If we are still top after the City game we will be in a very strong position. City's "easy" upcoming fixtures are just a continuation of their very favourable fixture list since the start of the season, in their 8 games so far they have played Bournemouth, Watford, Southampton, Everton, Norwich, Wolves, Brighton, West Ham and Spurs. So they have only faced one of the supposed trickiest 10 fixtures and that was a home games (Spurs). They have 3 more games against "lesser" teams before playing us. By that time we will have played Chelsea, Arsenal, United, Spurs and City all in our first 12 fixtures.
City's run of games after they play us is tough for a couple of months so hopefully we can retain our position and build up a useful points gap before the springtime fixtures.