Pep Guardiola is in the midst of the longest losing run of his managerial career, with Manchester City suffering a fifth straight defeat in all competitions on Saturday, November 23, 2024, as they were thrashed 4-0 by Tottenham Hotspur.
It was City’s heaviest home defeat since 2003 and the first time they have lost five games in a row since 2006, before Sheikh Mansour took over the ownership of the club. Guardiola has never previously lost five successive games in his entire managerial career.
The Spaniard admitted that as eras come to an end, his and Manchester City’s dominance of European football is coming to an end, though it has been short-lived, for less than a decade.
“In eight years we never lived this. I knew sooner or later we would drop; I never expected to lose three Premier League games in a row, but we have been incredibly consistent again and again,” Guardiola said.
City’s crisis goes beyond football as the Manchester club is still battling 115 charges for allegedly breaching the Premier League financial rules by failing to provide accurate financial information over a nine-year period starting in 2009 until 2018.
The situation has also excited the rival fans, accusing the club’s management of using oil money from Arabs to influence global football and mocking the club about its unsuccessful history.
“This is the Manchester City we grew up watching before the Arab money spoiled the beautiful game (football),” Bogomailula posted on X.
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The citizens’ winning crisis leaves them eight points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, following their 3-2 win at Southampton on Sunday, November 24, 2024.
City has now conceded 14 goals in their past five games, and it would have been worse if Ederson had not made three good saves. In six home league games so far this season, City have conceded the first goal in four.
It’s too early to write off Guardiola’s team in a title race that hasn’t even started, but the Catalan coach is now further into unfamiliar territory and not promising to improve soon as his key players, including fellow Spaniard Rodri, who recently won the Ballon Dór, kept on the sidelines due to injuries.
