Aston Villa’s defeat knocked Manchester City out of the top three in the English Championship
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The next round of the English Championship made us talk about something that until recently seemed completely incredible – the crisis of Manchester City. The club, which had won the previous three championships and looked like a clear favorite in the current one, failed to achieve victory in the fourth match in a row. In the away match with Aston Villa, unlike the previous three, he failed to take at least a point. The Manchester team lost 0:1 with a completely toothless attack and found themselves outside the top three.
Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola, describing the feelings he had after the 15th round match against Aston Villa, did not use the word “crisis”, preferring softer definitions – like “difficult period”. But it was used without hesitation by experts who had the task of assessing the condition of Manchester residents, for example, former England defender Martin Keown. He, however, provided him, apparently out of caution, with the prefix “mini,” pointing out that he had not seen this team “so vulnerable” for a long time. But in general, by her standards, the crisis looks quite full-fledged and terribly acute.
In any case, until recently it was difficult to imagine that what is happening now, at the end of 2023, could happen to Manchester City, the flagship of not only English but also all continental football. It was hard to imagine that the series of his matches in the championship without a single victory could stretch so far – over four rounds, even taking into account the quality of the selection of opponents in this segment: first – the poor, but with an expensive bid, Chelsea, followed by the one striving for medals ” Liverpool”, followed by Tottenham, which is very interesting this season, and, finally, Aston Villa, which now, having become accustomed to the demands of coach Unai Emery, looks like a real giant. All the same – something incredible, given the margin of safety that Manchester City has always had, which allowed it to easily overcome and survive troubles.
But he at least drew with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham. Moreover, these were specific draws – productive (in total, in these three matches, the Manchester team hit the other team’s goal eight times), with the flavor of unrealized or missed chances. After them, it was quite normal to hear references to some momentary, “non-systemic” failures: loss of concentration at the end, excesses with the defenders’ enthusiasm for supporting the attack.
But the point of the clash with Aston Villa is that after it there was no room for such references. Manchester City suffered a narrow defeat, and a rebound helped Leon Bailey score the only goal of the match in the second half. And at the same time, the outcome of the meeting turned out to be absolutely logical. Or rather, Manchester City were lucky to lose this way.
This game is perfectly characterized by two numbers. Aston Villa had 22 shots on the opponent’s goal, that is, as many as if they were fighting an outsider, Manchester City had two. Two shots not on target, but simply towards them! Pep Guardiola worked in his coaching career with Barcelona and Bayern before joining the Manchester club in 2016. So, his teams have never shot at goal so rarely before. And the number of meetings they played, by the way, exceeds five hundred.
Many media resources, such as the BBC, naturally drew attention to the funny coincidence. In total, Manchester City have four losses in official matches this season. And in all of them there was no supporter Rodri, who did not perform in Birmingham due to disqualification. But here it was definitely not so much the weakness of the supporting zone, but the amazing toothlessness of the attack. Despite the fact that even without Kevin De Bruyne, who has been treating an injury for a long time, it is still great in terms of names, concentration of talent, or something: Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez, and Erling Haaland were on the field.
Although the weakness of the rear should worry Guardiola today no less than the strange breakdown of the attacking unit. Other figures insist on this. 17 goals – this is how many goals Manchester City have not conceded in the first 15 rounds of the championship since 2009. And in the championship 14 years ago, by the way, he finished only fifth and, in principle, at that time he was still only dreaming of the status of a football standard.
After the misfire in the match with Aston Villa, the Manchester team are already very close to this simply shameful position by their own modern standards. The Birmingham team kicked them out of the top three and infiltrated themselves into it, beating the favorite by two points. Even further are Arsenal and Liverpool, who won their away matches of the 15th round against Luton (4:3) and Sheffield United (2:0). The Liverpool team ran away from Manchester City by four points, the Londoners by as much as six. And this gap seems not so colossal, deadly, but one that insists that Guardiola urgently find the causes of the crisis, no matter “mini” or full-fledged, into which his team has found itself. Otherwise, there is a risk of falling hopelessly behind in the “golden race” without any reservations.
English Championship
15th round. Luton – Arsenal 3:4 (Osho 25; Adebayo 49; Barkley 57 – Martinelli 20; Jesus 45; Havertz 60; Rice 90+7). Sheffield United – Liverpool 0:2 (van Dijk, 37; Szoboszlai, 90+4). Manchester United – Chelsea 2:1 (McTominay 19, 69 – Palmer 45). Aston Villa 1-0 Manchester City (Bailey 74).
Team position. 1. Arsenal – 36 points. 2. Liverpool – 34. 3. Aston Villa – 32. 4. Manchester City – 30. 5. Tottenham – 27 (after 14 matches). 6. Manchester United – 27.
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