A Disorganized Defense Threatens Manchester City's Title Chances

Manchester City experienced a goal parade in their last two matches in the English Premier League. "The Citizens" scored eight goals but conceded six. Although they managed to secure six points from those two matches, the significantly high number of goals conceded is a warning signal for Manchester City's chances of reclaiming the championship title in the domestic arena.

City returned home with a 5-4 advantage from Fulham's home ground, Craven Cottage Stadium, London, Wednesday (3/12/2025 WIB). This result helped City reduce the point gap from Arsenal, the league leader, to two points. Arsenal will still face a London derby against Brentford on Thursday early morning WIB.

In total, City has failed to maintain their clean sheet since defeating Liverpool 3-0 on November 9. They subsequently conceded two goals, resulting in losses to Newcastle United and Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.

In terms of defensive quality, Leeds and Fulham are not as strong as Newcastle and Leverkusen. This has allowed City to still benefit from luck in defeating these two mediocre teams in the English League.

On the other hand, conceding six goals against those two teams indicates chaos in City's defense line. Their goal has become vulnerable after leading by at least two goals.

Leeds even managed to equalize the score to 2-2 before Phil Foden secured the victory at 3-2. Meanwhile, Fulham nearly wiped out three points from The Citizens after leading 5-1. Fulham scored three goals in just 21 minutes.

Conceding after taking the lead indicates a decline in the focus of City players. This issue represents a psychological challenge that is not easy for Guardiola to address alone.

"Ultimately, there are indeed questions regarding our character, resilience, and defense. I also do not know what happened. We need to be luckier," said City Manager Pep Guardiola after the match to the BBC.

The six conceded goals in the last two games were entirely based on blunders by City players. Four of the goals were primarily due to the Citizens' inability to win second-ball duels in their own defensive third.

Leeds scored the first goal after a clearance from a City player fell to the feet of a Leeds player. Subsequently, the last three goals by Fulham were also due to City's failure to contest the second ball after attempting to clear the ball from their goal during a Fulham cross.

Alex Iwobi and Samuel Chukwueze, on two occasions, were in the right position to receive the clearance ball from the City player. They perfected their positioning with a first-time shot that struck the City goal without being intercepted by the goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donaruma.

"All goals (Fulham) were created due to poor defense. We defended too deeply to anticipate their crosses. We also need to utilize defensive spaces better," said Guardiola.

Referring to the 2025-2026 Premier League statistics, City's defensive record isn't too bad. Their expected goals against (xGA) is one of the lowest. City only managed 15.1 xGA, which means their chances of scoring against the opposition are only worse than Arsenal's (7 xGA).

However, City has already conceded 16 goals from the number of chances faced by opponents. On average, City has conceded 1.1 goals per match in the English Premier League this season.

That record is almost similar to 1.2 goals per match in the last season when they finished in third place, 13 points behind Liverpool, the champion.

In the six seasons concluded with City achieving league titles under Guardiola's regime, they never recorded an average of more than 0.9 goals conceded per game. This figure was established in the last two seasons in which City won the league, namely 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

Manchester City is only ranked sixth in the average goals conceded per game. The Citizens trail behind Arsenal (0.5 goals per match), Crystal Palace (0.8), Aston Villa (0.8), Chelsea (0.9), and Sunderland (1).

In the record of nirbobol, City has only recorded five matches without conceding. Four of those matches without conceding occurred during the first nine matches of the English Premier League this season.

On the other hand, Guardiola needs to improve the collective coordination of his team's defense line and ensure that each defensive player performs at their best capability.

This is because City players have made 10 blunders that resulted in opponent shots in the English Premier League. Of those blunders, three mistakes led to goals by the opposing team.

The number is quite significant as City only experienced 9.4 shots per match or a total of 132 shots overall. From that quantity of shots, as much as 75 percent of opponents were able to produce shots inside The Citizens' penalty area.

"The main problem for City is that they allow opponents to create opportunities too easily," said Alan Shearer, the English football legend, to the BBC.

A similar sentiment was expressed by former Crystal Palace striker, Clinton Morrison. He is not concerned about City's ability to score in every match. According to Morrison, The Citizens must improve their defensive performance.

"You cannot expect to win the Premier League when defending as City has shown in several recent games. Of course, we will not see Arsenal concede three goals again after leading 5-1, so defensive errors must be minimized," said Morrison. (AFP)