Manchester City has spent more than $500 million over the past 12 months to overhaul an aging squad in a bid to regain the team's status as the best in England.
On current evidence, it won't be a quick fix.
A 2-0 derby loss at Manchester United on Saturday was followed by a surprising 3-1 defeat at Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League on Tuesday. Both matches exposed the deficiencies in City's squad despite the club's remarkable spending spree that has continued in January with the arrival of Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi.
Sure, injuries aren't helping. Pep Guardiola has, for example, been robbed of his entire first-choice defense, with center backs Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and John Stones currently injured.
Yet, there are still flaws.
There's still no real backup to striker Erling Haaland, who might be showing the effects of barely missing a game. He has scored one goal in his last eight matches — and that was a penalty.
Despite all the arrivals, City hasn't signed a right back to replace Kyle Walker so has been relying on midfielder Matheus Nunes to fill in there. Nunes has done a good job — he is one of City's most improved players — but is unlikely to be the long-term solution.
Guardiola's decision to play virtually the same team for the final weeks of 2025 also highlighted his lack of faith in his back-ups, some of whom — like Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri, for example — were bought as part of the expensive rebuild.
It all means City's home match against a last-place Wolverhampton team with just one win all season in the Premier League is no longer a gimme. How could it be given City's performances over the last week that might rank as among the worst in Guardiola's decade at the club?
While City has won just two of its last seven matches in all competitions, Wolves is improving and unbeaten in its last five matches.
City starts the league's 23rd round of games in second place and seven points behind Arsenal, which — in drawing its last two league games against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest — has failed to take full advantage of City's recent issues.
On Sunday, Arsenal hosts Manchester United, which will look to back up its impressive performance against City and is again likely to play on the counterattack at Emirates Stadium.
Third-place Aston Villa, which is level on points with Man City, travels to Newcastle.
Liverpool is seven points behind City and Villa in fourth place ahead of a trip to Bournemouth.
Because of Man City's defensive crisis, Marc Guehi is set to be selected for his debut against Wolves. Max Alleyne, a 20-year-old center back brought back from a loan spell at second-tier Watford, should make way.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta must decide who to play up front out of fit-again Gabriel Jesus and summer signing Viktor Gyokeres, who has been the starting striker so far this season, against United. Both scored in the Champions League win over Inter Milan on Tuesday.
Aston Villa's unlikely title ambitions — or even its attempts to qualify for the Champions League — have been hit by a knee injury to Boubacar Kamara that could keep the defensive midfielder out for the rest of the season.
The France international is an unsung star for Villa, which badly missed Kamara when he tore his ACL in February 2024, keeping him out for eight months and forcing him to miss the European Championship.
Everton winger Jack Grealish is being assessed because of a foot injury that could reportedly keep him out for three months, which would be a blow to his hopes of getting back in the England squad ahead of the World Cup.
There was some respite for Tottenham manager Thomas Frank this week with a win over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
Before that, fans had expressed their unhappiness with Frank by taunting him with songs calling for his departure during a 2-1 loss to West Ham in the league last weekend.
Losing at next-to-last Burnley on Saturday would likely revive complaints about the Danish coach, who has only been in charge for seven months but has been criticized for his pragmatic tactics.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Everton's Jack Grealish celebrates after the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Everton in Birmingham, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026.(AP Photo/Dave Shopland)
Manchester City's Erling Haaland reacts during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola attends a press conference in Bodo, Norway, Monday, Jan. 19, 2025, ahead the Champions League soccer match against Bodø/Glimt on Tuesday. (Fredrik Varfjell/NTB Scanpix via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus' exiled opposition leader visited Kyiv on Monday as the Ukrainian capital cleaned up after Russia’s biggest missile attack of the year, and world leaders kept a close eye on how much support the Belarusian government is ready to provide for Moscow’s all-out invasion.
Russia and ally Belarus held joint nuclear drills last week, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned in recent days that Belarus could provide a launchpad for Russia to open a new front in northern Ukraine. Some Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarusian territory in Moscow's invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
In a further sign of concern, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday about the war in Ukraine, their first call since the invasion began.
Further “systemic strikes” on Kyiv are in store, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday. It urged foreign citizens, including members of diplomatic missions, to leave the city as quickly as possible and told residents to stay away from military and government facilities.
The ministry said Friday’s deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Starobilsk was “the final straw.” Ukraine said it hit only targets supporting Russia’s invasion.
The Russian army is locked in a hard and costly slog on the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line that mostly snakes through eastern and southern Ukraine.
“Russia hit a dead-end on the battlefield, so it terrorizes Ukraine with deliberate strikes on city centers,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said on X, after the weekend barrage that killed two people and damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital.
With U.S.-made air defense missiles in short supply because of the Iran war, Russian missiles are harder for Ukraine to stop. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to stop the fighting have stalled.
In his call with Lukashenko, Macron “underscored the risks for Belarus of allowing itself to be dragged into Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine,” according to a presidential aide in the French leader’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with the presidential palace’s practices. Macron also spoke Sunday with Zelenskyy.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, on her first visit to Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “Lukashenko’s regime knows well what needs to be done to improve ties with the European Union, but it isn’t happening. Instead, hybrid attacks, nuclear blackmail and threats to the entire region continue."
A terse readout released by the Belarusian presidential press service said the call with Macron took place “on the French side’s initiative” and the leaders discussed “regional issues” and Belarusian relations with the EU and France.
Lukashenko, who has governed his country of some 9.5 million people with an iron fist for more than three decades, relies on the Kremlin for cheap energy, loans and other support. Western countries have repeatedly slapped sanctions on Belarus, including for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory to invade Ukraine.
More recently, Lukashenko has been trying to improve ties with the West. Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners as part of deals that lifted some U.S. sanctions.
Sunday’s bombardment included Russia’s powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, which can carry multiple warheads. Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted it can travel up to 10 times the speed of sound and evade air defense systems.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence services had received tipoffs from the United States and European countries that Russia was preparing to launch an Oreshnik.
In addition to the two deaths, at least 91 people were wounded in Sunday's barrage, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv City Administration.
Shattered glass littered sidewalks on Monday after Ukrainian authorities said the assault damaged buildings across the city, including near government offices, residential buildings, schools and a market.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday led ambassadors from more than 70 countries on a visit to the sites of the strikes. He urged the international community to step up pressure on Moscow and ensure Ukraine gets more air defense support.
In other developments:
Russia’s Federal Security Service said divers found magnetic mines attached to the hull of a liquefied petroleum gas tanker in the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga. The tanker Arrhenius was bound for Samsun, Turkey, it said, adding that the limpet mines were made in a NATO member country. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, a Russian missile hit a business in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Derhachi, killing two people and wounding 19 others Monday, Kharkiv regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov said. Seventeen people were hospitalized.
Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A rescue worker climbs on a ladder to help evacuate people from a residential building being destroyed after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian servicemen of the Cerberus Ground Unmanned Systems Company of the 60th Separate Mechanized Brigade, Third Army Corps, conduct a drill with a combat ground drone during a training at the polygon in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Ukrainian servicemen of the Cerberus Ground Unmanned Systems Company of the 60th Separate Mechanized Brigade, Third Army Corps, conduct a drill with a combat ground drone during a training at the polygon in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Rescue workers try to put out a fire at a residential building after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Red Cross volunteers help an injured woman in a shelter after a Russian strike on a residential neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
