After Arsenal knocked Manchester City out of the 2020 FA Cup in the last four, this summarises how bad the season of the Citizens has gone under Pep Guardiola.
Although they started the week with a favorable judgment from the Court of Arbitration which reversed their two years ban from the Champions League, it went bad on Wednesday against relegation-threatened Bournemouth as Manchester City weren’t as fluid and clinical against the Cherries as expected, although they got a 2-1 win.
It got worse against a dogged Arsenal team that has nothing to lose because all bookmakers had already gone for City, which has beaten Arsenal in all their meeting the season. They were convinced because City had scored 22 goals against Arsenal two in their last seven meetings.
Keynotes
- Man City has won only the Carabao Cup and the Charity Shield this season. They have won it for seven times (1969–70, 1975–76, 2013–14, 2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20).
- Manchester City has won the FA Cup five times.
- “I’ve lost many more semis than finals I’ve played. It’s more difficult, and after we’ll see what happens.
Knowing fully well that they can’t play tiki-taka like the Citizens, Gunners got the job done against the former Premier League champions with dogged defending and counter-attacking football that resulted into a brace for Arsenal captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, which was enough to take the Gunners into their 21st FA Cup final.
Arsenal’s defensive frailties were well worked on despite City failing to take some of their chances. David Luiz, who has been criticized throughout the season was a standout performer in the ga,e as the Brazilian was going for every ball to keep things safe for the Gunners.
Can Pep Guardiola win the Champions League for Man City?
With City already out of the FA Cup and the Premier League trophy lost to Liverpool the 2020 EPL champion, all that is left for the Carabao Cup winners is the Champions League.
Fortunately for them, they have 2-1 advantage from Bernabeau against Real Madrid in the last 16. But how they will able to overcome the Galacticos that has won all its games since the restart is what Guardiola and Man City will need to figure out.
Although, he noted that a genius already knew that the team needs to improve to overcome the 13 times Champions League winners.
Madrid on the other hand will be high on confidence to get result against a team that is psychologically down.
City no doubt is capable of qualifying, but their mental state and their preparedness will be seen on the pitch. They also stand a chance of winning the tournament if they can dispatch the Whites with either Juventus or Lyon coming their way in the last eight.
Man City need to take this opportunity as Bayern Munich that already has 3-0 lead from the first leg of the last 16 against Chelsea might be playing Barcelona. So, with one of them gone, the chances will be more open to the English side.
With two games to go in the Premier League and City already secured the second spot, all that is left for the noisy neighbors is to figure out how they can lift themselves up and get a result against the Galacticos at least; at least that could be a confidence boost to see their chances in the competition.
It can still be tagged a successful season for the seven times Carabao Cup winners if they can get the Champions League trophy. They might have not been able to repeat all the clean sweep of the cups as they did last season, but the European Cup will beautify the club’s cabinet.
