City Watch: The wait for a win goes on for Guardiola

I honestly thought that this week I’d be able to talk about how Manchester City’s winless streak had ended and the bounce back would begin now. However, two games against our so called bogey team, Tottenham Hotspur, and Feyenoord continue the misery for the Blues.

Let’s start with the Spurs game on Saturday. Despite the four losses previously, I was quietly confident going into the game. The team had just had two weeks with their countries during the international break, giving us time to get some players back from injury and the players a chance to reset in a way. Pep’s contract extension was sure to give the fans something to shout about, as well as Rodri’s Ballon d’Or presentation before the game, it had all the signs to end a win drought.

The first ten minutes of the game were very positive, with City looking confident in attack and more assured at the back. It was all downhill from there, however, as James Maddison scored two goals inside 20 minutes, giving Spurs a 2-0 lead going into the break. We’ve been two down to Tottenham at half time, most recently last season when we came back to win 4-2, so the Blues weren’t completely out of the game.

Just seven minutes into the second half though, former Blue, Pedro Porro, put the London side three goals to the good and killed any chance of a comeback. Just to compound the misery, substitute Brennan Johnson scored in injury time to give a full time score of 4-0, Pep’s joint heaviest defeat in his tenure.

After this catastrophe on the weekend, I went into the Feyenoord game thinking that surely City would end this awful drought with a win. Pep’s side were three goals up after 53 minutes, with a first win in five an inevitability. Our run of form and poor confidence would have something to say. Feyenoord were still three down going into the final 15, but in probably the worst capitulations I’ve seen from a City side, we ended up drawing the game 3-3.

Guardiola and his players have broken countless records during their time at the club, but against the Dutch side, we made history that we probably didn’t want to make by becoming the first team in Champions League history who failed to win after being three goals up going into the final 15 minutes. That stat really just sums up the confidence level at the moment.

I honestly thought this downfall was going to happen last season following the Treble. The drive the team showed last season was incredible, so burnout and general tiredness from being so successful for so long isn’t really a surprise I don’t think. That’s not to say that this can continue, however, I genuinely believe there’s a certain amount of overreaction to the state City are in.

That being said, with no win in six, the Blues travel to Anfield on Sunday for their match against Liverpool. Arne Slot has the Reds in great form and now eight points ahead at the top of the Premier League. This weekend’s game could prove to be vital if City are to have any chance of retaining the title for a fifth season on the bounce.