From champs to CHUMPS: The SHOCKING truth about Man City's decline

Manchester City are no longer in poor form. They are in freefall.

Having kept Liverpool off their perch so often under Pep Guardiola, City are quickly becoming a faded force.

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The four-in-a-row Premier League champions have won only ONE of their last 11 games, falling to their latest shambolic defeat to Manchester United in the derby on Sunday.

Leading 1-0 as the game ticked towards added time, City contrived again to throw the game away. First, Matheus Nunes committed a foul on man-of-the-match Amad Diallo inside the area after his own backpass to Ederson fell short. Bruno Fernandes made no mistake from the spot.

Then came the killer blow; a long Lisandro Martinez pass over the top found Diallo, who skilfully controlled the ball past Ederson before finding the net at an acute angle. 2-1. Game over.

City are the WORST team in PL

Don’t mistake this for a United renaissance by the way. They were bad but City were worse. The kinds of mistakes they are making are so uncharacteristic of their overall form under Pep Guardiola. That was until this season.

Time and again Jurgen Klopp would feel like his Liverpool side were getting close only for super-rich City to pull away again. But those days are gone.

It was tempting to paint this latest loss for City as some kind of reprieve for Liverpool, whose draw with Fulham on Saturday threatened their title bid. But it would be patently inaccurate to describe City as title rivals at present.

They are so far beyond the pace that they are statistically the WORST team in the top flight since November began. How Klopp could have done - even occasionally - with this kind of form when trying to chase Pep down during his title-challenging days.

Has Guardiola been exposed?

The loss of Rodri has been fatal, comparable to Liverpool losing Virgil van Dijk during the 2020-21 season. But where Liverpool had to play all comers in the central defensive positions during that season, Guardiola is entitled to pick from an array of expensive purchases to replace the Ballon d'Or winner.

None of them can get the job done like Rodri and neither has Guardiola got the answers for his team’s ills. This is the biggest test of his managerial career - with no Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski or Sergio Aguero to bail him out.

When the chips have been down and facing genuine adversity, Pep has come up short. Not even the new contract announcement could arrest the slide.

Where do City go from here? It’s a long way down.

And factor in any potential punishments from their 115 charges for alleged financial wrongdoing and it could really be the end of days.

Arne Slot and his Liverpool team are currently well-placed to take advantage and become English football’s next big thing. For Guardiola, is is fast becoming an also-ran in the Premier League.

Can he prove that he is indeed one of the best managers of all time and recover? Or has he finally been exposed? Time will tell.

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