Manchester City face a busy and relentless April during which their ambitions will either become realised or pushed aside.
There will be at least 8 games for Manchester City during a hectic Easter period, possibly even rising to 9 if they make it through to the Champions League Semi Finals. But it is not just the number of fixtures ahead which will cause difficulties for City, but the nature of these fixtures. Important games will come thick and fast. There are no easy games in which to coast meaning the mental effort of playing that frequently and at that intensity may prove to be a factor.
But that effort could also contribute to the momentum. Getting onto a roll of form at this point in the season would probably be enough to start swatting opponents aside and would place immeasurable pressure upon those in the chasing pack. If we became unbeatable we would have teams beaten before they even stepped onto the field of play.
City kick off their April campaign with the rearranged home fixture against Cardiff on Wednesday 3 April. That may prove to be a more physical encounter than we may like at this stage of the run in and we must hope we come through it not just with the three points, but also with our players unscathed.
After that we move onto FA Cup Semi Final duty with a trip to face Brighton at Wembley on Saturday 6 April. The FA Cup is the one English trophy that Guardiola has not tasted in his city reign and for a number of years we have under performed in the competition. This remains our best chance in recent years to secure this trophy and City will need to be at their best to overcome what will be a relaxed Brighton side.
Just three days after the exhilaration of the Wembley game City are back in London again to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League Quarter Final First leg on Tuesday 9th April. This will be a game of high intensity where City will hope to create a lead to take to the second leg at the Etihad.
City are then back in the capital city again to play a Premier League fixture away at Crystal Palace on Sunday 14 April. Another difficult game where City got kicked off the park last season and do not forget Crystal Palace have already scored an unlikely victory against us this year.This game concludes the first of the two weeks of April, but what does the rest of the month hold?