Manchester City slumped to a disappointing defeat against Newcastle United in the Capital One Cup

Wednesday night’s Capital One Cup match against Newcastle United was supposed to be the perfect opportunity for Manchester City to get back to winning ways after back to back disappointments suffered away to the likes of CSKA Moscow and West Ham United. City boss Manuel Pellegrini was expected to put out a strong side for the League Cup game and he surely did not disappoint. The disappointment came later as the reigning champions of England slumped to a disappointing defeat.

Newcastle youngster Rolando Aarons scored his side’s first past a helpless Willy Caballero

Analyzing the remains of a match gone by will surely do us no good and is also not the objective of this article now that we are officially out of the competition, but what we Citizens need to keep in mind at this point of time is that our next game, against Manchester United  is surely of utmost importance. Manchester City Football Club can call themselves lucky as they are able to afford the best players and facilities for the Blue cause, but what this club cannot afford right now is another disappointing result at the weekend. There are certainly many reasons as to why we can’t afford to lose or even draw on Sunday, and the identity of our opponents is not even the biggest one of the lot. Yes, the match does happen to be against our fiercest rivals, Manchester United, but what is more important right now is our involvement in the title race. League leaders Chelsea could possibly be leading us by nine points by the time we kick off at the Etihad and going that many points behind the  pace setters at any point of time during the campaign is not an appealing scenario.

City boss Pellegrini has a tough task on his hands as United visit this Sunday

If dropping off the pace of the leaders is the biggest reason why we need to win on Sunday, then the thought of our city rivals getting to within one point of us definitely comes a close second. United find themselves in a good vein of form after being undefeated in their last four games, which culminated in a surprisingly good performance that gave them a hard earned point against Chelsea last Sunday. While they still may not be back to their very best, we need to remember that United do have amidst their ranks some good players who can put their mark on any game. Add to the fact that the Red Devils will be having a whole week to prepare for the crunch clash on Sunday while we had to play in the League Cup in midweek and  it becomes fair to say that the balance shifts in the favour of our opponents. The game against United this Sunday will surely be a difficult one but the poor form that we find ourselves in at this point of time will do the impossible by making it even more harder. City find themselves on a run of three games without a win for the second time in a season, which has only just begun and it is fair to say that the Manchester Derby comes at a time when we were not in need of high profile derby games. All in all, the odds appear to be stacked against Manchester City, something that has not really happened much in the last few years. The derby on Sunday is probably our biggest game of the season yet and the players and the management need to be on top of their game because a disappointing result against our rivals will only redouble the doom and gloom that surrounds the Etihad at the moment while a win would surely put our season back on track.