FORTY years after they won the then First Division for the first and only time in their history, Manchester City’s impressive supporters are daring to dream, after victory over Birmingham made it six wins out of six at home, and for a few hours at least, lifted them into second place in the Premier League.

On this evidence, the realists among them will know a dream is what it is likely to remain. Four of those six wins have been by a single goal to nil, and while sometimes that scoreline can disguise a considerable supremacy, it did not do so yesterday.

There were times when Sven-Göran Eriksson’s team looked vulnerable, and while Elano’s fourth goal in three games was enough to take the points, a team with more confidence in front of goal than Birmingham would have punished them.

The received wisdom was that Birmingham would inevitably sit back and try to crowd Elano, choking off the stream of passes and flicks on which Emile Mpenza, Martin Petrov and Stephen Ireland have thrived recently. In fact, Steve Bruce’s team began constructively, Olivier Kapo, Fabrice Muamba and Wilson Palacios passing positively and breaking quickly to support Cameron Jerome up front, leaving Mehdi Nafti in front of the back four to pick up Elano.

However, the Tunisian was hopelessly beaten by Elano’s 11th-minute turn and could only watch as, almost in the same movement, the Brazilian touched the ball into the path of Petrov. The Bulgarian looked to have outpaced Stephen Kelly, but as he was drawing his foot back, the full-back timed a sliding tackle to perfection to touch the ball into the hands of Maik Taylor.

Nafti was more effective a few minutes later, deflecting an Elano free kick wide, but these were relatively rare threats from the Sky Blues during an opening half hour in which the visitors looked the more accomplished team.

It must have made the goal all the more galling to Bruce, though the Birmingham manager was more concerned with the foul he believed Michael Johnson had committed on Muamba in the build-up. In fact, replays suggested that having lost the ball to Muamba close to the right touchline, the young midfielder had won it back fairly before Ireland passed inside to Vedran Corluka as he broke into the penalty area. The Croatian picked out Elano in a yard of space, and he drove a left-foot shot beyond Taylor.

Aggrieved as they were, Birmingham came with a fingertip of equalising within a minute. Kapo, dribbling into the Manchester City penalty area, recovered from a heavy tackle and took advantage of a poor attempted clearance to put in a shot which would have crept in if Joe Hart had not dived impressively to touch the ball around his right-hand post.

Birmingham resumed after the interval with the air of a team determined to right a wrong. Gary McSheffrey, a peripheral figure so far, at last started looking for the ball, but his delivery was poor, and it was not surprising to see him replaced by Daniel De Ridder.

While the visitors continued to enjoy a more respectable share of possession, there was no doubting which team carried the greater threat, Elano and Petrov’s ability to either find space, or simply beat their marker, making them a constant danger and preventing the Birmingham midfield getting forward in the numbers necessary to exert any sort of concerted pressure.

The replacement of Mpenza with Georgios Samaras caused Birmingham more problems, the Greek’s persistence creating a shooting chance which Petrov blazed over from the edge of the penalty area, and soon afterwards Petrov was the creator, his intelligent inside pass off the left wing putting Elano in space centrally in front of the penalty area. Used to the spectacular, the crowd rose in anticipation, but this time the low shot was curled wide.

Birmingham knew they were still very much in the game, however, and Hart again had to be at his best when, shortly after being rightly booked for a penalty area dive, Palacios freed Kapo down the left. His pass into the path of Muamba was timed perfectly, and the close-range shot, hit first time, was firm, but it was close to the goalkeeper, who stuck out a strong right hand to make the block.

The England Under21 international was less convincing moments later, failing to hold a Franck Queudrue free kick under pressure. The ball bounced down and was hooked towards goal by Rafael Schmitz, but Micah Richards was on the line to head clear.

Star man: Elano (Man City)

Player ratings: Manchester City: Hart 6, Corluka 6, Dunne 6, Richards 6, Garrido 5, Ireland 5 (Ball 80min), Hamann 6, Elano 7 (Gelson 89min), Johnson 6, Petrov 6, Mpenza 6 (Samaras 65min)

Birmingham: Taylor 6, Kelly 6, Schmitz 6 (Danns 87min), Ridgewell 6, Queudrue 5, Palacios 6, Muamba 6, Kapo 6, Nafti 5, McSheffrey 4 (De Ridder 58min, 6), Jerome 5