The City boss said: "If you look at those sides at the top of the table, they have all got special players. "(Gary) McSheffrey and (Nicklas) Bendtner at Birmingham, (Kenwyne) Jones and (Grzegorz) Rasiak at Southampton, Dwight Yorke and Carlos Edwards at Sunderland, (Diomansy) Kamara and (Jason) Koumas at West Brom. You need those diamonds in among the rough.
"But with what we have got, I don't think we are that far away. We are hard working and we have beaten Southampton and hopefully we will have beaten one or two others by the end of the season."