City bade farewell to Manuel Pellegrini during our 2-2 home draw against Arsenal, but one cannot help but feel that his tenure is coming to a rather unceremonious end

As I mentioned in last week’s article for this blog, Manuel Pellegrini’s tenure at City already seems as if it’s over. This Charming Man, as he’s come to be known, gave us a lot over the course of the last three years. But standing towards the end of his reign at City, I cannot help but feel that things could have been managed that little bit better.

Our last two Premier League games, and in fact, our last three games in all competitions, have been woeful, and it’s really sad to see that a team as strong as ours is losing leads not once, but twice in one game! In fact, the Red and White blitzkreig that descended upon that day at St. Mary’s showed exactly how frail we really are.

There are too many problems at the Etihad but the most pressing matter on hand right now is our Champions League future. Our recent run of poor results has me worried and it could also have taken a Champions League spot away from us. In fact, things looked pretty iffy after the Arsenal game as our draw  meant that our Champions League qualification was dependent upon United’s results.

The owner’s of our club made sure to make the Chilean’s last day at the Emirates a memorable one as they handed him two paintings

That is not how City have become used to operating over the last five or six years. Being helpless at the mercy of your fiercest rivals is not what do here and it hurts to even imagine how close we came to missing out on a spot in Europe’s premiere club competition!

Kevin De Bruyne celebrates his goal with Fernandinho, but the Cityzens were not celebrating too long as we saw our Champions League hopes taken out of our hands

Had United had the composure and nerve to hold on for the win at Upton Park, we’d have been history. Pep Guardiola would have been taking up charge of a team that was playing in the Europa League. Subsequently, had the Hammers slightly slipped up or had their United game not held so much importance for the club, our cross-town rivals would have been walking away with three points, one hand on the fourth spot and the incomparable satisfaction of denying your city rivals a spot in next year’s Champions League.

How we managed to get out of that mess though is a whole different story. The Blue half of Manchester is greatly indebted to the Claret and Blue half of London for giving our European hopes back in our own hands.

Pellegrini leads his charges into his last ever game, against Swansea next week, in what should be crunch match with one point required to secure fourth spot for us

Now though, looking ahead to the last game of the season, which is also the last game of Pellegrini’s City reign, all we want is a win. I’m aware that another point would seal fourth place for us, but I personally don’t want us playing for a draw. An away assignment against Swansea should be as straightforward as any away encounter in the Premier League, but with the Swans having pulled off some excellent results in their last two games, namely commanding wins over Liverpool and West Ham, I’m slightly apprehensive about how things could turn out.