It’s three straight draws for Manchester City in the Premier League as Arsenal look ever so distant at the top of the table.
The Citizens were flying high to end 2025. Eight straight wins to close the calendar year with an average of 2.3 goals scored and just 0.8 conceded in that stretch.
However, the turn of the year has brought injuries and worse results. First a goalless draw at Sunderland, followed by two leads thrown away at home – against Chelsea and then Brighton and Hove Albion.
Whether that’s good or bad news, there have been some concerning patterns repeating themselves in each of those draws.
What have been Man City’s main issues lately?
High line/offside trap
Pep Guardiola has played with a high line for years now. And it makes sense, too, as it helps his teams push the opposition back near their own goal and give Man City territorial dominance in the attacking half.
But it also comes with some down sides as well. A few managers decide to leave one of their wingers isolated high up the pitch to pin their man back. And as soon as they regain possession, they try to connect that winger in behind with long passes and through balls.
Chelsea and Brighton, in particular, did this to the Citizens. Estevao was always ready to run on the right, but never received the ball in good conditions. As Calum McFarlane took him out and pushed Enzo Fernandez into a more advanced role, it was down to Pedro Neto to do this on the left.
In their first transition in the second half, the Portuguese winger used the momentum to get ahead of the defence. He later received the ball when trailing the play, but missed a great chance.
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Full-back Ferdi Kadioglu also went through on goal early on against City in a similar manner, but Gianluigi Donnarumma managed to save it.
It also comes in different ways. Forwards in general are always playing on the last shoulder against the Citizens’ backline, regardless of how high their block is. It’s how Brian Brobbey ended up face-to-face with Donnarumma at Stadium of Light and how Igor Jesus assisted Omari Hutchinson at The City Ground.
The one game in which City did control depth and allowed no space in behind was in a League Cup tie vs Brentford. They caught the Bees offside seven times – but other than that it has been an issue.
Defensive transition
Pep Guardiola has shown incredible tactical flexibility as of late, and especially since the start of the current season.
He has dialed down on committing players forward to dominate in the attacking half or final third. And when he has the lead, he has often allowed oppositions to have possession and sit on mid/low blocks.
But he hasn’t fully let go of his prefered ideas and still likes to trap opponents. This does get them a lot of possession, good chances and even goals. But the defenders have a hard time tracking back.
And it has also a lot to do with the midfielders. Guardiola has mainly used Bernardo Silva, Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders and Jeremy Doku in the second line of four. All of them are either attacking-minded midfielders or wingers who leave a lot to be desired.
As a result, Nico Gonzalez/Rodri and the centre-back pairing are often left overloaded with players to mark. It allows for opponents to mess with their defensive structure and undo their back-line, as a central defender usually has to step up.
Ruben Dias having to track Morgan Gibbs-White and leaving space for Igor Jesus to run into, dragging Josko Gvardiol with him while Nico Dominguez dragged Nico O’Reilly is precisely what left Omari Hutchinson completely free to score at the back post.
It’s something that even the second worst attacking side of the Premier League can easily manipulate in their favour.
Player distribution inside the box
Manchester City’s aggressive and attacking nature not only destabilizes their defensive structure, but often leaves them in numerical disadvantages at the back.
To make matters worse, the Citizens’ backline aren’t great at defending their own box. They are usually not well distributed in the penalty area, which allows for opponents to get in good positions to head or shoot the ball.
Pascal Gross, Enzo Fernandez and Trai Hume all had great goalscoring opportunities from crosses. Only Enzo converted his – and he had nearly three attempts to get it right.
At Sunderland, if it wasn’t Hume, Eliezer Mayenda and Lutsharel Geertruida were also in advantageous positions to score. And, as mentioned before, Nottingham Forest managed to manipulate their defence with each player dragging a defender until Hutchinson was unmarked at the back post.
Haaland cooling off
Football is a short blanket and anything you do will have positive and negative consequences. As long as Manchester City have Pep Guardiola at the helm, they will run certain defensive risks at the expense of the attacking end.
And despite having conceded at least one big chance in all but three games across all competitions this season, they have also generated a ton of their own.
Yes they suffer defensively and are often exposed, but it doesn’t help that the forwards haven’t been converting their opportunities. Erling Haaland has cooled off relative to the start of the campaign.
The Norwegian striker has now scored “just” seven goals in his last 12 games, to go with another three assists. This return would be great for most number nines in the world, but the expectations he set upon himself are way higher.
In the Brighton, Chelsea and Sunderland games, the Citizens have combined to have 12 clear-cut chances and converted just one of them (8.3%).
Guardiola will surely want to work on the defensive mistakes his team has been making. But as long as they keep generating this many good chances going forward, things will even out eventually and they will get back to scoring more than they are conceding right now.