David Hannant: Have we stumbled on a new Fab Four?

It is an utterly fascinating insight into the latter stages of The Beatles as they set about putting together their final albums and culminating in their famous rooftop concert in London.

But I'm fairly sure you haven't come to this page to read about John, Paul, George and Ringo - as fine a band they were.

Don't worry, I've not completely lost my head and forgotten what part of the newspaper this is.

The reason I bring up Merseyside's most famous export is it comes after the long wait for a Premier League win (and goal) came to an end against another set of Merseysiders - Everton.

Due the arrival of my first son a fortnight before Christmas the match on Saturday was the first I've been able to in a while - and it turned out to be a great one for me to choose.

To say it was the best performance in some weeks would be the understatement of the season and once that slightly fortuitous opener hit the back of the net, City looked a completely different side to me.

And a big part of that was thanks to the four men tasked with leading the line - in particular the excellent Adam Idah.

Quite rightly the lion's share of the praise following the win was placed on the Irishman's shoulders - in the last two games he has looked a new man.

But equally, I wonder whether enough has been given to Milot Rashica and Josh Sargent as well, the latter in particular who had his best game for the club.

Teemu Pukki's brilliance is never missed - and rightly so - but for periods this season he has looked something of an isolated figure.

However, on Saturday, I actually felt as though I was seeing shades of the great team of 2018/19, which earned Daniel Farke his first league title.

One of the best things about that team was the level of cohesion between Teemu's supporting cast.

For the most part, the set-up that season saw the Finn lead the line with the trio of Emi Buendia, Marco Stiepermann and Onel Hernandez operating behind him - with Todd Cantwell also chipping in from time to time.

We all knew the trio's base position, but they played with such fluidity that they would rotate effectively throughout the game, causing headaches for defenders and allowing Pukki to profit from the extra space they would create.

Between them, they plundered 57 goals in all competitions as City romped to the title - making them truly a Fab Four.

While it would be silly to expect quite this much of a plunder from the quartet leading the line on Saturday, for the first time in a long time I really saw cohesion between the four of them.

While the formation looked slightly closer to the favourite of City's only FA Cup-winning boss - Mike Bassett - the fluidity of the play meant it did often drop back into what we'd become more used to watching at Carrow Road lately.

The way Idah was dropping to receive the ball and help dictate play made it look a little less like Bassett's favoured four-four-chuffing-two. I've cleaned the language up a bit there.

But throughout the game, I can't even count the number of times the trio looked to switch up roles and keep the Toffees guessing - clearly an effective tactic.

And what jumped out at me most was the way they genuinely looked on each other's wavelength.

This is something that has been hideously lacking for the majority of the season.

So far this campaign there have been so many occasions where City's team just hasn't really looked to be on the same page - at times it doesn't even look like they are reading the same book.

Clearly there was a big squad overhaul in the summer and these things take time, but Saturday is probably the first time I can safely say that it felt to me like patience was paying off.

Don't get me wrong, Everton had an incredibly poor day at the office and made things a lot easier than other teams do, but as the old saying goes, you can only beat what is in front of you.

I'm not going to get myself carried away at all, but maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of a corner being turned.

The festive period was utterly dreadful and clearly there is a lot of damage to be repaired, but football is very much a confidence-based game and wins breed confidence.

And it is easy to forget that Idah and Sargent are still learning the game and Rashica has had to adjust to playing in a new league - it was never going to happen overnight, but perhaps this is the beginning of patience paying off.

If Saturday's win was nothing else, it was a sign that there is still life in this team and with two enormous games coming up, the shot in the arm of the Everton win could be exactly what the doctor ordered.

It has really felt a while since there was a game from which so many positives could be drawn, but there was plenty more to take away as well.

Pierre Lees-Melou had his best game for the club, Jacob Sorensen looked assured and Brandon Williams has completely dispelled any doubts I previously had about him.

But if this really is the dawn of understanding and cohesion between Pukki, Idah, Raschica and Sargent, we may well have found ourselves a new Fab Four.

Enough postponements already

I'm sure I'm not alone in being utterly sick and tired of matches being postponed left, right and centre.

It began as an understandable measure to help quell the spread of Covid throughout sportsmen, but the longer it goes on the more it starts to feel like teams are taking liberties.

The biggest bugbear I have with it is the way the measure has been utilised by the so-called 'big' clubs.

Arsenal recently cited absences for the African Cup of Nations in their request to have their North London Derby with Spurs postponed. What utter tosh.

The league really needs to make a clear statement about how postponements can be justified - because it should not simply be a case of teams not being able to put out their best players.

Take the African Cup of Nations for example; whenever a team signs an African player they know about the tournament - it is no secret and something that should be prepared for. It should in no way be taken into account.

Likewise injuries, these have always happened and are part of the game - they are the reason teams have squads.

I was watching Liverpool in the FA Cup a few weeks ago fielding players with squad numbers in their 80s. How a team can have players with squad numbers this high and cry that they can't field a team is ludicrous.

As far as I am concerned, the only thing that should be taken into account is a club's level of infection - absences through injury and international duty should be irrelevant.

With injuries being allowed to play a factor, who knows, that famous win against Manchester City probably would have had reasonable justification to not go ahead.

As a result, the league looks a mess and you'll have teams that have been able to strengthen in January playing games with reinforcements that otherwise wouldn't have been available when the match was scheduled - and that isn't fair.

Perhaps a measure could be brought in along similar lines to cup tying, whereby if a player was not registered for a club at the time a game was originally scheduled they cannot feature in the rearranged clash.

Either way, the fixture list later in the season will be carnage and it will probably be weeks before the league actually has a true picture.

Here's hoping the negative impact the fixture congestion teams with more games in hand cancels out the advantages gained by having matches postponed when City were struggling to field 11 players and forced to continue.