2 hours ago
3
Manchester City have won four away games in a month for just the eighth time under Pep Guardiola and have another testing January
We still do not know how the class of 2025/26 will be judged among the many teams that Pep Guardiola has put out in his ten years at the Etihad. With six months to go in their current campaign, there is plenty of promise without there being guarantees of silverware.
One thing that can be said already though is that December 2025 can go down as one of the most impressive months in the 95 that Guardiola has overseen so far. it isn't just about the progress that the Blues have made in the Premier League and Champions League, but about where the results have come.
Winning at Fulham, Real Madrid, Crystal Palace, and Nottingham Forest in the same month is some achievement. Craven Cottage is hardly the most intimidating but is a lot of travel for a midweek match, and the other three have all given City plenty of trouble over the last few years.
Guardiola may not have been delighted with the manner of the victories - he is still looking for consistency across 90 minutes and for his young team to show their identity at all times - but picking up wins from such grounds will only serve his players well as they learn on the job. Once you have won in the Bernabeu, there can be few grounds left that can intimidate you and Forest was a particularly big win as well given City lost there limply nine months ago.
City have emphatically answered the questions that rightly lingered about their away form this season. Three of their four league defeats - against Brighton, Villa and Newcastle - have come on their travels and they also dropped points at Monaco in the Champions League after a poor second half when they should have secured a victory; Erling Haaland fumed as he stormed down the tunnel at full-time.
Those concerns have disappeared after a month that has statistically been one of the best ever on the road for City. You have to go back to the beginning of the 2024/25 season for the last time City had a 100 per cent record away from home in a month and even further back, nearly two years to February 2024, for the last time they won four.
That was the team that were on their way to a fourth consecutive Premier League title and FA Cup Final, and before that the last time it happened was December 2021. City never won four away games in a month during their Treble season, for example.
Some of that is the logistics of the calendar that means there aren't four away games in every month and once it hits April and May if City are still in the FA Cup then they are playing at a neutral venue. However, it is still striking how good their December has been to pick up so many good results from tough places to go.
That has shifted the emphasis ahead of another tough month where City once again have four away games. They travel to Sunderland on New Year's Day - who are unbeaten at home in the Premier League this season - and then head to Newcastle for the first leg of their league cup semi-final knowing they lost there recently and have not won there for two years.
A few days later, they have the Manchester derby and then travel to Bodo as they look to secure a top-eight finish in the first part of the Champions League. City have done very well at Old Trafford in recent years but there is always tension for a derby and then a plastic pitch in the Arctic Circle does not sound a doddle.
City can head into these games with greater confidence and attack though after the December they have had. However much the home teams look to unsettle them, Guardiola's growing side have shown that they are capable of getting results wherever they go and will be seeing the game in the north-east to start the year as an opportunity to really put a marker down for what they want to achieve in 2026.
English (US) ·