Derby defeat for City

It was another disappointing day for The Citizens as they slumped to a 4th defeat out of 5 in the Barclays Premier League. But the real sting is that it was at hands of their nearest and dearest. Manchester City have struggled all season against the tops sides and a shift in pattern was non existent at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon. Manchester City were beaten 1-0 by one of the poorest United teams I have seen in a long time. But I suppose it is only correct to say that this is also one of the poorest City teams I have seen in a while also.

A Marcus Rashford goal sealed a derby victory for United and they now go a point within City who somehow still lie in 4th position. The Blues had a golden opportunity to put some distance between them and United and a win would have seen them go 7 clear and would have certainly taken the pressure off Pellegrini and his men.

But as it has gone the other way we must now ask ourselves, do Manchester City have what it takes to finish in the top 4? There was more than 1 pundit who believed City may not even finish in the top 4 this season but after starting the season with 5 wins out of 5 with 5 clean sheets, City laughed off that criticism and have done so for much of the season. But here we are with 8 games to go and with the run that we are on (with 1 win in our last 6 Premier League fixtures), Manchester City are cruising for a finish somewhere possibly lower than 6th position. People keep on referring to the news that Guardiola coming in has affected the players and manager alike. But City had been playing quite poorly long before that news was announced with us still having failed to register two wins in a row since October!

That physicality we used to possess with Lescott alongside Kompany. Zabaleta in his prime, Gareth Barry running the midfield with a much younger Yaya Toure, has gone. It is something that needs addressing in the summer and with Pep coming in, there is no doubt it has probably already been addressed!

But Manchester City will no doubt fight to the end, now is the time to move forward and realise that with all this negativity and bad form City have experienced lately, The Blues somehow still sit in 4th spot with some winnable games approaching fast. We must also not forget the two great cup ties against PSG coming up. Two more big nights in Europe for City than they had before.

This International break has come at a brilliant time, time to get away from it all, reassess and come back ready to fight for Champions League football. We still have a good chance of finishing third and given how this season of all seasons has been twisting and turning, we may very well do just that. It will be a tough end to the season for Manchester City, but in football things can change very quickly and we could still yet finish on a high. Of course, this all the depends on if they can turn things around and pick up the form that we had shown earlier in the season.

Image Credit: Catatan Bola (Flickr)