With a narrow 1-0 victory over Brentford, Manchester City continued their charge towards their eighth Premier League title and sixth under Pep Guardiola. However, it was not all plain sailing for the Cityzens. Brentford frustrated Guardiola’s charges for 70 minutes and it took an unfortunate slip by Kristoffer Ajer to allow Erling Haaland to break free and score the winner. Brentford will rue some good chances, especially Frank Onyeka’s one-on-one chance with Ederson. But at the final whistle, pundits were quick to praise City’s grit and determination and ability to find a solution.
No Need for Panic
Guardiola’s men have been used to strangling the life out of teams with lengthy spells of possession before the undoubted quality of the players in the City team inevitably finds the right movement, pass and finish. While possession statistics are still well in their favour, a worrying trend for users backing Manchester City as favourites for the Premier League on bettors.ng is that Guardiola’s team have recently been falling behind in matches. With Liverpool and Arsenal scoring goals for fun and blowing teams away, many might dismiss City’s chances.
However, looking at the overall picture, there is no need to panic. Despite the lack of clean sheets, Manchester City are unbeaten in 16 matches in all competitions. City are also still in the FA Cup, have a first leg lead over FC Copenhagen in the Champions League and are very much in the mix at the top of the Premier League.
Braver Opposition
The current Premier League season has been one of the most entertaining to date with 3.16 goals per game averaged after just 14 matchdays. That trend has continued. There is one reason that pinpoints why more goals are being scored and why Manchester City find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being behind more often; managers are setting their teams up to carry more attacking threat.
Whether this is on the counterattack or through passing patterns, managers are focusing a lot more effort on trying to score more goals. We are therefore seeing teams who could traditionally “park the bus” like Brentford and Everton showing more attacking intent, which explains how both have managed to take the lead against Manchester City in recent matches.
Patience really is a virtue
Despite this change in tactical focus from opponents, Guardiola’s men still stick to their guns and carry out the game plans. This season however, they have just required slightly more patience before they can make the meaningful breakthrough. They just need to have more of that until the end of the season.
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