Collapse of a Dynasty

In May 2024, as last season drew to a close I published the following blog, https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/05/22/the-threat-of-dynasties/, warning of the threat that Man City posed to the competitive nature of football as they crowned a dynasty that looked unassailable.

I needn’t have worried, it seems City are determined to destroy their dynasty all by themselves.

The strange thing is that it started off so well, with 4 wins in a row in the league to start the season through August and September. October saw them win 5 of their 6 games, including big wins over Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League Group Stage. Things started to go wrong in November

First came a loss at Bournemouth with an 83rd minute Josko Gvardiol strike not being enough to prevent City’s 32 game unbeaten run, stretching back to 6th December 2023, from being smashed on the south coast.

Losing their unbeaten streak must’ve hit City like a freight train as they went on to lose the next 3 games on the bounce and ended the month with a 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord.

The worst part for City was that, 4-0 home humiliation by Spurs aside, they had actually taken the lead in each game. Foden had given them the lead 4 minutes into the Sporting Lisbon game, but then 3 goals in the 10minutes either side of half time turned their joy to ashes. The last of those goals was a penalty and then City shot themselves in the foot again by giving away another one 10 minutes from time.

Self-inflicted has become City’s modus operandi ever since, with 2 goals in the final 12 minutes and 3 goals in the last 16 minutes being the way they chose to lose to throw away leads against Brighton and Feyenoord respectively.

They took this MO of late collapses to the extreme during the Manchester Derby on 15th December 2024. Huge favourites going into the match, against a United team struggling for form, they took the lead in the 36th minute and held it all the way till the 88th.

Just 2 minutes from victory they couldn’t help themselves but give away a penalty to their hated rivals on their home turf, which Bruno Fernandes smashed home before Amad Diallo administered the knockout blow in the dying seconds to send the away fans into extasy.

City fans might have thought it couldn’t get any worse and their start to 2025 looked to confirm their return to form, following up a 4-1 win against West Ham United with an EIGHT-0 win against Salford City in the FA Cup.

Then the wobbles returned on a trip to London and Brentford’s Gtech fortress. The fortress had been trembling in the weeks before their arrival, having been first breached by Nottingham Forest, and when City took a late 2 goal lead it looked like the fortress was truly crumbling.

What had been forgotten was that it was City that were the crumblers now conceding 2 goals in the final 10 minutes to throw away the victory, topped off with a 92nd minute headed equaliser from Christian Noorgaard.

Any hopes that the collapses were resigned to history after a 6-0 destruction of Ipswich in their next game were crushed in Paris.

Going into the must-win Champions League showdown with PSG off the back of such a commanding victory should’ve been enough to power City over the line in the city of love and when they took the lead with 2 goals in 3 minutes just after half-time all looked rosy.

Then came the collapse.

It took just 7 minutes from taking the lead for City to collapse and let PSG equalise. From there it only got worse and by the time Goncalo Ramos topped off the host’s victory with 4th goal in the 93rd minute I had City fans I knew messaging me rants about their team.

How the mighty have fallen.

The worst collapse came yesterday at the Emirates, as they equalised through Erling Haaland in the 55th minute only to be 3-1 down within 7 minutes and Arsenal didn’t even have to work hard for those 2 goals. Another double would follow before the final whistle as City slumped to a 5-1 loss against the team they beat to the final last season, their 4th title in a row.

Yesterday was the day it truly hit home for me just how swift and total the collapse of this Dynasty has been, 15 points behind top of the table Liverpool and looking like complete Jekyll and Hyde basket cases.

You never know which City will turn up anymore, though their home form has been much better than their away form in 2025, but at least things get easier soon with just Newcastle United, Liverpool and Real Madrid lying in wait after an FA Cup 4th round trip to Leyton Orient next weekend.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if League One Orient could dump City out of the cup?