Dubai: Manchester City were feared by all. Now, they look fragile.
Two games, six goals conceded and a once-brilliant season now looks like falling flat after the 3-2 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.
It sounds bizarre for a team that were looking to win the toughest top-flight European league in record time.
They had the League Cup in the bag, a place in the Champions League quarter-finals and an unsurmountable points tally in the domestic table.
They were scoring for fun, sweeping all aside. Then came a game against an equally arrogant Liverpool led by Jurgen Klopp in the dugout and Mohammad Salah on the field.
They were beaten, cowed and exposed.
Then Liverpool went and did it again.
A humiliating 3-0 loss at Anfield in the Champions League quarter-final first leg had many asking questions about City’s steel.
The answer is now they look decidedly average.
Kevin Keegan once famously challenged Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson when his Newcastle United side had a dominant lead at the top of the table. That did not go well.
Pep Guardiola, the boss at the Etihad, has been somewhat more civil as City have edged toward the Premier League title, saying it is not won until it is won, but he surely must know his boys are not what they think they are and he must have questions about his players.
On Saturday evening, with the trophy beckoning, sitting on a 2-0 lead at home against your bitter rivals and not out of second gear, a momentous almost Keegan-esque collapse transpired.
Paul Pogba, having one of his worst 45 minutes in a red shirt, decided he had not had enough headlines this week — after it was revealed he was offered to City in January by his agent — stepped up to ruin the party.
He was a man transformed after the break and it meant City were once again silenced by their more noisy neighbours.
Waiting to be crowned, it looked like everything was going their way …
The opening goal could not have gone to a more fitting man. He is often the hero, but also often injured.
Captain Vincent Kompany grabbed the initiative and it spoke volumes. It was as if he was reborn as a player after so many years sidelined by injury. To ease the pressure on a team after such an Anfield setback, he rose to the occasion. Literally.
It got worse for United as another failed De Gea clearance meant 2-0 as Raheem Sterling strolled in to double the advantage. It should have been 3-0 and the party should have started but Sterling showed his frailties of old and lifted the ball over the bar after a brilliant ball from David Silva.
It looked like Manchester United spent all week working on a plan -and it looked liked it failed big time. Ashley Young was almost guilty of assault in a desperate bid to stem the flow of City attacks (he should have been sent off).
Then came Pogba.
Two goals in three minutes stunned the Etihad into silence.
It caused flashbacks to Anfield. and the inevitable third came as Chris Smalling took the plaudits in the 89th minutes.
United would — in the words of Keegan — “love it” should City fold in the Prem and let Kevin sleep.
That won’t happen but Pep and the boys will have a grim summer despite being champions.
If they do the unthinkable and beat Liverpool on Tuesday in the Champions League, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich will be licking their lips at an easy draw.
It is amazing what can happen in a few days …
