Day 16: Manchester City

With less than a week until Christmas, we are now reaching the top spots in the Premier League. Today, we are looking at Manchester City’s season so far as we continue our Premier League Christmas Countdown.

It’s a bold prediction to say that I think that Manchester City will finish outside the top four, but this season, despite starting well, has been awful for the Premier League champions. They are currently in fifth in the league and have lost five games this season. That’s the same as Bournemouth and Aston Villa.

Starting Like Champions

Manchester City started like they usually do, winning games with ease in August. Their first match was a stern test against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but they won 2-0 with a obligatory Erling Haaland goal. Ipswich were next, and they even managed to score the first goal in the game, but City quickly responded and ended up winning 4-1, with a Haaland hattrick.

What a turnaround for Man City as they now lead 3-1 against Ipswich 🤯

⚽️ 12’ Haaland
⚽️ 14’ De Bruyne
⚽️ 16’ Haaland#TheKickOff | #MCIIPS pic.twitter.com/CJWwxiv9mT

— Premier League (@premierleague) August 24, 2024

Haaland managed to score another hattrick in their next game, in a visit to the London Stadium. West Ham struggled to get a foothold into the game, but did have a few chances. The game ended 3-1 and helped Manchester City maintain their perfect start to the season. Brentford, who had also started well, visited the Etihad next. They scored in the first minute but once again, Haaland came to City’s rescue, scoring twice.

Cracks Begin To Show

City then faced Arsenal at home, and despite having a man advantage for the entire second half, could only manage a draw against who many saw as their main rivals for the title this season. Their last Premier League game of September was another draw, this time 1-1 against Newcastle.

October was quite a good month for City, but there were some cracks beginning to show, as they weren’t as dominant in games as we have known them to be. They played Fulham, Wolves and Southampton and in each of the games, only won by a single goal.

Title Gone

At this point, Manchester City had an unbeaten run in the Premier League that stretched back 32 games. Bournemouth were their next opponents and despite them having beaten Arsenal in recent weeks, they had never beaten Manchester City, so most were predicting a routine City win. The result however marked the start of Manchester City’s decline. They were beaten 2-1, but it could have been by more, as Bournemouth missed a lot of chances.

Bournemouth beat Man City for the first time ever in the Premier League 🤯 pic.twitter.com/SBg4Rwryr3

— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 2, 2024

Following this was a 2-1 defeat to Brighton after two late goals from the Seagulls, and a 4-0 home thrashing to Tottenham. It wasn’t just that these teams were playing excellent football against City, but also that the champions looked really poor.

The definitive game in the title race came next, as Liverpool, who had still lost just once all season, hosted City at Anfield and beat them 2-0 thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah. Not only were City defensively open, but Haaland’s goals had dried up.

Manchester is Red

City did have a very slight resurgence, beating highflying Nottingham Forest 3-0 at home, but that was followed up in the Premier League by a poor 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park, with Crystal Palace taking the lead twice in that game.

Erling Haaland. Goal number 1️⃣3️⃣ for the season.

His towering header levels the scoreline against Crystal Palace!#CRYMCI pic.twitter.com/GHt49DHvVy

— Premier League (@premierleague) December 7, 2024

Their most recent match was another disaster, as they lost to Manchester United at home, despite having the lead for much of the game. Amad Diallo stood out in that game as really the only player with any quality as he won the penalty that levelled the game before scoring the winner. City have Aston Villa, Everton and Leicester before the halfway point of the season, and they’ll be wanting to be in the top four at the very least.

Player of the Season

It’s hard to choose a player as the ‘player of the season’ for a team that has been so out of form like Manchester City has. Savinho has looked good when he has been given a chance and not been injured, but his final product has let him down. Similarly, Haaland has been very good at times this season, especially towards the beginning, but when he doesn’t score, he doesn’t offer much else. If I could give it to Rodri, I would as this demonstrates his importance to the team.

Season Rank: F

End of Season Prediction: 5th

Check out our Christmas Countdown article from yesterday.