They have Stoke and West Brom at home to take them to the halfway point in the fixture list. If they win both(very possible), they'll be at worst 6 points off the top and 4 points off 4th place - probably much closer to the fixtures that the teams around them have.
The top 6 is a lot less clear cut than people make out. For all the praise that certain teams get, the likes of us and Tottenham can easily end up very close to the others at the halfway point, who are reaping all the praise. They've also played City away, Everton away and Arsenal away in the first half of the season.