How Manchester City’s ‘real season’ might already be over after Guardiola message

Fair play to Manchester City, who by their manager’s own admission have now started three separate seasons in 2025/26 uncharacteristically poorly.

“Now we really start the season,” Pep Guardiola said before the Newcastle game. “There are two parts of the season. When the transfer window is over in the summer and after the international breaks are over.

“Now, the international breaks are done. It will be until March, see each other every three days. Now the real season starts.”

And while defeat at St James’ Park does not necessarily mean it has ended already, it was certainly another setback for a team getting uncomfortably used to them.

Manchester City lost two of their opening three games, drew their second match after the transfer window closed and slipped again at the start of a period which has stimulated and supported many a championship charge.

They returned from the third pause of the season to win nine in a row in 2017/18, then put together a run of 11 straight victories after the November break in 2021/22.

It is not an unbreakable rule for all their title wins; sometimes a pandemic or mid-season World Cup gets in the way and that imposing sequence of wins has come later in other campaigns. But this is the time when Manchester City rarely lose ground.

Guardiola likely imagined that pre-match message would evoke a different response from his players but this was more of the same when Erling Haaland doesn’t score. They have lost all three games in which he has not found the net this season and while his brilliance can be relied upon far more often than not, the lack of any supporting cast member taking the spotlight on the odd occasion he fluffs his lines has become a genuine problem.

That need for someone else to step up has been openly and publicly discussed by Guardiola but the wait goes on. Wolves are the only other side who do not have multiple players on at least two goals and Maxime Esteve remains Manchester City’s second top Premier League scorer as December approaches.

The Newcastle game was exceptional in terms of wastefulness from both sides. Haaland should have scored but so too Phil Foden, while all but four outfielders used at St James’ Park had at least one shot.

So soon after the victory over Liverpool in the aftermath of Arsenal’s draw with Sunderland, that momentum has already been squandered and Guardiola knows better than anyone how that can be terminal.

“The truth is a team as strong as Arsenal, I have a feeling they will not drop points, so if they go further ahead it will be impossible to catch,” he said before the Newcastle game. “Arsenal are an impeccable team. If they manage to take some distance in points, it will be difficult to catch up. Just like how it went with Liverpool.”

The gap to the Gunners is back to seven points after Guardiola’s players followed up his “the real season starts now” statement with a mere whisper.