How Many Trophies Can City Win in 2021/22 Odds?

Manchester City look like heavy favourites to win the Premier League title for what would be the fourth time in five seasons following Liverpool’s slip up against Leicester City on Tuesday, giving the Citizens a chance to open up a nine-point gap over Jurgen Klopp’s side against Brentford in tonight’s Premier League fixture.

It would take a monumental effort from Chelsea to catch Pep Guardiola’s men, as they are six points behind and have already been beaten by the Citizens at Stamford Bridge earlier on in the season, meaning that they will have to face a daunting task of a trip to the Etihad Stadium in mid-January.

The FA Cup could also be a good chance for Guardiola to add to the 10 trophies that he has won since taking over at the Etihad Stadium, although this is one that has eluded the Spaniard on occasions, winning it just once in the 2018/19 season when City went on to win all of the domestic trophies available to them.

As mentioned above, City have a very good chance of winning the Premier League for a sixth time come the end of the season, as they have won 15 of 19 league games that they have played, accumulating 47 points at the halfway stage, scoring 50 and conceding just 12 times.

The Citizens will be determined to replicate the likes of Liverpool in the 2018/19 season, by making back to back Champions League finals, learning from mistakes from their defeat to Chelsea in Porto and picking up their first-ever European Cup In St. Petersburg at the end of the season.

City have been drawn to play Sporting Lisbon in the Round of 16 and will be expected to comfortably progress through to the quarter-finals, despite the Portuguese champions showing that they can be a tricky test, as they knocked out Borussia Dortmund in the group stages.

Only one team in the history of English football has won this unique treble, which is regarded as the most prestigious of all time in Great Britain, Manchester United’s 1998/99 squad managed this under the leadership of Sir Alex Ferguson, something that City will be desperate to one day match.

The blue half of Manchester had the chance to win a treble last season until they were beaten by Chelsea in the Champions League final, having won the Premier League and Carabao Cup and will now have to focus on the FA Cup and European football’s biggest prize if they are to win a treble that holds prestige like no other.

It was evident that in the Champions League final last season, Guardiola got his tactics wrong by not opting to field a defensive midfielder from the start of the game, seeing his side lack balance in the centre of the pitch, which was detrimental toward Kai Havertz’s match-winning goal in the first half. This is a mistake that the Spaniard will surely know not to make if his side make it that far again.

City haven’t won the FA Cup since the 2018/19 season and will be desperate to do so this season having been knocked out of the Carabao Cup for the first time since they were beaten by United in the 2016/17 campaign. As for their Premier League aspirations, the Citizens are firmly in the driving seat and should have enough quality and experience in their squad to see out the rest of the season and have a successful campaign.

Considering City’s position in the Premier League, as well as their good record in the domestic cups, it would be a surprise to see City walk away from this season without winning a trophy, but, this certainly isn’t an impossible scenario as squads of similar ilks, such as Chelsea’s in the 2007/08 season were beaten in the League Cup final and Champions League final in the same season despite being full of world-class players.

It would take a lot to stop City, but, a failure to capitalise on Liverpool’s slip up and failure to beat the likes of Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium could cast their chances of winning the league into doubt. It is hard to foresee, but so are the falls of other champions, such as United’s failure to win the league in the 2011/12 season when they blew an eight-point lead with just five games to go.

As we know in cup competitions, there can be shock results, such as when League One outfit Wigan Athletic beat City in the 2017/18 season and even beat them in the FA Cup final in 2013, the same year that the Latics suffered relegation from the Premier League. Meanwhile, with City’s record in the Champions League, it can certainly be said that nothing is a given in European competitions, especially when you cast your mind back to their shock exits to AS Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur and Lyon under Guardiola.