Manchester City: Time to focus on the top four

Manchester City stumbled into a dire 0-0 draw with relegation threatened Norwich City, what does this mean for their Premier League title chances?

There comes a time in life when you have to face the music, admit you were wrong and accept the consequences of your poor decisions that have ultimately led your current predicament. Wake up to find yourself sporting a new “Wilfried Bony in our hearts, true blue” tattoo? Time to lay off the drugs and you may want to think about getting some new friends too. Ultimately, by accepting the blame you can take steps to ensure such a situation is avoided or damage is mitigated as much as possible.

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Such a situation has well and truly arrived for Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini. As he watched his dull and lifeless side limp to a dull and lifeless 0-0 draw against Norwich City with that dull and lifeless look on his face, doubtless he was already contriving in his mind how he could manage to avoid responsibility for the abject failure of it all.

He had, after all, only last week mentioned that 9 out of the 10 remaining games would require a win if City were going to remain in the hunt for the Premier League title. Certainly he hasn’t fallen outside those parameters yet, but I’m sure he didn’t in a million years imagine his one grace game would be expended against City’s easiest remaining fixture. Trailing Leicester City by 9 points, without the game in hand they previously enjoyed, the Sky Blues are almost certainly looking for a nigh-historic turn around in their last 9 games which would see them take the full 27 points and their three title competitors drop enough at the same time.

If you’re sceptical that this will happen, join the club. I try to be optimistic when it comes to Manchester City, for health reasons if nothing else, but let’s be honest here, Pellegrini’s men have been entrenched in a battle for 4^th place and that priceless Champions League slot for weeks. West Ham United creep ever closer, now two points behind, and that other team with Manchester in their name remains only two points behind that. Honestly there’s more likelihood of Chelsea making up their 11 point deficit on Manchester City than the latter have with their 9 on Leicester.

Yet there remains still one at least who refuses to bow out and, of course, it’s Pellegrini himself. Ever the optimist, he maintains that it’s still game on for the league. Speaking following the Norwich game, Pellegrini had this to say, as reported by the Daily Mail:

"Every time you drop points it can be more difficult, but that will not change my mind,If you mathematically have a chance to do it, you must always think you can do it. If you ask me before the first game of the season what we must do, we must try to win all the games and we continue with the same mentality.And at the end of the season we’ll see how many points we can have and in which position we’ll be."

Ah the used and abused “mathematically possible” line. I mean, it is still mathematically possible for 14^th place Watford to win the league this year, but realistically it’s about as likely as Bony winning player of the year. I like Pellegrini as much as anybody, he’s charming and, usually, refreshingly honest. He’s a good manager who has had his success here, but the music has been playing for a while and it’s time he faced it.

Manchester City’s record in their last 6 games, and indeed since Pep Guardiola was announced as taking the helm in the summer, has been 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. 7 points out of a potential 18, conceding 8 goals and scoring only 7 in return. That’s hardly championship stuff, but there is, at least a little, glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for Pellegrini.

Since the return of Vincent Kompany, City have looked far more commanding at the back. Indeed, injuries in general have done their part in seeing the title ship sink spectacularly this year. Yaya Toure, out injured for at least another week, and his creativity were sorely missed against Norwich, which perhaps says more about how little Raheem Sterling, Jesus Navas et al managed to contributed in the middle of the park. As we discussed before however, fitness is returning to the Etihad with not only Toure, but also star signing Kevin De Bruyne set to return by the end of the month.

Next: Manchester City 0 - Norwich City 0

It’s still likely too late for Manchester City to contend for the title, excluding a serious drop in form from their rivals, regardless of what Pellegrini might say in public. Even so, a top four place, alongside the Capital One Cup and a stronger-than-ever finish in the Champions League could well salvage what threatened to be City’s worst season in nearly a decade. It may not look like it right now, but it’s still in their hands to achieve at least that much, both mathematically and realistically. That should be something we can all, Pellegrini included, focus on.