Given the deflated feelings and irritated grumbles coming out of the blue half of Manchester this season, you'd be forgiven for thinking that their season was all but over. However, going into the last 18 games of the season, they find themselves only 3 points behind leaders Arsenal. What's more, those two tiny specs in their rear-view mirror are actually Chelsea and rivals United. January's important for every club, but it feels absolutely crucial for Manchester City. The positivity that followed the expensive summer acquisitions of Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling has been off tempered by a catalogue of defensive calamities and, worst of all, the revelation that Sergio Aguero's hamstrings are apparently made of nothing but glass and chewing gum. With the impeding departure of Manuel Peliggrini, the club looks to be heading towards a painful era of torch-passing. Club stalwarts Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure, themselves the very faces of City's emergence as a European superpower, will likely soon find themselves replaced by younger stars more fitting the style of whoever the in-coming manager is. But with a few carefully picked additions, this squad is still one that can go out with a domestic bang.
WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine
