After losing 2-0 away at Stoke, a glance ahead at the remaining Premier League games in 2015 lets you know that’s it’s the next four games that will determine if City will challenge for the title.
You can forget about the Champions League match against Borussia Monchengladbach on Tuesday. The German side have already been mathematically eliminated with five points, as have the La Liga side, Sevilla, who sit at the bottom on just three points. City are guaranteed to advance at a minimum second place with nine points tallied and chances are, even with a City win at home against the Bundesliga squad, Juventus (table leaders with 11 points) should do enough against Sevilla to still finish top of the group.
If the Italian side are victorious, there’ll be no calculations necessary to award them first place. Sevilla will be looking for a win at home against the Old Lady to qualify for the UEFA Europa League, but it’s the Italians that are masters at defensive play and clinical going forward, and can pretty much park the bus and play for a draw, to achieve their table-topping goals.
Thus, it’s a strong finish to the year in the Premier League that should be the focus of the blue side of Manchester. City have Swansea at home, Arsenal away, Sunderland at home and Leicester City away, before the lads can think about who they’ll be kissing at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Swansea and Sunderland, in 15th and 19th place at the bottom of the table, as home games, are must wins. 6 points is the minimum City should take from these next four games.
Arsenal and Leicester City, currently occupying the top two spots in the league, away, are much trickier fixtures. To show intent at challenging for the title, City must get a result in one of those two games. A mere draw in either, plus wins against Swansea and Sunderland will see them at 7 points. Draws against both will take them to 8 points. Finally, a loss and a win will see them capture 9 of the 12 available points.
To surpass mere intent and show real Champion quality would require a win and a draw in the Arsenal/Leicester games to hit 10 points, as would a pair of wins to secure the maximum 12 in contention.
To know how Manchester City will fair at challenging for the title will come down to these four games. Anything less than six points, to reach 35 points by year end would be a disaster. 34 points or lower will let you know it’s not our year. 36-38 points, will let you know they have intent. Whereas 39-41, representing a win and a draw or two wins, will be highly convincing that this is a team with Champion quality. Thus far that has not shown. Look for City to finish the year with intent on 36-38 points, they’ll be in the race, even if inconsistent and unconvincingly, and with the talent they have and goalscoring prowess they show in spurts that could be enough.
