What a weekend for Manchester City.
For one Premier League title rival to lose their first game since February was an enormous boost, and for the other – hours later – to lose their first since December was unbelievable. Pep Guardiola’s side have never given up in the fight to defend their crown and with six games to go the race is in their hands for the first time since November.
Chickens are still forbidden from being counted inside the Etihad but momentum and control is now firmly with the Blues. For all their genuine struggles this season, recent results from Arsenal and Liverpool have shown that City’s shortfalls may not be as bad as first expected.
It feels lot longer than a fortnight ago that Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side left the Etihad happy with a point. The result allowed Liverpool to top the table but Arteta could be pleased with the progress made from a more cautious approach that had seen them take three more points than the champions had managed from their two meetings and kept them ahead in the table with nine to go.
For City, their wait to beat a team in the top five would only be broken days later against Aston Villa, and their failure to get the better of their rivals has been uncharacteristic in a Guardiola side that has previously used those games to build their advantage – exactly as they did against Arsenal home and away last season. The 0-0 stalemate also marked the first time they hadn’t scored at home in the league since October 2021, and with defensive injuries piling up at the back and Erling Haaland’s play described as almost League Two standard, there were issues all over the pitch.
Two weeks on and if Arsenal had been bold enough to commit more to winning at the Etihad, their defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday would still have seen them on top of the table. City have beaten two teams in April – Villa and Crystal Palace – that their rivals have lost to, proving there is more than one way to get ahead that isn’t reliant on your record against the very best teams.
Those victories against Villa and Palace were all the sweeter for Guardiola because of the tight turnaround necessitated by City’s ongoing involvement in three competitions. Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were left out of the team on the Wednesday night and then Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and others were on the Saturday at Selhurst ahead of the Champions League away game at Real Madrid days later.
City had already made do without De Bruyne for five months and Haaland for two due to injuries, and were rocked in March by injuries to Kyle Walker, John Stones, Ederson, and Nathan Ake. The schedule may yet be too tough for City to get over the line, with potentially 12 games to pack into 46 days.
Winning gives energy though, and the wheels appear to have come off for Liverpool one by one in their pursuit of four trophies. A poor result at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in mid-March was followed by another one in the league last week, then a horror show in the Europa League at Anfield and more disappointment against Palace.
It is unfortunate for Liverpool to be tailing off as their injury situation improves after battling so hard through a difficult spell – City should be disappointed they couldn’t win at Anfield last month given the respective lineups – but does show how important momentum can be at this stage of the season. “We all, players and me included, expected a reaction [to Atalanta] and we saw in the reaction that we lost in that game more than the game itself, so it didn’t help,” said Jurgen Klopp on Sunday.
City still have to travel to Tottenham in the league and their exertions in the FA Cup and Champions League will not allow for rest for the run-in; the traps are still there waiting, as they have been all season. However, as Guardiola sizes up the issues he has seen over the weekend they may not need to be resolved if City can find another way to victory.
