Hope for Arsenal and Liverpool: 10 reasons why Manchester City could still lose points

It seems unlikely that North Londoner TS Eliot was an Arsenal fan, but his poetry suggests otherwise.

“April is the cruelest month,” The Waste Land begins. “I have cried and fasted, cried and prayed,” laments J. Alfred Prufrock’s The Love Song. “This is how the challenge ends; not with a bang but with a whimper,” was probably the first draft of The Hollow Men.

Sunday was a disappointing day not only for Arsenal and Liverpool fans, but also for neutrals who wanted the three-way title battle to continue. Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat against Crystal Palace and Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat against Villa leave Manchester City two points clear at the top of the league and, as leaders, Pep Guardiola’s team is almost infallible.

“I already knew everything, I knew everything,” Eliot complains. But cheer up, Tommy. There’s still hope.

Here are 10 completely realistic reasons why City could still drop points.

This is a serious article, so let’s get serious. Can a team win the triplet twice in a row? With injuries mounting, games trebling and emotions running deeper, can City wake up once again?

There’s a reason why a triple (or double, for that matter) is so rare. Playing in multiple competitions. does It has an impact. When the margins are so tight, fatigue levels, tactical planning and mental freshness are even more crucial.

When cup competitions are direct knockouts, league matches against lower-ranked opponents are naturally the games that can lose focus. City host Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday, play Chelsea in the FA Cup three days later, before traveling to Brighton five days later.

Guardiola has already said that City are in “big problems” with fatigue and injuries. So surely that is cause for hope for Liverpool and Arsenal?

Manchester City could use a bigger trophy room (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

the spurs

He won two, lost five. Has Guardiola ever had such a bad record? Face Lionel Messi in the crossbar challenge? Credit card roulette in Manchester’s best restaurants? Uno family games?

City have always had problems with Spurs. Their Premier League record in north London is worse than any other fixture. Yes, they may have beaten them in the FA Cup this January, but that record doesn’t include their Champions League quarter-final defeat in 2019.

The mind of every manager has a dark room where he keeps his worst defeats. Guardiola’s contains a brewery in Beavertown and a retractable NFL field.

Tottenham may have been overwhelmed by Newcastle, but their two meetings with City this season have been close. They still have to chase the Champions League and will not back down.

Guardiola tends to be stunned by league trips to Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Is 30 goals in 37 games really a bad season? Since when did that make you, as Roy Keane suggested, a League Two player? Anyway.

If Haaland fails to score for the rest of the season, maybe so There is a conversation to have. For now, City’s rivals simply have to hope for the best.

Pep complicates it too much

“I always think too much,” Guardiola said in 2022. “I always create new tactics and ideas, and tomorrow you will see a new one. I think a lot, that’s why I have very good results. I love it.”

“If it works, I am brave; If it doesn’t work, then I’m thinking too much,” she added a year later. So go ahead, be brave.

When you already play with four centre-backs, why stop there?

He plays with a back four made up of Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol. John Stones is practically a central midfielder now. Plonk Kyle Walker (yes, he can count as a center back) on the right wing.

The rest of them? Remember Southampton’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis and put him front and center in the role of Andy Carroll. At 196cm (6ft 5in), Finley Burns should be decent in the nets. Luke Mbete can return from Den Bosch and use his left foot from the left wing. Max Alleyne, 18, has been on the bench this season. Fancy joining Stones in the double pivot? There is already talk of the technical quality of Stephen Mfuni, 16 years old. Place it at number 10.

Guardiola believes in total football. They’ll be fine. When you’ve won it all, the only way left to win is… to win better.

Forest’s new investment finally turns out well

Imagine the scenario: Nottingham Forest are fighting to survive in the Premier League and keep City at bay. In the 71st minute, Phil Foden finally put them ahead. With 88 minutes elapsed, Chris Wood gets Forest back into the game. Hullabaloo.

But before the cheers die down, the whistle blows. VAR review. Suspected foul in the area. The referee walks towards the monitor. The City Ground has seen this story before. But then he sees something in the crowd and walks away.

