Manchester City once again paid the price for a poor second-half showing during Sunday’s draw with Tottenham, and it’s becoming a worrying trend for Pep Guardiola’s side
Manchester City are suffering from poor second half performances
When Manchester City’s players and staff soaked in the full-time adulation from the away fans at Nottingham Forest last month, it felt like one of those seminal moments in a title race.
The Blues had netted a late winner to finish the year on a high and reeled off an eighth successive victory. It was the sort of run the best Pep Guardiola sides put together in their pursuit of trophies and a sign that City were moving in the right direction, with Guardiola saying after the game that the Blues would have lost that fixture ’10 times out of 10′ last season.
The victory meant City ended 2025 two points behind leaders Arsenal. Fast forward six weeks and that gap has grown to six, with Guardiola’s men having one just one of their last half-dozen league matches while failing to capitalise on dropped points from Mikel Arteta’s men.
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The win at Forest now feels a false dawn. City achieved it with an improved second-half showing having been stifled in the first half. But just now, Blues fans must almost dread the half-time whistle so poor have their side been after the break.
It’s an issue that cropped up plenty in the opening months of the campaign but has become almost weekly since. City were two up at Spurs on Sunday and coasting despite not being at their best. They were close to their worst after the break as Thomas Frank’s side rallied for what proved to be a fully-deserved point.
It’s not the first time City have been ahead at the break and then dropped off to ultimately drop points. It happened against Brighton and Chelsea earlier this month while the warning signs were there in early season matches with the Seagulls and Monaco.
There have been abject second 45 minute showings in victories too. The win over Galatasaray was achieved with a dynamic first half performance that petered out after the break while City weren’t great after the interval when beating Wolves and were thankful to Phil Foden’s late winner to see off Leeds after the Blues surrendered a commanding two-goal half time lead to fall apart after the break.
So why the drop off? City seemingly can’t react in-game to changes from the opposition – either in personnel or intensity – while the Blues are perhaps ruing the absence of key leaders at various points in the season in Ruben Dias and Rodri. Whatever the situation, it has gone from being a concern to a trend to a worrying eventuality.
Guardiola and his players need to fix it and fix it fast. Otherwise, they are handing the title to Arsenal.