After a dramatic and potentially hugely damaging night for the entire world, the same question is on everyone’s lips this morning: are Manchester City officially in crisis? Do we need to implement the badge cracker that, like all media companies, we keep as a down payment for such eventualities?

It may be a little early for all that. But they have lost their last three games and, with the best will in the world and with no intention of throwing shade, none have been against a particularly top team, with Spurs and Bournemouth beating City before. A 4-1 defeat against Rubén Amorim’s Sporting that left him out of combat. All of this combines to make it possibly the worst run City have ever had during Pep Guardiola’s reign of almost unimaginable success.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the few pot-dodging streaks they’ve endured during these incredibly successful years.

September-October 2016: six games without a win
UCL: Celtic 3-3 Manchester City
PL: Tottenham 2-0 Manchester City
PL: Manchester City 1-1 Everton
Champions League: Barcelona 4-0 Manchester City
PL: Manchester City 1-1 Southampton
EFL Cup: Manchester United 1-0 Manchester City

The first of a few rocky runs during Guardiola’s first season at City before he molded them into the conquering machine we all know and love over the years, their victories celebrated across the country for their impressive nature. and the complete absence of any controversial elements behind the scenes.

But it didn’t happen overnight. That first season really was one of adaptation, although it’s probably worth noting that this particular run of strife came after Guardiola’s team had won all 10 of their games in the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup. They weren’t shit or anything. In fact, Guardiola’s start in the Premier League is among the best.

The Champions League draw against Celtic was spectacular, with Raheem Sterling scoring for both teams in a 10-minute period, while a key feature of Guardiola’s reign – a bafflingly inexplicable weakness against Tottenham – was also established from the start. principle against what was, in Justice, the absolute top of Mauricio Pochettino’s side. Home draws against Everton and Southampton are a little harder to explain, as is a heavy beating in the Champions League upon their return to Barcelona.

Carabao’s love story (Guardiola has four titles and presumably a cupboard full of disgusting cans of the undrinkable substance) was also about to begin, with an early exit at Old Trafford.

March-April 2017: four games without a win
UCL: Monaco 3-1 Manchester City
PL: Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool
PL: Arsenal 2-2 Manchester City
PL: Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City

This is a really expensive race. Defeat in Monaco saw them eliminated on away goals in a wild last-16 tie after a 5-3 win at the Etihad, while that run in the Premier League saw them drop from second to fourth place.

Title hopes were already pretty much deserted when City fell to runaway leaders Chelsea, while draws with Liverpool and Arsenal left them fighting with that pairing for the last two Champions League places as first Chelsea and then Spurs. They were really good that year. – disappeared into the horizon.

April 2017: three games without winning
FA Cup: Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City
PL: Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United
PL: Middlesbrough 2-2 Manchester City

Despite City’s well-earned reputation for becoming genuinely unstoppable as the season progresses, many of these (admittedly rare) sketchy runs seem to occur in April. However, a big part of that is that a perhaps little-discussed City vulnerability is the FA Cup semi-finals. They have lost four of the mistakes under Guardiola, the first of them against Arsenal in his first season.

That defeat was followed by a pair of Premier League draws in a faltering league campaign. The second of those draws came against Middlesbrough, whose scorers were Álvaro Negredo and Calum Chambers. For some reason we can’t pinpoint, absolutely none of that information seems correct.

April 2018: three losses in a row
Champions League: Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City
PL: Manchester City 2-3 Manchester United
Champions League: Manchester City 1-2 Liverpool

A heartbreaking run during the season in which City surpassed the 100-point barrier in the Premier League. But the Champions League dream died at Anfield with a 3-0 thrashing that made the second leg (and therefore the third defeat of this particular run) somewhat moot.

There is a philosophical question about whether losing the second leg of a tie that you already practically screwed up in the first leg really counts as a defeat, but the failure of the Champions League despite obvious national greatness already was one at this point. . becoming a theme for Guardiola and City.

The league match between those two Liverpool defeats was more irritating than hurtful; the Premier League title was only going one way that season. However, losing 2-0 to Jose Mourinho is not a fun idea for anyone, and at the time it potentially put that 100-point goal in jeopardy. But even with that Etihad heist, United finished a distant 19 points behind.

A decent manager wouldn’t insist on that “achievement”, right? They certainly wouldn’t insist on having the medals and trophies if City were stripped of them. José Mourinho, to the surprise of no human being, sees things a little differently.

But all things considered, while the nature and timing of that first Champions League defeat in particular makes this a more damaging run than the current one, there is no sensible way to pretend that losing twice to a Liverpool team that was just getting started to realize how good they could be and a Man United that was, however distantly and briefly, the next best team in England at the time is a set of results as bad in isolation as losing to Spurs, Bournemouth and Sporting.

April 2022: three games without winning
PL: Manchester City 2-2 Liverpool
UCL: Atlético de Madrid – Manchester City 0-0
FA Cup: Manchester City 2-3 Liverpool

It really highlights how difficult it is to find even a run of three bad games for Pep’s City that he has to overcome. Sure, losing an FA Cup semi-final is terrible for anyone, but once again it was against what was at the time the only English team capable of competing with City for any length of time.

The league draw against the same rival allowed City to maintain a point advantage in the race for the title, an advantage they would maintain until the finish line, while the goalless draw against Atlético de Madrid allowed them to advance to the semi-finals of the Liga de Champions. -finals after a 1-0 victory at the Etihad. So that’s really a win, right? In a certain sense. It certainly doesn’t seem like a normal draw, but if we don’t include it we don’t have much more.

It really looks like City could have been a pretty good football team for quite a while under Pep Guardiola, you know? This is huge and new information.