Manchester City’s Season Could Depend on Pep Guardiola’s First Christmas Period

Heading into the festive period seven points off leaders Chelsea won’t have been what Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will have been aiming for after the fantastic start his side made to the season.

After 10 games in all competitions, City were unbeaten—having won all of their fixtures to that point. Premature judgements were being made by many, of course, because such a fine opening to a new campaign was always going to attract attention, especially after the club had spent so long courting the manager they’d just hired.

But after the 11th match—a 3-3 draw with Celtic in the Champions League—City’s performances seemed to dip in consistency. For the weeks before, they’d been fairly solid at the back and had been scoring chances for fun. In the weeks after, they were making fundamental defensive errors and couldn’t hit the target if their lives depended on it.

After six games, Chelsea were eight points adrift of Guardiola’s team. In the 11 games since, they’ve picked up the maximum of 33 points—compared to City’s 18. It means the Stamford Bridge side will be top on Christmas Day, a position from which they’ve never not won the Premier League.

That doesn’t mean City are out of it, of course, though it does go to show how important this year’s festive period could be compared to those of years gone by.

Manuel Pellegrini’s Premier League title win came off the back of a fantastic winter run. In fact, between November 24, 2013 and January 29, 2014, City won 18 of their 20 matches across all competitions. The other two were draws.

The team that was ninth at the beginning of that run, nine points off leaders Arsenal, were second—and two points off the top—by the time they next lost. While City’s title that season came down to their ability to deal with the pressure at the end of the campaign and to Liverpool’s slip-ups against Chelsea and Crystal Palace, the groundwork for the championship was laid through the winter.

It’s the only time in recent years that the club has had a perfect Christmas period, too.

The festive run began at Fulham. The eventual 4-2 victory will be remembered by the majority of City fans for perhaps the most comical of own goals the club has seen since Jamie Pollock flicked the ball up and nodded it over Martyn Margetson to help relegate his own team in 1998—something that wasn’t funny at the time, but given how things have turned out for City, it’s something that has become easier to laugh at down the years.

Quite how Vincent Kompany was able to find the back of his own net when a low ball was played into the City area is a mystery. He was facing the other way and was on the edge of the six-yard box—but a swipe with his left foot …

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