Manchester City: Navigating a Challenging Season with Resilience
WEMBLEY, England — In the world of football, success is often measured by the number of trophies in the cabinet. For Manchester City, a club accustomed to winning, this season has been a tough pill to swallow. When you compare it to their title-winning campaigns and the historic treble in 2023, it’s clear why no one at the club is ready to label this season a success just yet.
However, even in a challenging year, City is finding ways to extract positives. Currently sitting fourth in the Premier League table, they have four games left to secure Champions League qualification for next season. After a 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest at Wembley on Sunday, there’s still a chance to add a trophy to their collection when they face Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final next month.
It’s a reminder that even the so-called “big six” in the Premier League aren’t immune to bad seasons. Yet, while clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Tottenham have experienced truly miserable campaigns, City’s worst effort could still end with two key targets secured.
The point is that Pep Guardiola and his players don’t even do bad seasons like everybody else. “I said many times this season has not been good because we define it on the Premier League and we have always had consistency but this season it could not happen,” said Guardiola. “We tried to halt the damage, especially with qualification for the Champions League.”
Guardiola’s candidness is refreshing. “This season has not been good. We are a thousand million points behind Liverpool. It’s not good. We have not been good but the damage will be minor. [Winning the FA Cup] is not going to confuse that the season has been good. The club has to take the right decisions so next season will be better.”
Looking at the teamsheet at Wembley, the challenges Guardiola has faced this season become apparent. Of the XI that took on Chelsea in last year’s FA Cup semifinal, only three started against Forest. Kyle Walker and Julián Álvarez have left. John Stones, Nathan Aké, and Rodri are all injured. Manuel Akanji is still recovering from a long lay-off while Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne have struggled to find consistent form.
Among others picked in their place, Guardiola chose two midfielders — Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly — at full-back and a full-back — Rico Lewis — in midfield.
Forest, with Ryan Yates, Neco Williams, and Ola Aina all absent, have their issues too, and it meant 18-year-old defender Zach Abbott was handed just his second appearance. But it was City who better managed their problems, and it will be Guardiola rather than Nuno Espirito Santo who is back at Wembley to face Palace in May.
The City boss played his part from the touchline. With Omar Marmoush and Savinho operating as split strikers, he was able to pack the midfield with a box of Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, and Lewis. It pressed the life out of Forest, who barely created anything during a first half which City dominated.
- City scored early in both halves — first Lewis and then Josko Gvardiol.
- Morgan Gibbs-White hit the crossbar and the post, but Forest never really looked likely winners.
- City have been to Wembley 28 times since it was revamped in 2007.
The control that Guardiola craves is slowly coming back. “Our process was a little bit better,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be an open game. It helped us in the first minutes to score a goal. We continued to play at that tempo, they had chances with the posts and we had three or four transitions that we should have done but I think the game in general was really good.”
“I want to say thank you to our fans, I know how difficult it is to come here with work tomorrow, the tickets and the travel. I can’t thank them enough and hopefully they will join us and see us in the final.”
When Liverpool had a difficult season under Jurgen Klopp in 2022-23, they finished fifth in the league, dropped into the Europa League, and were knocked out of the FA Cup in the fourth round. Chelsea finished 12th the same year and didn’t make it past the third round in either domestic cup competition.
Arsenal finished outside the Champions League places as recently as 2022 and haven’t won a trophy since 2020. The less said about Manchester United and Tottenham the better with the pair currently sitting 14th and 16th in the Premier League table.
Whatever happens in these final few weeks, there will be no wild City celebrations or open-top bus parades through Manchester. Guardiola has been clear about that. But as the run-in approaches, there is still something to fight for. And with Champions League qualification in sight and a third straight FA Cup final to come, there could yet be something to smile about this season.
Originally Written by: Rob Dawson
