Manchester City Malaise Makes It Arsenal’s Title To Lose

As his Manchester City side slumped to a dismal 0-2 defeat to Southampton in the Carabao Cup manager Pep Guardiola was blunt.

“Today was not even close to what we are,” he told reporters, “we were not prepared to play in this competition to get to the semi-finals. We were not ready.

“The better team won. We didn’t play good, we didn’t play well in the beginning. There are many games you can start not good and overcome and we didn’t do it.”

Expanding on the side’s lack of readiness for the contest the Catalan added: ”When you are not prepared to play this game you arrive one inch late and don’t score a goal. When you are prepared you score the goal.”

The trouble for Manchester City against Southampton was not a matter of inches, the team struggled to generate any type of opportunity to threaten the opponent’s goal.

As the Daily Telegraph pointed out, the Citizens had more foul throws than shots on target and the Saints goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu was a spectator for the majority of the game.

This lack of potency came despite Guardiola calling on stars like Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne from the bench.

The coach was quick to highlight the fact that any repeat of this type of display would be catastrophic in the Manchester Derby this weekend versus Manchester United.

“If we perform in this way, we will not have a chance,” he said.

The positive spin on the loss was offered by club captain Ilkay Gundogan who suggested it was “something like a wake-up call at the right time.”

But regular viewers of Manchester City games this season could be forgiven for wondering why they were still asleep.

Should defeat at home to Brentford before the World Cup break not have been a shock to the system? Or the meek 1-1 draw against strugglers Everton in the previous home game?

Even the 0-1 win against Chelsea in the club’s last previous encounter came in a performance that was anything but stellar.

The broader trend suggests Manchester City is suffering an ailment common amongst teams who’ve been on top for a while; a malaise.

Advantage Arsenal?

As he gazed around the circular Etihad dressing room following another league title win at the end of last season, Guardiola saw a room of players with multiple medals that proved they could win, the question was did they have the hunger to keep it up?

Having secured four out of the previous five Premier League titles, Guardiola decided, no, he needed to shake up his squad.

Serial winners Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and Oleksander Zinchenko were shipped out for big money to Premier League rivals Arsenal and Chelsea.

He acknowledge this exodus was out of sync with the club’s regular methods.

“The market was strange for us. Normally we are a team that buys and didn’t sell much. This summer for different reasons, we sell some players,” he explained.

“Sometimes you want to do it but you can’t. This summer it happened so quick. not just first-team players – academy and loan players. New players have come and we continue with them.”

Guardiola is a man obsessed with the dangers of complacency several times a season he warns he will seek to eradicate any such evidence of this attitude.

“As much as we win and get results, we have to demand and be over the players and say we can do better,” he said during the title run last season.

“The moment when I feel that everyone is thinking the job is done, or how good it is, this guy is not going to play.”

It was telling therefore in the last few weeks Guardiola has raised the issue of body language on multiple occasions.

“You cannot play good when the body language is not correct. Sometimes I pick them for the body language, for how happy they look and how they are there. This is one of my main decisions when I choose the line-up,” he explained after the disappointing result against Everton.

“With the skills, I know how good they are, and they know what we want to do. But the body language depends on them and sometimes they are not good.”

It was the closest you’d get to the Manchester City coach acknowledging an issue with attitude in his camp and must have been music to the ears of the club’s title rivals Arsenal.

Over at the Emirates, the atmosphere is very different, when it comes to body language you would struggle to find anything negative.

No home comfort

City’s struggles this season have tellingly not been against the strongest teams in the league, most of its disappointing results have come in games the team would be expected to win comfortably. Dropped points against Aston Villa, Everton and Brentford are evidence of that.

Even in games where the team has come away with the points there have been lapses that on another day could have cost them. They handed Crystal Palace a 0-2 advantage before recovering to earn a 4-2 result and it took a stoppage-time winner to overcome Fulham.

Both of those games were at the Etihad stadium as were the disappointments vs Everton and Brentford. As City will know better than most, patchy home form does not deliver a title.

Arguably the marginal gains home advantage provides should result in the best sides, like City, rarely faltering on their own turf.

The fact City has already dropped so many points in its stadium and performed below par on other occasions is an indication something is off psychologically.

Unlike other teams in the division, such as Liverpool, there have been no major injury concerns to point to. In most games at the Etihad Guardiola has had a full roster to choose from.

Of course, all this should be tempered by the fact in many of those four triumphs in the past five years questions have been asked of Guardiola’s team and when the time has come they have often embarked on impressive winning runs.

They’ll need another one to challenge for this year’s Premier League crown.