Edin Dzeko: Can the Red-Hot Bosnian Maintain His Form Throughout the Season?

When Edin Dzeko arrived at the Eastlands, expectations were high.

After all, he was the one who had scored 66 goals in 111 appearances for Wolfsburg. He was the man who was a huge factor in his team getting to the group stages of the Champions League. It was he who won the Bundesliga Players' Footballer of the Year award in 2008-09.

Dzeko was heavily linked to Manchester City in mid-2010, and the deal was confirmed on January 3rd, 2011. The transfer fee was settled at £27 million, and just like that, Edin Dzeko was a City player.

Between January of this year and the end of the 2010-11 season, Dzeko made eight starts and was substituted in seven times. In those 15 games, however, his goal tally was only marked at two.

Since that wasn't such a bright start for a man who is regarded to be such a great scorer, expectations were lowered a bit for this year.

This season, the Bosnian international already has six goals in three starts. The first one was in Manchester City's rout of Swansea City, which came in their first game of the season. The second one came in a 3-2 away win against Bolton Wanderers, where Dzeko scored City's third goal.

The other four, however, were netted in a game against Tottenham. At White Hart Lane, Dzeko was extremely impressive, and two out of his four goals were assisted by brand-new signing Samir Nasri. One goal was a fantastic header where Dzeko wrong-footed the keeper and the last one was a magnificent strike from outside the 18-yard box.

Of course, with tall players, there are always people who criticize them for only being able to head the ball, and often, that is the case. For example, Peter Crouch and Marouane Chamakh are great in the air, but it's true that their dribbling and shooting are sub-par.

With Dzeko?

Nope.

All of the goals in the Tottenham match highlighted different qualities of his: positioning, aerial presence, cleverness, power and technique.

Of course, Dzeko can't do this alone. The star-studded Blues have a plethora of young attackers, including Samir Nasri, Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Adam Johnson and others.

All of those fantastic players contribute to the City attack, and though you would expect Carlos Tevez to start for them, Roberto Mancini doesn't agree.

Tevez has supposedly had attitude problems of late, as a lot of sources say that he is a downer in the locker room, that he doesn't cooperate well with teammates and, most importantly, isn't on great terms with Mancini.

Therefore, the Italian manager has shown that his clear preference is to start Dzeko up front with Argentine starlet Sergio Aguero, who has already scored three goals in three games.

The question is, though, how long is Edin going to be able to play at such a high level?

There are 38 games in the Premier League season, which stretch out over many months, and being able to maintain that form is amazing.

Something that quite often happens to great players is the following: They are unstoppable in the first half of the season, but something happens to them, and they lose everything in time for the second.

Well, there is a recent example of that happening, which is also very relevant to Edin Dzeko and Manchester City.

Last year, Samir Nasri was fantastic for Arsenal between August and January, as he earned a godlike status with the Gunners. Then in the second half of the season, he barely scored and just wasn't able to create the same magic that he could in the first half of the season.

No one knows exactly what caused his form to collapse, but the fact that he was off to a great start didn't help him at all in 2011.

Hopefully for Dzeko, that won't be the case.

Dzeko was extremely grateful to Mancini and implied that without his manager, he would not be so good. A report from the Daily Mail:

"

"I am so grateful for his patience. I think it is the most important thing of all when the coach and players around you show belief in you. At the beginning, it was hard for me. But I needed a good preseason and to know the League better. I feel much stronger than last year."

"

Hopefully for Manchester City fans, "the Bosnian Diamond" will sparkle throughout the whole season.