Manchester City's Spanish manager Pep Guardiola attends a press conference at Manchester City's training ground in Manchester, north-west England, on November 25, 2024, on the eve of their UEFA Champions League football match against Feyenoord Pep Guardiola’s and Manchester City’s age of domination might just be coming to an end. Picture: Darren Staples/AFP
Image: Darren Staples/AFP
It’s been 730,000 hours, or one month, since Manchester City last won a football match as their stunning collapse continues unabated.
City’s 1-0 win at home over Southampton on Saturday October 26 would have gone by almost unnoticed as the champions returned to the top of the table courtesy of an Erling Haaland winner.
A late equaliser the next day by Mohamed Salah helped Liverpool rescue a 2-2 draw against hosts Arsenal, but still City clung to a one-point lead at the top of the table after nine games. Having won six of the last seven Premier League titles on offer, the odds would have still been firmly in favour of the blue team from Manchester.
Since then, the previously unbeaten City have lost three in a row in the league while Liverpool have collected a trio of victories for 31 points from 12 games. City have also suffered five defeats in a row across all competitions, including the EFL Cup and Champions League.
Liverpool are now walking alone at the top of the table, with a massive eight-point lead over City. In fact, it may not even be City that challenge for the title the way things stand as a resurgent Chelsea in third place are now only one point behind the Citizens.
Fourth-place Arsenal have the same 22-point tally as Chelsea, as do Brighton in fifth.
It’s therefore troubling times indeed for Manchester City and its legions of fans, and it begs the question - just what has gone wrong for them this season?
For starters, despite having probably the most depth of any squad in the Premier League, City have been beset by injuries. The most notable absentee is key midfield playmaker Kevin De Bruyne who has been out of action since mid-September.
City coach Pep Guardiola alluded to the fact that he wanted to see more passion from his troops ahead of his side’s Champions League clash against Feynoord at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
"I want the players in certain departments to be more focused. What do we have to do?" he said.
"And step by step, we come back. This too shall pass. Life is like that. When you think it's perfect, you are wrong. It's going to rain tomorrow. So, it's life.”
"Right now, the most important thing is not tactics, it is to win a game on desire.
"You look at December and at the end of the season, whether you need to change things and be more solid, but these guys will do very, very good things.”
Defiant to the last it seems for Guardiola, or is he perhaps just lacking acceptance? There will be 26 league games left for City and their boss to determine which it is.