It’s the worst start of Pep Guardiola’s career: How worried should Manchester City be?

NEW YORK – Eyes fixed on his feet, hands stitched to the inside of his trouser pockets, Pep Guardiola dragged himself onto the turf before the referee had even brought the whistle down from his mouth.

No handshake for Fabian Hurzeler, the opposing manager. No word spoken to a single player over the next three minutes. No sense of direction as he wandered into the middle of the pitch before dutifully applauding the travelling fans behind the goal.

It encapsulated Manchester City’s final half hour against Brighton & Hove Albion on Aug 31, a blur in which the team showed little emotion and simply acquiesced to their fate.

This 2-1 defeat, following the 2-0 home loss to Tottenham Hotspur the previous weekend, leaves City with just three points after three games.

It is the lowest points tally of Guardiola’s career at this stage of a league season; this is also the first time that City have been below Manchester United in the English Premier League table after three or more match weeks since September 2021, and there have been six managers in the dugout at Old Trafford in that time.

As much as that captures the instability at United, it underlines the sheer length of time that Guardiola and his players have lived with a sense of invincibility – and why they may be struggling to deal with adversity now.

Against Brighton, City had controlled the game for the first hour. Although the big chances had dried up after Erling Haaland scored the opening goal on 34 minutes, it felt like Brighton had run out of ideas.

A quadruple substitution by Brighton after 60 minutes finally shook up the pattern of the game and injected energy into the stadium, but City were expected to ride the wave and find a way to dial down the heat. And then, using an energy Hurzeler said spread like a “virus”, Brighton scored twice to turn the game on its head.

What troubled Guardiola was that resignation appeared to be the only thing spreading among his players.

“Kid mistakes” is how Rodri described his team’s lack of care on the ball, while Guardiola said his team “forgot to continue playing” after conceding a penalty awarded for a handball by Matheus Nunes, put away by James Milner for Brighton’s first.

City’s position would have been unthinkable a year ago, but this is what happens when a team lose their aura.

They may well have believed that a summer break would cure their ills and that time would simply have consigned the 2024-25 season’s collapse to history, but the rest of the league does not forget.

What City internalised as an anomaly, the Premier League’s ferocious middle class views as wounds waiting to be reopened.

When a champion boxer is put on his backside for the first time, it alters perception and removes a layer of the mystique. A granite chin is a mirage that cannot be rekindled once vulnerability has been witnessed. It humanises them, reframes their flaws from abstract to actionable.

City face the same situation. Once a team this strong fall apart so spectacularly for such an extended period, it passes a critical threshold.

Managers are no longer as cautious, players are no longer as submissive, supporters are no longer as in awe.

When City go 1-0 up in a first half, teams are no longer bunkering down to limit damage; they are punching their way out of the corner.

Despite the two losses, City do not need to enter crisis mode again. It is nowhere near the bleak period they endured between late October and February last season. But the team do not currently look capable of the consistency required to win the title.

On Aug 31, Abdukodir Khusanov performed well alongside John Stones and has the pace to carry out the aggressive high line. Tijjani Reijnders is of a high calibre, and Oscar Bobb looks ready to make the right wing his own.

The problem is that there are too many positions that remain undecided and too many questions hanging over individuals. City signed Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from Paris Saint-Germain on Sept 1, but right-back, centre-back, the right of midfield and left wing are all in a seemingly permanent state of flux, and the wide areas are still being targeted.

City have a stockpile of excellent players but lack chemistry.

The defensive line is too often misaligned, the midfield still seeks balance between security and creativity, and the front three rarely combine effectively.

There is much to ponder for Guardiola, but his team look like they are experiencing the growing pains that come with being in transition – no longer possessing a fear factor. NYTIMES