Manchester City have been called the “greatest team in the world. But lately, their dominance has waned a bit.
Last season, City won the English Premier League (EPL), the FA Cup, and the UEFA Champions League (UCL), completing the ‘triple’. It was a declaration of the “City era.
This season, they’re looking for a fourth straight EPL title and are one of the favorites to win the UCL. There was even some excitement that they could win the treble for the second season in a row.
But lately, the mood hasn’t been good. Even the strongest teams have their moments. City have recently gone four EPL matches without a win. After drawing with Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham, they suffered a shocking 0-1 loss to Aston Villa. City dropped to fourth place in the league.
Many pundits were quick to criticize, calling it City’s biggest crisis yet, with some making the shocking assessment that “City is finished.” A humiliating situation for the greatest team in the world.
However, City has turned things around. They won 2-1 against Luton Town in the EPL Round of 16 on Tuesday. They went down a goal to Elijah Adebayor, but Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva scored back-to-back goals to come from behind and win the game.
But even after the upset, the assessment of the top team was sobering. It was a narrow victory over promoted Luton Town, an 18th-place underdog. The victory didn’t stop the speculation of a City crisis.
City manager Pep Guardiola spoke out. “The City players are tremendous players, City is a great team, and for them to be competitive, they are proving again the demands around them,” he said after the win over Luton Town.
Guardiola added: “City players don’t need to prove to me what they can do. “It’s normal to be judged and reacted to, ‘It’s not like Man City, Man City is finished’. It’s normal. City players have to prove that wrong. To those who say that, prove them wrong. We have to keep competing, I want to be there, and that’s what we need now,” he emphasized.
Guardiola added: “We don’t have to feel sorry for ourselves. This is football. This happens often. What we have to do is demand more from ourselves. The forwards have to be more aggressive and score more goals. When we win big, when we go on a winning streak, it doesn’t define where we really are in this situation.”