With ten games left in the English Premier League, the defending English champions, Manchester City are in dire need of an uptake in form to take first place back from Chelsea. It was three games ago that the general consensus in the City camp was that every remaining game needed to be won in order to close the gap on Chelsea. Three games later and Manchester City seem to have a better chance of dropping to third than rising to first. those three games have symbolized the highs and lows of the entire campaign. The first game saw City demolish Newcastle to a score of 5-0. The team also shortened their gap between Chelsea to five after the league leaders tied. The next game stopped the momentum, however in a crushing loss to Liverpool courtesy of Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho with two wondrous goals. The final of the three games was an unconvincing victory against the bottom table team, Leicester City. Manchester City are running out of time to rekindle their dominant form.
The fact that those three games included two wins and one loss just goes to demonstrate how good the opposition is. Chelsea have been brilliant in the Premier League this season and are led by the pragmatic manager Jose Mourinho and superstars Eden Hazard and Diego Costa. Mourinho sides have had a huge record of success across Europe and the manager is legendary for never turning over an early season lead. However, Manchester City have a history of overhauling the leaders at the very end. The story was such as they chased Manchester United in 2012. Manchester United at the height of their powers led their local rivals by eight points as the season reached its end. It took a run of phenomenal games for Manchester City to will themselves back into the title race, and it still required a stoppage time goal from Argentine striker Sergio Aguero. Last season, it was Liverpool led by PFA Player of the Year, Luis Suarez, who led Manchester City. That time it was the Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure who led City back. This year, it will take both Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure as well as David Silva and Vincent Kompany to defend the title. Of course, City can not just will themselves back to winning ways. It will require a change of tactics from Manuel Pellegrini who has come under criticism for poor formations and starting eleven. The defense will also need to improve quickly. The normally unshakable Vincent Kompany has been poor for City and needs to get backs to the days when he shut down offenses. Manchester City certainly have the quality to come back, but the question is: will Chelsea crumble, and if they do, can Man City be ready to race by them and win the English Premier League yet again?
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