Ian Cheeseman: Forever Blue

Since my last column, Manchester City lost 1-0 at Aston Villa and won 2-1 at Luton Town.

The defeat at Villa Park was quite painful to watch, as a City fan. I’ve had years of watching City lose games, so it’s not the defeat that hurt, it was the fact that the Blues were totally outplayed. The home side overwhelmed Pep Guardiola’s side in every department. They were imaginative, quick, slick and strong.

By contrast City were slow, predicable and weak. The 1-0 scoreline flattered City, it should have been a bigger win for Villa. Much has been discussed since that game with many suggesting that the Blues have become complacent since winning the treble last season. One fan told me that it felt like the players were indulging in an extended lap of honour this season and that it was simply an attitude problem.

I attended Pep Guardiola’s press conference ahead of the trip to Luton and he denied that was the case. He argued that looking for a simple explanation is pointless. He’s right, of course. Although football is a simple game, the dip in City’s all conquering form of last season, is multi-layered. Ilkay Gungogan, Aymeric Laporte, Cole Palmer and Riyad Mahrez left the Blues in the summer to be replaced by Jeremy Doku, Matheus Nunes and Mateo Kovacic.

Most City fans would probably agree that the new arrivals have yet to reach their heights that their predecessors achieved and even if you believe they’re as good, they haven’t yet settled into Pep’s style of play. The City boss selected John Stones and Rico Lewis at Villa Park with Rodri once again absent through suspension. Stones has played most of his career in central defence and Lewis is at fullback, though both are capable of adding to the midfield in Pep’s system, but neither are used to dominating that area of the field.

Guardiola has admitted, in the past, that he likes to play with as many as six midfielders. At Villa he had none, unless you count Foden & Bernardo Silva who played out wide. City are used to dominating the midfield, having all the possession and running rings around their opponents. Villa were the dominant force and limited City to just two efforts on goal. I’ve not seen City so outplayed for a long time. Pep knows there’s a problem. I believe he’ll sort it out but it might take a while, especially with Kevin De Bruyne still coming back from long term injury.

At Luton, a team who seem destined to be relegated at the end of the season, City started without their talismanic striker Erling Haaland, but Rodri was back to add some stability to that crucial midfield area. Kovacic started too, so there was more experience and control in the “engine room”.

Although City started slowly, they were unlucky to be behind at the break and looked much stronger in the second half as they fought back to win their first Premier League game in five. It must have been a huge relief to come away from Kenilworth Road with all three points. I must say that it was like going back in time to visit Luton’s stadium which looks very similar to how I remember it on my first visit there back in the 1980s.

It’s certainly not a stadium fit for the 21st century. There toilets were overflowing, the staircase leading up to the top of the away section felt like an accident waiting to happen and the view was awful. I heard one of two saying the ground was old school and “has character”. I’m just glad I don’t have to go there again this season, unless we play them in the FA Cup.

City’s trip to Belgrade for their last Champions League group this week, was a “dead rubber”. All the positions in the group have already been decided, so I expected a much changed team and any possible result. Maybe it’ll be the last first team appearance of Kalvin Phillips? I’ll be there because, it’s always Great to be a Blue!