Manchester City continued their dominance in the Premier league by securing yet another title and will be looking forward to continue the count in the 2022/23 season. As always, City flexed their muscle in the summer window bringing in big names to add more quality in already set winning squad. Pep Guardiola’s men will be hoping to claim the Champions League this time out but according to the manager winning the Premier league remains the first priority for the club.
Last Season Review
City secured their sixth Premier League honor in a dramatic fashion on the final day of last season. Trailing 2-0 to Aston Villa at home with fifteen minutes left and closest Liverpool threatening to beat them to the title by taking the lead in their game against Liverpool, Ikay Gundogan reduce the deficit before Rodri equalized with a deft finish letting the German to grab a late winner to complete a pulsating comeback and retaining the title. City finished on 93 points, the third best tally of their Premier League history, maintained a point lead over Liverpool in conclusion having dropped two crucial points in the 2-2 draw against West Ham a week ago. The holders had a nine points lead at the top over Liverpool going into the second half of the season but a defeat to Tottenham again in February and the Reds carrying their impressive run build up this climax. Man City scored the most number of goals with 95 and conceded 23, second best defense in the league. Kevin de Bruyne finished as the top goal contributor for the club with 23, team best 15 goals and eight assists.
Summer Signings & Contract Renewals
This summer window will turn out to be a remembering one in the future as Manchester City turned up the heat by buying Europe’s most wanted striker, Erling Haaland in a deal worth $103 million. This is the highest money spent in transfer fee in this window. Even without a striker, City managed to find the back of the net 95 times in Premier League alone and now a proper number nine as lethal as Norweigian defenses will have a nightmare to contain the team. The club also captured the signing of upcoming talent in Julian Alvarez from River Plate to have competition for places up front with the player fan-named ‘Spiderman’ scoring 18 goals in 17 starts in Argentina last year. Another important arrival was of star midfielder Kalvin Phillips from Leeds United to reinforce the position. With Rodri, City have now a fantastic player for the defensive mid role. Talented goalkeeper Stefan Ortega also joined from German side Arminia Bielefield on a free transfer.
Philipps joined the club to give the club another option in the midfield and to replace Fernandinho who ended his ten years’ trophy-laden career with Manchester City to join Atletico Paranaense back in Brazil on expiration of his contract. He was not the sole departure from the side that won so many Premier League titles over the years and created a legacy at City. Raheem Sterling and Oleksandr Zinchenko also made their departures to Chelsea and Arsenal respectively to build something new in their career having won a combined of eight league titles with City. Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus also made the switch to the North London club after making 236 appearances for the club scoring 95 goals. Second-choice keeper Jack Steffen secured a loan move to Middleborough in Championship until 2023. There were other loan transfers that were made permanent with Pedro Porro moving to Sporting CP, Ko Itakura to Borussia Monchengladbach having spent a year loan at Schalke, youngster Arijanet Muric to Burnley among others.
Even with so many departures, Manchester City haven’t looked out of order courtesy of the incredible depth in the squad. As a case, key players in the squad were tied into long term contracts to not lose them now. Midfielder Rodri penned a three-year extension offering his service until 2027. The 26-year-old penned a five-year deal initially while joining City from Atletico Madrid in 2019. The next renewal came in the form of Riyad Mahrez, the winger sealing his commitment for three more years until 2025 with his initial contract coming to an end in 2023. Scott Carson, City’s third-choice keeper, also extended his contract by a year. According to several reports, Man City are planning a possible extension for Ikay Gundogan who has just a year left on his current contract. The German has openly expressed his desire to stay at the club whom he helped to clinch the title through his brace on the final day of last season.
Pre-Season Results & Fixtures
2-1 vs Club America (W)
0-1 vs Bayern Munich (W)
3-1 vs Liverpool – Community Shield (L)
The summer tour for Manchester City had two friendlies on the schedule, Club America of Mexico and Bayern Munich, registering victories in both. New signing Erling Haaland scored his first goal for the club against the Bundesliga champions inside 12 minutes. The return to England didn’t brought the same joy as City went down 3-1 against Liverpool in the Community Shield. Another new arrival, Julian Alvarez scored the equalizer but couldn’t stop his team slipping on the day.
