Why Manchester City are struggling behind Arsenal this season

Manchester City, under Pep Guardiola, has dominated the Premier League in the last decade, with Liverpool the only club stopping them from winning all the previous five Premier League titles.

The Citizens have won four of the last five available, making them one of the most successful sides in Europe in domestic competitions.

City remains one club to look out for because they always add new men to their squad, and Guardiola tries to maintain the highest standards possible.

Liverpool was in superb form last season after winning the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, then reaching the final of the Champions League and taking the PL title race to the end of the season.

Yet, Manchester City won the title, and fans expected them to dominate this term after adding Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez to their squad, even though they lost Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus.

In the last few seasons, the only club that stops City from running away with the title is Liverpool, but the Reds are having a terrible season after nearly winning the quadruple the last time out.

As Liverpool struggles, most fans expected City to dominate, but Arsenal has become the surprising most in-form club in the division this season as Mikel Arteta looks to get one over his mentor.

The Gunners have spent the most time atop the EPL table after showing some incredible consistency, and they continue to make life hard for the Manchester City tickets holders who watch their team weekly.

City has struggled surprisingly and could end this term with no trophies or just the FA Cup after beating the league leaders to advance to the next round. But why have they struggled to hunt down Arsenal and catch the Gunners?

Overreliance on Haaland

Before signing Haaland, City never relied on a number nine, and that is one reason strikers like Gabriel Jesus struggled at the Etihad.

Instead, Guardiola built his team in a way that anyone could score, and they consistently invested in attacking talents who had the goals and trickery they needed in them.

However, in the summer, they competed and won the race for Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund after the Norwegian showed a remarkable run of form from the start of his career.

He scored a ridiculous amount of goals at Molde, RB Salzburg and BVB, which made him one of the hottest properties in world football, and City had to get him.

The youngster has continued to bang in the goals in the Premier League and has turned the competition into his playground.

However, City has struggled this season because they have adapted their style to suit him, and when he does not score, it becomes a problem.

One of the commonest ways they attack teams is to get the ball to Kevin de Bruyne, who in turn crosses or passes to Haaland for the Norwegian to score.

Teams who do their homework well make both players ineffective in games, and when that happens, City almost never wins a match.

If the Citizens want to catch Arsenal at any point this season, they must be prepared to get goals from their other players when Haaland has been marked out of a match.

Boring tactics

Pep Guardiola is one of the best ever coaches in the history of football, and we can clearly see that through the number of trophies he has won at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

The ex-midfielder can deliver the result against any club on his day, but Pep is also guilty of almost always overthinking his tactics.

That tinkering could make his side unpredictable and hard to play or easy to play against. However, this season, his team has played in a similar fashion in most matches.

Considering they now have a target man in Haaland, City has been boring to watch in some games, especially when the opponents have studied them very well before the fixtures.

These boring tactics mean they can easily be caught out, and it is one reason they cannot win enough games to get as many points as possible to catch Arsenal.

Transitioning squad

Haaland, Rico Lewis and Alvarez have been a breath of fresh air at City this season, with the three youngsters showing they could be incredible assets to the side.

However, City’s main players are getting old and it is beginning to show on the team whenever they step on the pitch.

You could tell that City are beginning to deliberately bring in newer and younger players to take over from the men who have served the club for the last half-decade.

This process of transition is telling on the team’s performance even though they have tried so hard to ensure it does not happen.

Arsenal has a more settled squad, with their youngsters having spent at least two seasons together, so they have grown as a team.

As City transitions, there will be difficulties, and it will take some time for the club to replace the likes of Sterling and Jesus in the group, so an inconsistency of performance will keep happening for now.

Ageing players

The likes of Kevin de Bruyne, 31, Riyad Mahrez, 31, Kyle Walker, 32, and Ilkay Gundogan, 32, have been key players for City in the last few seasons.

These men have won the last few league titles for Pep’s side and remain his go-to men when the going gets tough.

However, no one plays football forever, and they are clearly at the end of their careers at the moment.

City is struggling to get the performances these experienced players delivered at the peak of their careers, and it will be hard for them to stop an Arsenal side with much younger players who have the energy to run around and make life hard for opponents.

Arsenal’s determination

Another key factor we cannot do without is the determination of the Gunners to end this season with the league title.

For a team that couldn’t even make the Premier League’s top four last season, Arsenal has been superb this term, and we expect them to keep going.

Mikel Arteta’s side has forgotten what it means to be beaten and has learned the act of coming back to win matches before the end of the fixture.

This is a key attribute that most winning clubs have, and they deserve credit for sticking to the high standards they had set at the start of the campaign.

As long as the men in London focus on themselves and continue to win matches, especially the tough ones, it is hard to see City getting back to the top of the league table.

It has been a little boring to see only Liverpool and the Citizens challenge for the title for much of the last decade, so it is good news that Arsenal has emerged.

If they continue to do well in the next few seasons, the English top flight will become more unpredictable and exciting to watch.

But City is an experienced group and we cannot rule them out of the race just yet because if Arsenal stumbles, we can back Pep’s men to hit top form and go on a winning run to close the gap between both clubs now.