Manchester City's hit and miss 2014-15 season drawing to a close

Manchester City's hit and miss 2014-15 season drawing to a close [VIDEO]

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Manchester City go into their final game of the season against a Southampton side that are keen on finishing their campaign on a record high.

City secured second place behind new champions Chelsea, after Arsenal failed to beat Sunderland on Wednesday night. The former title holders have had a roller-coaster of a season, which has seen them play some attractive and attacking football while also putting in some rather disappointing performances. Outside90 club correspondent Rahul Dantes takes a look at some of City’s biggest moments of the season.

Sergio Aguero

Arguably, Aguero’s form was City’s highlight and lowlight. The Argentine started the season in flying fashion. He raced to 14 goals in the first 14 matches, but was then injured in the next game against Everton. He missed the next five matches through injury, after which the goals dried up. His next ten appearances only saw him net three times. But the last six matches have seen Aguero return to his deadliest, scoring eight, including a hat-trick against Queens Park Rangers. He now has 25 for the season and looks likely to snatch the Golden Boot award, having scored five more goals than Harry Kane in second place.

December – January

December and January are usually the periods of the season where teams struggle the most, with the extremely hectic period for the English teams tending to take a toll on a lot of players. City surprisingly did rather well though, considering the amount of key players that were missing during those two months. The Sky Blues lost the likes of skipper Vincent Kompany, Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic through injury all throughout December. This meant that they played almost all of December without a recognised striker in the first team, James Milner was often used as a makeshift forward during that time. City also missed Yaya Toure and new signing Wilfried Bony in January, as they left on International duty with the Ivory Coast. It was not the best time to be losing key players, but credit must be given to Manuel Pellegrini and his men, as they took 21 points from the 10 games in that period and got the closest to top spot as they would all campaign. Only Arsenal managed to take more during that time (22 points).

February – April

City shockingly struggled for form after they got back all their players from injuries, suspensions and International duty. In the 11 games played during this period, they managed six wins, one draw and four losses, resulting in 19 points. It was also during this period that City lost their claim to retain the title. Chelsea, who were eventual winners, remained unbeaten and took 27 points in the same period. Definitely a turning point for Manuel Pellegrini during the season.

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Joe Hart

With much of the praise that came City’s way directed at Aguero, Joe Hart’s performance this season has been extremely overlooked. The England No.1 has been in outstanding form for the Sky Blues, with Kompany missing for a large portion of the season, City’s defence looked very unsteady. Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala have not been at their best and have relied heavily on Hart to bail them out on a number of occasions. One of hismost notable outings of the season came against Barcelona in the Champions league. He produced some excellent stops over the two legs against the Catalan giants, including a stoppage minute penalty save from Lionel Messi. His performances even earned the plaudits of Messi, as the Argentine labelled him a ‘Phenomenon’.

Silva-Aguero partnership:

David Silva and Aguero have been involved in some absolutely beautiful link up play this season. The duo have become more than easy on the eye, producing some great interplay that have resulted in some of the top goals of the campaign. Both players have enjoyed fine form towards the end of the season but unfortunately could not guide City to retain their title.

City will look ahead to the next go-around with high hopes, looking to be able clinch back the title from Chelsea. But for now they concentrate on finishing their final game of the season with a triumph over Southampton.

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