11 hours ago
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Manchester City are looking for confidence after back-to-back defeats and their Under-19s team found a way through that this week
Tuesday's defeat to Leverkusen raised a number of red flags for Manchester City. There's the fact that it raises their chances of a play-off, meaning two extra games and added uncertainty over whether they will make the knockout phase. It is also the first time they have lost consecutive matches since August.
It looked like Pep Guardiola and his players had got their house in order after that, with a thumping 3-0 win over Liverpool before the November international break crowning a stellar two months that had raised expectations that this side could challenge on all fronts. Suddenly, that win over the Premier League champions feels a long way away.
So is the end of this campaign, which is why it is too early to make any definitive judgments. The Leverkusen defeat is probably on a par with the Carabao Cup exit to Southampton a few years ago in terms of every single player on the pitch simply not turning up as they should have done, yet it was only a few months after that when the Blues were unrecognisable and unrivalled as they won the Treble.
Nonetheless, City are not playing in a vacuum and other teams will add to the pressure around them. Real Madrid away is the toughest Champions League fixture Guardiola could ask for next in that competition, while Arsenal took advantage of City's defeat to Newcastle to move seven points clear of them in the Premier League table.
Put simply, that lead cannot be allowed to stretch much further. As City showed in the two seasons out of the last eight where they did not win the title, once the gap nears or hits double figures it is very difficult psychologically to keep chasing; hunting is only fun if you feel you have a chance of catching your target.
Two defeats in a matter of days involving 21 starters has delivered a considerable blow across the squad and they now need to pick themselves up again. Three points against Leeds on Saturday would be an excellent start, but the academy showed on Tuesday how to transform a feeling.
Nerves had been building at the City Football Academy after victories from the opening two matches of the UEFA Youth League had been followed by two defeats. With just matches against Leverkusen and Real Madrid left to confirm a top-22 spot in the table, City were in 20th as they struggled to break down their dogged German opponents in the first half on Tuesday.
However, they stayed patient and an early goal in the second half opened the floodgates for an astonishing 6-0 win. Reigan Heskey scored on his return from the Under-17 World Cup and Divine Mukasa got a hat-trick as City feasted to jump up the table.
A top-six finish is likely beyond them but they are now almost certainly qualified for the next phase. More than that, the nature of the scoreline reinforced belief that had been wavering across the squad that they are good enough to go far in this competition, one that the club are desperate to succeed in.
It is of course far easier said than done to go and ask Guardiola and his players to thrash an opponents, but that will be more straightforward and quicker than the kind of steady run they built up between September and November if they want to remind Arsenal that they are still a force to be reckoned with.
A statement win in the next few weeks - be it a storm of goals or a marker at the Bernabeu - feels like the marker City need if they are to get the feeling back that they had about being a contender this season.
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