In the middle of the celebration, the followers stop for a moment. Why did the referee change his mind? They look for an answer and find it.

It is a bird? It is a plane? No, it’s Mark Clattenburg.

This superhero doesn’t have a cape, but Forest’s referee advisor has the rules in front of him and justice on his back. Gotham City is safe from PGMOL. The Premier League table is level again.

This is Clattenburg’s moment (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

Rodri’s break becomes a sabbatical year

Rodri said he needs a break, but remember this is a player who lives the lifestyle of a college student. He lived in a student residence. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He drove a second-hand Opel Corsa. He’s just one step away from selling you a £2 ticket to Tuesday club nights at Pryzm.

“Spending time with young people just like you,” he told Manchester City’s website when asked why he considered university the best time of his life. “Study and go out sometimes. “It was good… a great moment.”

But in recent months, with the intensity of the campaign (he has played 3,498 minutes for City in all competitions this season), some of this purity must have disappeared.

“I need a rest,” he told reporters after City’s 3-3 draw with Real Madrid, with the dazed air of anyone attending a 9am conference with a hangover.

A week is a short break, of course. But why not take three months? Why not find yourself? You’re only twenty-something once. British Airways offers student discounts on flights. There is a world to discover.

Rodri is exhausted and needs a sabbatical (Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)

“Jarrod, maaaaatehow are you doing cousin?

“Hook? Bobo? Bobo? Moyesy?”

“Kalvin… how are the new digs? Passport renewed?

Declan Rice’s phone bill has never been higher.

City hosts West Ham on the final day. When he starts, there’s little else Rice can do except mind his own business. The real work, therefore, begins earlier. West Ham have nothing to play for; It’s time for that to change. All negotiating cards are on the table.

He has sold his car to Lucas Paquetá. He is willing to retire from the England team in favor of Phillips. David Sullivan has been promised his firstborn. West Ham victory.

Roberto De Zerbi’s job interview to remember

This season has faded slightly for Brighton & Hove Albion, who sit 10th in the league and are winless in four. Roberto De Zerbi, however, has been one of the most impressive coaches of the last 18 months. Arguably, only Guardiola surpasses De Zerbi in pure, crazy tactical improvisation.

In summer, the big jobs are open. Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona.

The Athletic It could have been reported on Saturday that Brighton are increasingly confident in De Zerbi’s stay, but that comes against a backdrop of talks over a new contract being on the back burner and the manager making no public commitment about his future.

Showing rather than telling is the first rule of job interviews, and De Zerbi has the opportunity to show his tactical acumen by mocking Guardiola.

City are initially confronted by Brighton’s pioneering use of an overlapping sweeper and a pressing pattern based on the Fibonacci sequence, but are baffled by the inspired introduction of Jason Steele as an inverted trequartista.

You can’t outsmart De Zerbi (Mike Morese/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Gary O’Neil’s luck changes

Gary O’Neil seems an unlikely contender to be on MTV’s Welcome To My Crib, but let’s imagine for a moment he opens the doors to his mansion in Wolverhampton.

The doormat is a four-leaf clover. Upon entering, seven lucky cats greet you. Rabbit legs hang from the kitchen rafters. Mirrors are banned, O’Neil tells you, demonstrating how he brushes his teeth in the reflection of the bathroom window.

There is an almost overwhelming smell of incense.

No team has been more unlucky than the Wolves this season. O’Neil has proven reason, he has proven rationalization. He has tried to avoid stairs. All that’s left is faith… and Nathan Fraser.

Foden hits the bar. Jeremy Doku trips over his shoelaces. A wild swing from Max Kilman deflects off Hwang Hee-chan’s butt. Molineux explodes.

City’s 115 charges come to sudden conclusion

The metaphorical hammer falls. White smoke emanates from the roof of the Premier League headquarters. It was thought that this day would be months away, but a decision has been made.

City face 115 charges of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules in nine different seasons. If they are found guilty of at least some of them, the point deduction is a realistic outcome.

Of course, City will say this is impossible, the most ridiculous suggestion on this list. After all, they vehemently deny the charges and are working hard to prove their innocence.