AS the famous idiom states: ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’. Far from the famous Arsenal side that went 49 games unbeaten, surely 19 games without a loss from a QPR side was a case of getting too greedy!?

I’m sure Neil Warnock was worried the league was too easy, and decided to lure surrounding teams into a false sense of optimism with a couple of defeats, before storming away like Mary Byrne on her way to a sale at Millie’s Cookies.

A team that was recently disposing of teams, rather like Barcelona defeating Crawley Town, has now come unstuck.

After taking a commanding five-point lead at the top, two defeats have followed and Steve Claridge is now hosting regular tea parties for his ‘We Hate QPR’ club.

The Rangers defence, which played such a fundamental role in the unbeaten run, has begun to produce inconsistent performances, while the goals have dried up quicker than a bottle of water in the desert.

Oh, how football throws up its conundrums. While other teams may start frantically fumbling for the panic button, Mr Warnock will certainly be out to quash any worrying feelings around Loftus Road.

Last week Rangers fans were filled with delirium, now they are slightly apprehensive when opening the paper to look at the league table and all incoming calls from Watford and Leeds fans will promptly be ‘rejected’.

Even so, Rs fans are far from throwing in the towel, and with the January transfer window just around the corner there is always the opportunity to strengthen the squad with a couple of Spurs rejects.

Cardiff City have started to falter; even the BBC have failed to place Craig Bellamy on their golden pedestal for a couple of days. The experience of such situations is still evident throughout the squad, the passion is still there and surely that old adage ‘how have we messed this up?’ won’t be circulating round QPR-filled conversations in W12. Of course, while everyone is tucking into their turkey on Christmas Day, QPR will still be sitting pretty at the top of the league. They will still have only lost two league games in the whole season and they will still have the best manager and best player in the league.

And, filled with good New Year spirit, the Rangers faithful will certainly be out to cheer on a side in need of a win to get them back on track in their promotion push.