There was one thing on the mind following Saturday's painful defeat to Liverpool – a comment piece I wrote following Paul Lambert's departure in May, with its long, drawn out break-up metaphor.

And for where we all are at the moment, it seems a good time for a good friend to shake all around and say 'snap out of it' – because the current hangover being played out needs to end and home truths need to be told before we can work out what may lie ahead.

Firstly, none of this apologises for what is City's worst start to a top-flight campaign.

When the Canaries have played well they've not taken their chances. When they haven't played well, they've been hammered.

City are currently four points behind their tally from the corresponding fixtures last season – if you replace West Ham for Blackburn's visit last term.

But there is nothing inevitable about what has happened so far – unless everyone decides it is.

Are City fans over Lambert's departure – being dumped by their hero when hopes were so high for success under him to continue?

In truth, that saga was always going to end how it did. But each time a City fan wants four strikers on the pitch on 70 minutes, a total go-for-broke effort, formation changes moments after kick-off and three subs at half-time, they are yearning for Lambert's City.

The man's spell here – maybe the man himself if he finally gets Aston Villa firing – was a one-off. I'm not sure there are more than a couple of managers in the country who would satisfy those yearnings if they were here now.

And it's not just the fans either.

I can't second guess the players' collective psyche – but if there is anyone sitting at Colney occasionally wishing for what was there this time last season, they need to get over it or get out.

Just because new people are in charge, they should still walk off that pitch after every game leaving every bead of sweat – every drop of energy – on it.

And maybe the hangover is also one to consider for Chris Hughton.

Tightening up City was a sensible priority after sifting through last season's DVDs – but at what cost? As a certain ex-boss (some are afraid to utter his name) used to say, it's about formations and philosophies suiting your players. Not the other way round.

Maybe that line is my own hangover – but no one needed to fear what City were when trying to turn them into something better.

As a mate succinctly said to me, no team has been relegated for scoring too many goals.

Clearly the Canaries are misfiring in their 'second season'. Some things are not working and I expect to see changes at Chelsea in a bid to alter that – a game last season, like Arsenal at home, City took nothing from.

But if those already aching for a change do so because the manager isn't Paul Lambert, rather than the fact it is Chris Hughton, I'm afraid they will never be satisfied.

The sooner all parties deal with that, the sooner the hangover will be over and – for now I believe – the sooner the points will come.