Manchester City 2021/22 Season Review: Four out of Five

The colors of the ribbons that adorn the English Premier League trophy will officially be staying white and sky blue (Despite Sky Sports’ efforts to contradict).

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have once again claimed the Premier League title as their own, now for the fourth time in just five seasons, and after a stunning second-half comeback on Championship Sunday.

As most expected, the reigning PL champions started the 2021/22 season strong, (despite a random slip up against Tottenham Hotspurs in August).

Rhythm and tactics controlled much of Man City’s matches, with creativity and freedom providing the right amounts of magic for players such as Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden to have their moments of brilliance, while also supplying plenty of others (literally) with goals of their own.

While winter seemed to bring nothing but injury news and postponed matches to many teams in the league, Manchester City remained one of the few to come out lightly scathed, securing their position at the very top of the table while establishing themselves as one of the best and most dynamic squads in world football.

But a football season is one very long season. With tiring bodies, mental fatigue, and a very demanding schedule, City’s fortunes in all competitions in the second half of the season waned.

Liverpool added more pressure to Man City week in and week out by being “so annoying”, slowly but surely closing the gap between them and first-placed Man City, in the domestic league.

Numerous defensive injuries plagued Pep Guardiola and his choices for a starting lineup, and Kyle Walker’s very unnecessary red card late in the UCL group stages certainly did not help.

Last but not least, on a thrilling but heartbreaking night of Champions League football, City crashed out of the competition in the semifinals against a relentless and very experienced Real Madrid squad.