Since the 1st of July 2016 that Pep Guardiola signed his contract to be Man City coach, he has always delivered with total domination in the Premier League amid other trophies like the FA cup and the Community Shield.
He has given Man City 18 trophies in total. But his current terrible form has caused a debate on his credibility as a manager, casting doubt about his future with the club.
Guardiola’s side closed out the old year with eight consecutive victories, but their form has dipped sharply in 2026, with just two wins from seven matches and now back-to-back defeats. Last night’s slump to Bodo Glint compound their fate.
Facing Norwegian opposition for the first time, City endured a nightmarish trip to Bodø as their youthful lineup struggled to cope. With an average age of 24 years and 84 days playing time, it was the youngest starting XI City have ever fielded in a Champions League match, and it showed. Costly individual errors from Alleyne contributed to a humbling 1-3 defeat.
As was the case against Man united at Old Trafford last weekend, City were repeatedly exposed at the back and were fortunate to concede only three goals.
Haaland’s return to his homeland proved forgettable. The striker failed to score again and has now gone a month without an open-play goal, managing just one penalty in his last eight appearances.
City have also slipped off the pace in the Premier League, sitting seven points behind Arsenal, and face a crucial week ahead to avoid dropping into the Champions League play-off places.
According to some reports, with the way ManCity is moving with back to losses from the Premier league to the champions league, it’s possible that Pep may get sacked but that’s not for a fact now because of what he has brought to ManCity as a club.
Another blow for City was Rodri being sent off for two bookings, they were destroyed by Bodo/Glint. City are still in with a good chance of making the top eight and host Galatasaray in their final game next Wednesday.
Meanwhile after the lose by Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey round of 16 to a Third Division club knocking them out, and losing their Coach, Xabi Alonso, following another defeat in the Spanish Cup final by Barcelona in Saudi Arabia, it’s been one hell of a ride for the Los Blanco’s.
With the emergence of a new coach in Arbeloa, an academy coach upgraded to a first team coach and with his first game in La Liga beating Levente 2-0 and thumping Monaco 6-1 at the Bernabeu on Tuesday in the Champion League, it seems within all possibility that the team is back as major contender for the trophy they have won an incredible 13 times with the second team, Liverpool, winning a distant six times..
As expected, Kyrian Mbape opened the scoring with two goals, while Vinicius Jr. provided two assists and one goal and Valverde with an assist and the likes Franco Mastantuono and Jude Bellingham were on the score sheet.
Los Blanco’s comfortable win moves them to second on the Champions League table with 15 points just behind Arsenal who is first on the table with 21 points from eight games after a 3-1 win at Inter Milan.
After a goalless draw over the weekend in Premier league against Nothingham Forest and the opportunity of not capitalizing on the loss of ManCity to go 9 points clear on the table, with a 0-2 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford; Arsenal showed class in Milan. With a goals by Bukayo Saka, Justin Timber and Trossard with an assist each and Victor Gyokeres on the score sheet and Gabriel Jesus with a brace to take the gunners to top of the table with 21 points and a spot on the top 8 teams of the Champions league.
The champions league night started with Thomas Frank being under pressure for a win against Dortmund, following poor runs in the Premiership, and Romero opened the goal of the night with Odobert giving him a beautiful assist. Afterwards a red card was shown to D. Svensson, a Dortmund defender for a bad tackle, the home-side capitalized on it to add another goal with Solanke on the score sheet and Odobert with another assist, giving Thomas Frank boys a win with the 3 points them moving to 4th on the table with 14 points and securing a spot at the top 8 for now for the home-side.
The great surprise of the night was PSG, the defending champion, losing 1-2 to Sporting Lisbon of Portugal, a second defeat in the game, which put their fate of automatic qualification in doubt. However, this may be a repeat of their last season’s experience which the managed to play off on the last match day, but went on the lift the trophy.