It has been one other dangerous week for Manchester Metropolis. However after being knocked out of the Champions League by Actual Madrid and symbolically dethroned as Premier League champions in a 2-0 dwelling defeat to runaway leaders Liverpool, it might get even worse from right here for Pep Guardiola’s staff.
Leaving apart the shadow of the listening to into the Premier League’s 115 prices for breaching monetary rules — a verdict is anticipated inside the subsequent month or so — the weeks forward look bleak for a staff that final season grew to become the primary in English historical past to win 4 successive league titles.
Metropolis have misplaced 14 of their previous 27 video games in all competitions and eight of their previous 17 within the Premier League. Their woeful kind, which is unprecedented since Guardiola’s arrival as coach in 2016, has now left the membership dealing with a battle to qualify for subsequent season’s Champions League.
Wednesday’s Premier League journey to Tottenham Hotspur has grow to be meaningless by way of Metropolis’s title hopes. With Liverpool 20 factors forward on the prime of the desk, Metropolis are out of the operating to say a fifth straight championship. However it’s essential nonetheless within the context of saving Metropolis’s season.
Though the Premier League is nearly sure to have 5 Champions League qualification spots for subsequent season (with England in a dominant place on the prime of UEFA’s coefficient desk) the security web of the additional place will solely provide the faintest of consolation to Metropolis in distinction to their worrying kind. Sitting in fourth place within the Premier League heading into the midweek fixtures, Metropolis are solely a degree away from sixth-place AFC Bournemouth and simply 4 forward of ninth-place Brighton & Hove Albion.
Over the previous 10 Premier League video games, Metropolis sit in sixth place within the kind information, with Bournemouth and Newcastle — sixth and fifth respectively within the desk — forward of them. Up to now 15 video games, Metropolis are ninth behind Chelsea, Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Newcastle United, so the risk to Guardiola’s hopes of extending Metropolis’s run of Champions League {qualifications} to a 14th straight season is evident.
Metropolis are beset by accidents — Ballon d’Or winner Rodri won’t play once more this season, John Stones and Manuel Akanji are dealing with weeks on the sidelines and Erling Haaland‘s knee harm is inflicting concern — and serial winners Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gündogan and Bernardo Silva are fading quick as gamers able to making an affect.
So might Metropolis’s season really worsen to the extent that they miss out on qualifying for the Champions League? The truth is that they’re now one among six golf equipment scrambling for 2 locations, and up to date performances provide little encouragement that Guardiola’s squad don’t have anything to fret about.
The excellent news for Metropolis is that not one of the groups beneath them are tearing it up. Newcastle have misplaced three of their previous six Premier League video games, together with a 4-0 loss at Metropolis on Feb. 15, whereas Bournemouth’s spectacular run of 4 wins in 5 league video games was surprisingly halted with a 1-0 dwelling defeat to relegation-threatened Wolverhampton Wanderers over the weekend.
Chelsea have dropped to seventh following a nightmare run of two wins and 5 defeats of their previous 10 league video games, and Villa solely ended a five-game Premier League winless streak with a 2-1 victory towards Chelsea at Villa Park on Saturday. Brighton have the very best type of the Champions League chasers, profitable 4 of their previous six league video games, however their two defeats in that run have been a stunning 1-0 loss at dwelling to a then-struggling Everton and a 7-0 hammering at Forest. So of the six groups chasing the ultimate two Champions League qualification spots, none can boast of being in unbeatable kind, however the inconsistency is giving all of them hope of a top-five end.
Metropolis, no less than, take pleasure in being answerable for their very own future as a result of they occupy a Champions League spot. It is a easy equation for Guardiola and his gamers: Win extra video games than the groups beneath you, and will probably be attainable to salvage the naked minimal from this season. However meaning beating a resurgent Spurs on Wednesday after which denting Brighton’s hopes with one other victory on the Etihad on March 15. Metropolis even have dwelling video games towards Villa and Bournemouth within the weeks forward.
By this stage of a typical Metropolis season underneath Guardiola, all of these video games can be thought to be nothing wanting formalities, with Metropolis surging to a collection of wins on the best way to a different title.
However this is not a typical season, and Metropolis have been dragged down into the ranks of also-rans, so nothing might be assured — not even a spot within the Champions League.
