Manchester City are ominously placed in the Premier League with Kevin de Bruyne fit again and Erling Haaland close to a return.
It’s the beginning of another calendar year, a time of year where people take up new hobbies and make new year’s resolutions. It’s the same in football where clubs look to improve on a previous season or year. That is unless of course you are Manchester City, and the year is 2024. City’s 2023 was simply remarkable.
A treble winning campaign followed up by a Super Cup and a Club World Cup means the Blues are comfortably the team to beat not just in Europe but the world. Before City travelled out to Saudi Arabia last month, they were slightly behind the pack in the Premier League title race. Crystal Palace had fought back from a two-goal deficit in their final top flight fixture before departing to earn a point.
City could have had a sizeable gap to the top of the table on their return. In the end that didn’t materialise and the Blues have reeled off back-to-back Premier League wins to close within five points of top spot with a game in hand on the two teams above them. While some were quick to use the word crisis at City they are now well positioned.
The Blues don’t see any stars depart for the Africa Cup of Nations or Asia Cup while rivals Liverpool will lose talisman Mo Salah, for a potential seven games across all competitions. Pep Guardiola and his City squad won’t get complacent due to other teams’ absences but given how key Salah is, he will be a miss for the Merseysiders. The City players who have recovered from injury is another boost heading towards the business end of the season.
The great return
Kevin De Bruyne made his comeback after a lengthy layoff against Huddersfield in the FA while Erling Haaland is almost ready to make a return to full fitness. The pair strike fear into opponents and their returns are timely given the Manchester City juggernaut usually kicks into gear around this time. No team or manager has the experience and know-how of finding form when it counts as City and Guardiola. There is plenty of football between now and the end of the season but it’s this City squad will have learned some early season lessons and will be in the thick of the action come May.