2022/23 Premier League Season Manchester City Fixtures
Manchester City begin their title defense with a challenging trip to London stadium to face West Ham on the opening weekend of the 2022/23 season. The starting month of August is favorable for the holders with the first big challenge not arriving until 10th September 2022 when Tottenham visits the Etihad Stadium. Spurs did the double over City last season so a revenge is on the cards. The first Manchester derby of the season is on 1st October 2022 at home as well and it begins a tough schedule with an early title-challenger clash against Liverpool on 15th October at Anfield followed by a trip to Arsenal. The end of the season could be tricky with both of these sides to face in the reverse fixture at home in April next year with Chelsea to visit them in the penultimate game of the season. This period will be crucial for their title defense.
07/08/2022 West Ham United vs Manchester City
13/08/2022 Manchester City vs A.F.C. Bournemouth
21/08/2022 Newcastle United vs Manchester City
27/08/2022 Manchester City vs Crystal Palace
31/08/2022 Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest
03/09/2022 Aston Villa vs Manchester City
10/09/2022 Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur
17/09/2022 Wolverhampton vs Manchester City
01/10/2022 Manchester City vs Manchester United
08/10/2022 Manchester City vs Southampton
15/10/2022 Liverpool vs Manchester City
18/10/2022 Arsenal vs Manchester City
22/10/2022 Manchester City vs Brighton
29/10/2022 Leicester City vs Manchester City
05/11/2022 Manchester City vs Fulham
12/11/2022 Manchester City vs Brentford
26/12/2022 Leeds United vs Manchester City
31/12/2022 Manchester City vs Everton
02/01/2023 Chelsea vs Manchester City
14/01/2023 Manchester United vs Manchester City
21/01/2023 Manchester City vs Wolverhampton
04/02/2023 Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City
11/02/2023 Manchester City vs Aston Villa
18/02/2023 Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City
25/02/2023 A.F.C. Bournemouth vs Manchester City
04/03/2023 Manchester City vs Newcastle United
11/03/2023 Crystal Palace vs Manchester City
18/03/2023 Manchester City vs West Ham United
01/04/2023 Manchester City vs Liverpool
08/04/2023 Southampton vs Manchester City
15/04/2023 Manchester City vs Leicester City
22/04/2023 Brighton vs Manchester City
26/04/2023 Manchester City vs Arsenal
29/04/2023 Fulham vs Manchester City
06/05/2023 Manchester City vs Leeds United
13/05/2023 Everton vs Manchester City
20/05/2023 Manchester City vs Chelsea
28/05/2023 Brentford vs Manchester City
(Key dates are in bold)
Also Read | 2022/23 Premier League Season Preview: Liverpool
How will Manchester City set up?
There will be no change in fluid footballing structure from Pep Guardiola in the 2022/23 season with Manchester City acquiring a world class number nine. It is now waiting game to see whether Erling Haaland replicated the impact made by a certain Sergio Aguero at the club and build his own legacy along with the Argentine great. His presence gives the assuramce of goals and in plenty so it won’t be a burden of the wingers turning into false nines to score the majority for the team, even though they are more than capable of doing it as proven in the last couple of seasons. This means the wingers have the job to provide the best service of the Norwegian which is not new for the team leading the chart for creating chances. Something which Riyad mahrez and youngster Cole Palmer have to do in consistent manner from the right wing spot as the club is unwilling to spend on a winger in the market to fill the void left by Raheem Sterling. City wants Palmer to continue his development and demands Mahrez to reach double figures in goal contributions having offered him more game time with the new contract. On the other flank stakes are not that high with Phil Foden and Jack Grealish being lucrative options but the latter had to be more impactful to live up to his price tag in the second season, a pattern shared by other players under Guardiola. The departure of Gabriel Jesus can be coped with a brilliant addition in Julian Alvarez in attack but the vacancy to left-back spot after the departure of Zinchenko means Joao Cancelo is only the viable player for the position although Nathan Ake has slotted in during injury absentees or pure tactically.
Prediction for 2022/23 Premier League Season
Only city rivals, Manchester United have won the league title three times in a row in the Premier League history. The Cityzens were close to repeat that feet in 2019/20 season but Liverpool went away with it. With a phenomenal striker in the squad and manager Pep Guardiola keeping the league title high on his wish list, City by any means will want to match the feat their neighbors fulfilled under Alex Ferguson. No doubt, Liverpool will give them another tough competition by making some reinforcements of their won and may force an intense title race like before but City’s title tasting mentality could give them the edge this time around.
