“Manchester City don’t give you the twists,” said Gary Neville during last season’s Premier League title run-in. “You always said in the years gone by that there will be a twist and a turn, that something happens. I’m not sure it is going to happen.”
Neville might have been proved right then as Pep Guardiola’s side held off the threat of Arsenal and claimed a record fourth successive title by winning their final nine games. But right now City are not just twisting, they have fallen flat on their faces.
For just the third time in the Guardiola era, they have lost three games in a row in all competitions, going out to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup before being well beaten by Bournemouth and then destroyed by Ruben Amorim’s Sporting CP. And next up is the trickiest of trips to Brighton, who offer a serious threat of City suffering a fourth consecutive defeat for the first time ever under Guardiola.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Catalan faces the toughest challenge of his glorious spell in charge at the Etihad Stadium. And how he navigates it will affect the destination of the Premier League title, as well as impacting whether or not this will be his last campaign with the club.