A gentle return before another ‘terrible’ month
AS soon as the Champions League quarter-final draw was revealed, the scurry began to put City’s brutal April in black and white.
It does not read as bad as a draw with United and Liverpool would have done but the prospect of Tottenham (a), Palace (a), Tottenham (h), Tottenham (h), United (a), and Burnley (a) in the space of 20 days with a potential European semi-final a few days after that – is more daunting than the calendars of their rivals.
Pep Guardiola called City’s February ‘terrible’ when he saw the full fixture list and you can see why he thinks the same of April.
But if the FA Cup adds to their schedule, United’s quarter-final exit means that the competition doesn’t appear to make the month much (if at all) harder.
City have made trips to Wembley look easy under Guardiola – winning their last five games there – so even if a semi-final adds pressure a game at a ground they look comfortable playing at against a team they haven’t lost to in 30 years should not hold any dread.
Another game to play will likely see the league game at home to Cardiff squeezed in the midweek after Fulham away, although that could help them in the Premier League; with Liverpool playing on Friday night on the weekend of the Cup semi-final, City’s fixture change would give them the jump on Jurgen Klopp’s side and allow them to be top again assuming they win their games.
Almost immediately after the final whistle against Brighton, City can forget about the FA Cup for at least six weeks.
They will either be out of the competition and won’t have to think about it until next January or can put it out of their minds until the day of the final on May 18.
Before then, the Premier League title race will have been decided with the last set of fixtures six days earlier and the Champions League finalists will be known.
City are the only English team still pushing in three competitions, and Guardiola has already spoken of the extra minutes his players have clocked up while title rivals Liverpool have been away for two training breaks, but the FA Cup results and draws have helped to limit any more additional effort for the Quadruple-chasers – and could even work in their favour.
Even if the international break disrupts the rhythm of a team that has won 18 of 19 games in 2019, games against Fulham, Cardiff, and Brighton look on paper like a gentle way in for the Blues to play their way back into form and regain their momentum for the gauntlet that lies a little further ahead.