Challenging Week Ahead for the Sky Blues

Manchester City have a challenging week ahead. Over the next eight days, the Sky Blues will face Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, and Liverpool. City will also have to travel for all three of these fixtures. The situation is less than ideal.

Nonetheless, Manchester City have already delivered in their first fixture. Over the weekend, the Mancunians traveled to Stanford Bridge to face the current European Champions. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had previously lost to Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea on three occasions in three different competitions. Given this poor record, many pundits and fans predicted that Chelsea would win this encounter. The Sky Blues, however, had other ideas.

During the match, the Blues had a compact defense. The Sky Blues failed to break these lines, and the Londoners threatened their opponents on the counter-attack. City eventually had a breakthrough when Gabriel Jesus scored in the second half in what was a scrappy goal in a congested Chelsea penalty area. While Chelsea then tried to take something from the match, City remained composed, and they earned an important three points. In the end, City could have won by a larger margin, but what mattered most was that they had won this match.

The victory against this difficult side could prove to be a psychological boost as City travel to Paris and Liverpool later this week. The Sky Blues are undefeated against the Parisians, where they have won three of their five previous encounters, and drew the remaining two. PSG, however, had a lively transfer window that saw them acquire Lionel Messi, Georginio Wijnaldum, Sergio Ramos, and Gianluigi Donnarumma. This will undoubtedly be a more challenging side than the teams City had beaten in their previous encounters.

City will know that if they defeat PSG, they will be one step closer to the UEFA Champions League’s knockout stages. On Matchday 1, the Sky Blues defeated RB Leipzig 6-3 while PSG drew Club Brugge. If City were to win this match, it would put them in a commanding lead in the group. The Sky Blues will then face Club Brugge in a doubleheader on Matchdays 3 and 4.

Manchester City then finish this challenging week with a match against Liverpool. The Sky Blues had a horrendous record against the Reds at Anfield. The Mancunians’ recent 4-1 victory against the Scousers in February 2021 was the first time City had won at Anfield in 18 years. The victory, however, came against an injured Liverpool side, and an empty stadium. Since this period, Liverpool have rejuvenated, and fans are allowed to return to football matches. The Kop will certainly look to trouble City during this encounter.

Overall, City face three difficult opponents over the next eight days. It is too early to say that these are trophy-defining fixtures, as the season has only started. Should City earn maximum points in these matches, however, they will turn heads. It would certainly put them in a commanding position as they look to defend their English Premier League title. It would also confirm their status as the favorites for this season’s Champions League trophy.

City already defeated Chelsea over the weekend. Can they extend this winning run against PSG and Liverpool?