a surprise here, and has seen their odds cut again down to 6/1 on Friday afternoon, but City's last three games without their supposedly uinfluential captain have finished 6-0 (v Spurs), 3-0 (v Swansea) and 5-0 (v Fulham). They were without him last time they came to Loftus Road as well when the game finished 0-0. Simnilarly, David Silva is seen as a big miss but City have won six and drawn two of the last eight league meetings he's been out for. City have only won one of the last five — losing three - but have only lost once in their last seven away matches and have scored in all but one of their last 23 league fixtures.

Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding tells us…

"QPR take on Man City at Loftus Road under the Saturday evening lights in what should be an intriguing encounter.

"Getting straight to the betting, QPR were available at a whopping 8/1 earlier this week but that has now been taken and they are now a best priced 7/1 for victory here. This, all things considered is still a huge price in my opinion. Man City are in poor form, there is no doubting that. Just like Rangers, they have only won one of their last five games in all competitions, but unlike QPR, City's performances have been very poor.

"That victory came against the ten men of Man Utd and barring a few disputable penalties, it was another below par performance. City are clearly missing the creativity of David Silva and the constant attacking threat from the left hand side of Alexander Kolarov. Both players will be missing here, and even captain Kompany faces a late fitness test, much to the delight of Harry Redknapp. Aguero is a fantastic striker, but stats show how much more effective he is when he is serviced by the diminutive Silva, and Silva's absence cannot be over-stated. Just why bookmakers are making Man City a best priced 1/2 for this game is beyond me. That price equates Man City to 1.25 goals better than QPR and on recent performances and with injury news massively favouring the West Londoners, a bet on QPR has to be entertained here.

"Charlie Austin can be backed at 4/1 just to score in the game at anytime and against a possible Kompany-less defence - one that has conceded eight goals in its last five games - this seems a huge price for the in-form striker to continue his purple patch."

Recommended Bets:

QPR to beat Man City - 7/1 BetVictor

Charlie Austin to score at Anytime - 4/1 Betfair.

Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion WestonSuperR tells us…

"I really believe we can continue our considerable improvement in recent weeks and play like we did in the second half against Chelsea. If we do, we will surely cause Man City a few problems. I do still worry that though that our defence could still be a little exposed against the very best strikers and as well as Dunne has played recently, Aguero v Dunne at any stage of this match is a frightening thought. A hard fought point for me."

John's Prediction: QPR 1-1 Man City. First goal scorer Charlie Austin.

LFW's Prediction: QPR 2-2 Man City, First goal scorer Steven Caulker.

The Twitter @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

Photo: Action Images

ithastogetbetter added 11:44 - Nov 8 Damn it, Clive, your prediction record is even worse than mine and now we have picked the same outcome. A draw would be bloody good result though.
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TacticalR added 16:14 - Nov 8 I guess 'crisis' is a relative term, if losing a few matches means a crisis. Be that as it may, whenever another club is in crisis (real or imagined), QPR always like to help.
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