Man City's crisis is far from over. The next few weeks will define its season

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Man City's crisis is far from over. The next few weeks will define its season

2025-01-23 19:04 Last Updated At：19:21

Pep Guardiola always knew it was too early to say the real Manchester City was back.

Sure, his team ended its unthinkable run of one win in 13 games by beating Leicester and West Ham unconvincingly in the Premier League. Then City smashed a combined 14 goals past Ipswich and fourth-tier Salford in a signal, to some, that the aura had returned.

Not to Guardiola. He could see his injury-ravaged defense was brittle, his aging midfield was easy to play through in midfield, and that the team was still badly missing its fulcrum — Rodri, the Ballon d’Or winner.

A trip to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League exposed all those weaknesses, and more.

City might be back in crisis after a 4-2 loss at PSG that Guardiola was powerless to stop on a rainy night the French capital.

“We could not cope,” he said.

Things could be about to get much, much worse.

Either side of a match against Club Brugge that City must win to avoid elimination from the Champions League, the beleaguered English champion has an extremely tough Premier League schedule: Chelsea on Saturday, then Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest in a row.

That’s the other teams in the league’s top six — City is in fifth place — plus a bogey team in Tottenham.

That takes City to the start of March, by which time the club’s reputation may also be in tatters off the field, too.

Yes, City has gone on a spending spree in hope that can ignite the season, with Egypt forward Omar Marmoush arriving from Eintracht Frankfurt and young defenders Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis joining from Lens and Palmeiras, respectively. City was planning to freshen up the squad in the summer but brought forward those signings to January, partly because of injuries and partly because of the team’s desperate state. What Guardiola really needs, however, is a new midfield.

Rodri’s season-long absence because of a torn ACL has exposed City’s poor midfield recruitment over the last two years and left Guardiola with a set of players who are technically gifted but lack dynamism, pace and power.

Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva are all in their 30s and on the decline. Their inability to track midfield runners and cover ground as a unit is leaving City’s defense open to transitions. In that sense, for all of its world-class forwards, City might be one of the easiest teams to attack at the moment.

Gundogan returned for a second spell in the summer but that might go down as a mistake. Kovacic and Matheus Nunes joined in the summer of 2023 but that looks poor business now. Nunes isn’t even being trusted to play in midfield, with Guardiola deploying him as an emergency right back of late.

Maybe, but it appears more likely there will be outgoings.

One almost sure to leave is Kyle Walker, City’s long-serving right back who told Guardiola at the start of January he wants to explore a move abroad. Walker is reportedly set to join AC Milan in Italy.

Walker was captain last season and has been a mainstay in City’s defense since 2017, his speed and recovery abilities key to the way Guardiola sets up the team. But his form has dramatically dipped amid off-field issues and he is 34. City hasn’t been linked to any midfielders ahead of the Feb. 3 transfer deadline, which will be a concern to fans.

City's ambitions of winning the Premier League have virtually gone and now it's all about securing a place in the top four — or more likely top five this season — to qualify for next season's Champions League.

City is fifth but vulnerable, with sixth-placed Newcastle on the same number of points and Bournemouth — one of the form teams in the league — only a point back in seventh.

City couldn't have a harder run of games in the league, though at least three of the next four — Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool — are at home.

Away from the field, City is awaiting the verdict of its seismic legal case with Premier League, which has accused its champion of the past four seasons of more than 100 financial breaches, including providing misleading information about its sources of income.

Punishment could be as extreme as expulsion from the league and the potentially explosive announcement could come anytime over the next few weeks following the conclusion of a private hearing. City has always denied the charges.

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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Video captures Minneapolis immigration arrest in a city on edge after shooting of Renee Good

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.

Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.

Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.

But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.

More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.

The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.

Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.