City Watch: Trouble in paradise for the Blues?

Pep Guardiola has insisted that he is more adamant than ever to turn things around for Manchester City after they suffered their third loss in a row against newly appointed Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim’s Sporting CP on Tuesday night. 

It has no doubt been a tough few weeks for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City team as they have suffered losses in 3 separate competitions, with defeats coming at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Vitality Stadium and the José Alvalade Stadium. While the results, in isolation, are not the end of the world, what is slightly more worrying is the manner in which we are losing them. 

In a week of records for City, their dismal defeat to Sporting CP was just the second time the Blues have conceded 4 goals in a Champions League game since October 2016, where they were beaten comprehensively by Barcelona 4-0. It was also 3 defeats in a row for the first time in over six years, only the second time this has occurred in the Spaniard’s reign.  

It was a disappointing, albeit confusing night for Manchester City as they dominated the first half despite the heavy loss. Phil Foden’s early strike inside 5 minutes set the pace for the Blues as they continued to dominate possession and create chance after chance. Despite the dominance, City looked vulnerable on the counter as the in-form Swedish target man Viktor Gyökeres saw himself unleashed through on goal a few minutes after. Fortunately for City the Swede fluffed his first attempt on goal, however that would certainly not be his last chance of the night. 

It wasn’t to be for City’s number 9 either, who saw 4 shots on goal saved or cleared off the line in the first half before Gyökeres finally found the back of the net in 38th minute, when he latched onto the end of a clever through ball and chipped the ball over Ederson. 

Despite multiple first half chances to extend their lead, City were left red-faced going into halftime level, a mistake made even worse due to a nightmare start to the second half which saw them concede twice in quick succession. City were undone once again for the second goal with a smart through-ball between the lines, followed by a rash challenge from Gvardiol that saw Gyökeres convert the resulting penalty for his second and Sporting’s third of the night. 

In what was shaping up to be a ‘typical City’ performance, the Blues were awarded a penalty after a sporting defender was deemed to have handled the ball in the area. A chance to get back into the game and prevent further embarrassment was squandered after Erling Haaland blazed his penalty into frame of the goal. 

It wasn’t to be the last of City’s woes as things went from bad to worse. With 10 minutes remaining, Matheus Nunes brought down Geny Catamo in a challenge near identical to Gvardiol’s in the first half. Gyökeres made no mistake with the resulting spot kick and completed his hattrick to end any remaining hopes of a City comeback. 

After congratulating Sporting in his post-match press conference, Pep Guardiola went on to defiantly say "Now is a difficult moment in terms of results but I'm here. I want to be here! And I want to fight and not give up, I like this challenge that as a manager I have ahead of me, and who wants to follow me, follow us, they will be there!" 

It’s not the first time that City have been through a rough patch of performances, however with 12 separate injuries since the beginning of October and a handful of players either returning from injury or playing through discomfort, it’s difficult to disagree with Bernardo Silva who stated post-match "We're in a bit of a dark place right now, and everything looks to be going in the wrong way.” 

City travel down south to the Amex stadium to play a strong Brighton side this weekend. I’ve always said that there are no easy games in the premier league but Brighton, Spurs and Liverpool in the next three fixtures isn’t exactly the most ideal run given the circumstances. Regardless, Guardiola will need to pull together some miraculous performances to still be in the title race by Christmas.