It does feel like the next month or so will be a defining period, with City playing Man Utd, Chelsea and Villa away (two games where they dropped points last season), and us and Spurs at home (both hopefully tougher games than last season).
And since they're almost one after the other, if they slip up against Man Utd again (admittedly unlikely, since the home fans will probably be rooting for a City win too, now that their own title hopes are already over and we're a threat again this season), the pressure will mount for the next game, and so on.
If City can be dealt a few blows by early December, then it could give us real belief as we go into the January transfer window and the second half of the season that this year we don't need to be near-perfect to win the title, and we can afford to have Howard Webb and his cronies screw us out of points a couple of times.