It was all going according to plan just a couple of weeks back for Manchester City. Top of the league by five points, unbeaten in the league winning twelve and drawing twice, still in with a chance to qualify for the knockout stages the Champions league and still apart of every tournament. Fast forward to today; they are now out of the Champions League and a part of the Europa League, they’re also no longer unbeaten after the defeat to Chelsea, and sit just two points above their closest rivals Manchester United.

Some will say it’s been a horrible week for Manchester City – it’s just been a very unlucky couple of events. Take the Champions League for example, out of the eight groups only two runners up had more points than City and one of those groups was their own. For arguments sake, most know that with ten points you’re almost guaranteed to qualify for the last 16. The result against Napoli at home ultimately cost them. On this occasion you can argue it was unlucky they got demoted, especially when you consider it was their first time in the Champions League. Maybe we should give them some credit for great results against Villarreal and Bayern Munich.

Now moving over to the league, obviously they’ve had their unbeaten record taken away from them by Chelsea. Again one can argue that Chelsea on the night were the better team, they had more chances, they deserved it.  I tend to think again some of it was down to a bit of luck as when the score was 1-0 in favour of City there was a penalty shout that could have went their way. When Bosingwa stuck out a leg in the box and made contact with David Silva’s knee, a penalty was awarded. Sure, the resulting penalty may not have went in; maybe it would have. Once again a bit of luck and they could have been 2-0 up and it would be a completely different contest.

That said, there isn’t much to worry about for City fans. They’re still in the FA Cup, last four of the League Cup, in the Europa League and are two points clear at the top going into Christmas. They’ve already come up against four out of the other five that finished in the top six last year (having still to play Arsenal on Sunday) and boast an impressive record of two wins, one draw and one defeat – it must also be said all those games were away from home, scoring thirteen times and only conceding five.

People may talk about them losing big players come January for the African Cup of Nations and they would be correct, but in all honesty it’s only two that will be going – the Toure brothers. They will be a big miss but not one that can’t be fixed, as well as having the squad to rotate, they also have the option to buy in the January transfer window, and when you’re a club like City it’s more or less guaranteed you’ll spend at least some money.

The most important thing now for Roberto Mancini will be altering his squad between all the competitions, depending on which one he’d like to take most seriously. With a large squad it won’t be a hard task for the Italian but keeping all his players injury free will be a task which he doesn’t have any control over.

No one can ever tell how the Premier League will unfold but all you can do at the present time is look at it and think with the fixtures that have already been played by City and their title rivals they are in the best position. They only managed one trophy last season but they’re already within three games of matching that accomplishment this season.

One can only guess if they’ll take the Europa League seriously this season and if they do, it’s well within their capabilities of winning the tournament. In the FA Cup, they’ve only went and drawn their nearest and dearest rivals in the third round, Manchester United. Knock them out and they may just have a clear path to the final.

It is of course hard for any club to win a trophy, but if you’re Manchester City with owners who will back you then you’ve got to at least win one.  Being in contention for four at the turn of the year will make that very likely.

Right now, the future looks good for Manchester – the blue side of Manchester that is.

Photo courtesy of Keels1986.