Brilliant season, but Guardiola has to send his
CITY earned a crucial point with a come-from-behind 2-2 draw at West Ham on Sunday, but they will still rue the return of a habit that they have been unable to shake all season.
The Blues took a step closer to the Premier League title at the London Stadium, fighting back from a two-goal half-time deficit.
However, it could have been better than that. With the score tied, Riyad Mahrez saw his 86th-minute penalty saved by Lukasz Fabianski, and with that the chance to deal Liverpool a near-knockout blow passed City by.
A failure to finish things off once and for all has haunted the Blues this season, with this being just the latest in a list of ‘left them alive’ moments.
Those were the words Pep Guardiola chose to describe his team’s performance after the 2-2 draw with Liverpool last month. City were superb in the first half of that thrilling encounter at the Etihad Stadium, and could have easily scored four or five. But they didn’t, missing a chance to deal a serious blow to Liverpool’s title challenge.
Perhaps the most devastating example came in both legs of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid. At home City ran the Spanish side ragged, spurning plenty of chances to put the tie beyond doubt in the opening 45 minutes.
But Madrid were left with a chance, something they exploited to the full by scoring three goals. In the return leg, Jack Grealish was unlucky to not score a brace as the Blues edged towards the final. Then came the final minute collapse, and City were out.
Now, for the second time this season, the Blues have failed to kill off Liverpool when they had the chance. Success from the penalty would have surely done so, but Mahrez’s second miss from the spot in a City shirt gave Jurgen Klopp’s side a glimmer of hope.
In terms of not finishing chances in and around the six-yard box, the arrival of Erling Haaland should go some way to fixing City’s problem. A proven goal-scorer of the highest quality, his ability to convert halfchances should mean the Blues are more clinical in those all-important ‘game-killing’ moments. But he will not solve everything.
Chances will still fall at the feet of Mahrez, Grealish, Foden and Co. next season, and the Norwegian’s mere presence won’t suddenly make his team-mates more clinical.
City’s attackers are some of the best in the world, suggesting that perhaps there is a psychological element to their tendency to miss too many opportunities.
That is something that Guardiola needs to address before next season starts.
The role of narrative is overplayed in football, but when Mahrez stepped up to take his penalty on Sunday there was a sense that a miss would sum up City’s season.
The Blues may well go on to win the title in front of a sell-out home crowd, but they will have to overcome their unshakeable bad habit to do so.
Hopefully Mahrez’s miss will prove to be the crescendo in a line of ‘left them alive’ moments, rather than a false peak. Otherwise, another against Aston Villa could leave City empty handed at the end of what has been a brilliant campaign.