This City is a team in decline: Gary Neville criticises the ‘Citizens’
Gary Neville criticises the 'Citizens', who continue to break negative records in an unprecedented crisis. "In eight years we have never experienced a situation like this," admitted Pep Guardiola.
Pep Guardiola never knew what it was like to lose four games in a row as a manager, so a string of five defeats in a row, the last of which was a 4-0 home defeat, is hard to explain. “ We ’ve never experienced a situation like this in eight years,” admitted the man from Sampedor after losing to Tottenham. Manchester City’s biggest pet peeve Spurs ran roughshod over the reigning Premier League champions with a superb performance from start to finish. The London outfit began a historically negative run of results for the Manchester side, leaving Pep Guardiola’s charges behind in the Carabao Cup, and deepening the sky-blue wound even further. Spurs ’ assault on the Etihad Stadium has single-handedly written a black page in Manchester City’s history.
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In the words of Gary Neville during the broadcast for Sky Sports, “We have seen Manchester City lose the odd game here but we have very rarely seen them outclassed in every facet of the game. They look very short. I have not seen them as bad as they have been in the last few weeks. The opinion that Manchester City are a team in decline is now even more entrenched. It seems crazy when you think about what they have achieved but they are easy to play against. Teams get excited when they play against them. Their weaknesses are there for all to see. ”
On a smaller scale, this is the first game of the current league season in which the Citizens have gone away without scoring. A defeat that, if Liverpool win at St. Mary’s Stadium, would leave them eight points behind the leaders. But there is much more. Although this is the fifth consecutive defeat, the other four previous ones (Tottenham, Bournemouth, Sporting CP, and Brighton) had all occurred away from home. The Etihad Stadium remained impregnable… until yesterday. After 35 Premier League games and 52 in all competitions, the Citizens’ home ground was assaulted. And how. This 0-4 is the worst result achieved by Manchester City at home since 2003 when Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal gave them a 1-5. But there is still more.
You have to go back to March 2016, when Manuel Pellegrini was still in charge of the Manchester team, to find three consecutive defeats of the Citizens in the Premier League. You have to go even further back in time to remember the last time that Manchester City lost five consecutive games, counting all competitions. It was 18 years ago, between March and April 2006, with Stuart Pearce as manager. Then, the Mancunians lost to West Ham (1-0), Tottenham (2-1), Middlesbrough (0-1), Chelsea (2-0) and Wigan Athletic (0-1). The most historical statistic of all is given by Opta: “Manchester City is, since Chelsea in March 1956, the first reigning champions of the top flight to lose five games in a row in all competitions. ”
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Former City player Micah Richards said he was “stunned” by Manchester City’s defeat. The former England player acknowledged that Ange Postecoglou’s men were “excellent” and James Maddison, who scored the first two away goals, “was the best player on the pitch”. Even so, his former team’s performance was unsustainable: “From Manchester City’s point of view, it’s awful. They were out of the game, the gaps weren’t right, they were dominated in midfield, they lacked energy, and conviction, and they didn’t know how to break Spurs … I thought Pep Guardiola’s contract renewal would give them a boost, but it wasn’t meant to be. It could have been a stumble, but today it was more than that. To be at the Etihad Stadium and not score in games like that is bad.”
Not only has Pep Guardiola conceded two or more goals in five consecutive games for the first time in his career, but, as Statman Dave points out, the Sampedor native, who has conceded four goals against Sporting CP (4-1) and Tottenham (0-4), is close to equalling his negative record with Manchester City, when, in his first season as City manager, 2016-2017, they conceded four goals against them on three occasions. In total, in those five consecutive defeats, the Mancunian side has been scored 14 times.