Manchester City finished the 2014-15 season in second place, eight points behind league champions Chelsea.
Sergio Aguero picked up the Premier League Golden Boot award on the final day of the season, which saw City finish on a winning note against Southampton. The Sky Blues were the league’s top scorers with 83 goals, while also having the league’s biggest goal difference. So what went wrong for last season’s champions?
Arguably, City were Chelsea’s biggest challengers for most of the season. We look at some of the key factors and moments that cost City the title.
The Strikers:
City, at one point, were without any recognised strikers on the field or on the bench. At the time, Aguero, Stevan Jovetic and Edin Dzeko were all out through injury. James Milner was the one who occasionally played in that striker’s role as a false nine. Aguero, who did extremely well to reach 26 goals in the season, appeared only 33 times for City in the league, of which 29 carried more than 30 minutes. The poor form of Jovetic and Dzeko, combined with injuries to the pair, added to City’s striking concerns. It led the Citizens to shell out around €25 million to attain the services of then in-form-striker Wilfried Bony from Swansea City. But Bony did not even feature for City until he had returned from his triumphant African Cup of Nations campaign with the Ivory Coast. So apart from Aguero’s 26 for the season, the remaining strikers managed only 11 goals between them. City would have felt they needed much more output from their forwards, considering the potential of their strike force.
Defence:
City’s defence has been their most vulnerable area this season. While Joe Hart has had a great season, the same cannot be said about the centre-backs in front of him. City used three centre-backs this season but conceding 38 goals throughout the season, with Hart keeping the most clean sheets in the league (14). Although the stats might say otherwise, City’s defence has been poor on more than a few occasions, conceding some unnecessary and cheap goals as a result of some sloppy defending. Vincent Kompany managed to start only 23 games in the league, leaving Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala to fill in. Until the letter stages of the season, Mangala and Demichelis looked very shaky at the back and as a result conceded a lot of silly yet crucial goals.
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Key Matches:
City were expected to be comfortable winners in a number of matches throughout the season, but failed to do so in a number of those and in the process dropped some valuable points.
Stoke City (H) 0-1, 30 August
Starting with the home loss to Stoke City, early in the season. No team challenging for the title likes to drop points at home so early in the season. The defeat at home to Stoke City proved vital as it gave Chelsea an early impetus to race ahead.
West Ham (A) 1-2, 24 October
Considering Chelsea had dropped points in the same week, Man City’s loss to West Ham proved decisive in the title race. A clear chance for Pellegrini’s men to close in on Chelsea was utterly wasted by a poor performance.
QPR (A) 2-2, 8 November
City tend to have a liking to play Queens Park Rangers. They won the 2012 title in dramatic fashion, defeating the Rs on the final day. They also hammered Rangers 6-0 late this season at the Etihad, but it was the reverse fixture that City would be keen to forget. QPR never really looked like they had a solid chance of survival this season but they turned heads when they managed to take a point against City at Loftus Road. An encouraging point for Rangers but a disappointing couple of points dropped by City.
Besides this draw, City also drew on a number of important occasions. Between the end of December and the start of February, City drew with Burnley, Everton, Chelsea and Hull City within a span of six games. They also only managed a single win in that period.
End of season away form:
City were shockingly poor away from home towards the end of the season. They lost four consecutive away games during March and April. Evidently, that proved to be the final nail in the coffin for City as Chelsea took due advantage during that period and went on to win the league from there.
Despite ending the season well, Pellegrini and his men would have looked back at what could have been and will regret some of the cheap points they dropped. But success in the next season will already be on the agenda as City will look to spend and fight hard to get the title back to the Etihad.
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