Guardiola’s Reversal of Fortunes: Double Boost Brings Relief to Man City
The last two Wednesday’s games that Manchester City has played could not have seemed any more dissimilar.
The Premier League champions were thoroughly and brutally second best throughout last week’s 1-0 loss at Aston Villa, which was notable for both the fact that it extended their winless streak to four games. Guardiola stated that he would have to go away and think about how to “change the dynamic” because he had no answers about what had happened that night.
Attendees of the game and press conference will rarely have seen this side and its manager looking so vulnerable, with several of City’s finest players sidelined and others suffering for form. Guardiola urged the players at halftime to do what big clubs do and overcome the setback of being a goal behind despite dominating rather than feeling sorry for themselves. The comeback began with the media on Friday and continued onto Kenilworth Road two days later despite Erling Haaland’s injury.
The 2-1 victory over Luton meant that City ended the week just one point behind new leaders Liverpool, and Arsenal’s loss to Aston Villa the previous day reinforced the idea that a title race with more teams this year will mean fewer points are needed to be champions. Guardiola had succeeded in giving the team the “shake” he had thought the team needed for a month, while also demonstrating to the outside world that City’s current slump was hardly fatal.
Next, we move on to Belgrade, where the manager had a good time making jokes with visiting journalists following his press conference. On Wednesday, he watched in delight as a team that had made nine changes won 3-2 against Crvena Zvezda to set a new personal best of the maximum 18 points from a Champions League group stage. In Serbia, positives were abundant where they had been lacking in the Midlands.
Naturally, not all of them will change City right once. It would be unrealistic to expect Micah Hamilton and Oscar Bobb to destroy every opponent right away, and Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes still need time to adjust. There’s still space for development for those who weren’t present on Wednesday.
But the shift in mood over the course of a week has been significant enough to suggest that not enough is wrong for transformation to be necessary. Even though City isn’t exactly up to their typical excellent standards, it’s lot simpler to see them succeeding now.
After the Champions League match, Guardiola stated, “Winning helps to win.” That occurred against Luton, which greatly aided our victory today and, ideally, will help us win the next games.”
Before travelling to Saudi Arabia, City must overcome a potentially difficult match against Crystal Palace at home on Saturday. The team’s goal is to win a trophy that none of the players have ever managed and that the majority of them have never taken home. A trip to the hot-hands of Everton and a home game against Sheffield United round up the year.
While none of those matches will be simple, given City’s progress since last Thursday, they appear less difficult now than they were. The Blues get stronger with each victory, and the more the players rise to the occasion, the less likely it appears that there was much wrong in the first place.
