Manchester City have recently not reached the heights of their performances during their dominant Premier League title win last season, but manager Pep Guardiola could not hide his delight as his team outclassed Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The Spaniard has described the performance as one of the best since his arrival at the Etihad Stadium and it has put the club in control of their own fate at the midway point of the group stages, but Guardiola will be aware that his more immediate concerns should now be placed on domestic action with City having to contend with a testing schedule before the next international break.
The football betting odds sites like zakłady-bukmacherskie.com will be in City's favour against any team in England but there is no guarantee that Guardiola's team will be sitting at the top of the Premier League standings during the middle of November. The North-West giants have been provided with a welcome break after the long trip to the Ukraine, but a visit to Wembley Stadium to face Tottenham Hotspur on Monday marks a big fixture for the club. Guardiola will insist that his focus is fully on overcoming a Spurs team who are capable of beating anyone on their day, but City also face the possibility of sitting in fourth position in the league table due to that encounter taking place after their nearest rivals have all featured in fixtures against clubs who are in the bottom half of the standings.
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Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal will all expect to get the better of Cardiff City, Burnley and Crystal Palace respectively and it would leave City's meeting with Spurs as fourth against fifth. Supporters will of course be aware of Man City's game in hand but it would put Guardiola's team in a position where defeat could quickly see the club drop from first to fifth in the space of little over 48 hours. It would mark nothing more than a psychological boost for their rivals given that we are still relatively early in the season, but it would have the potential to dent the confidence of a City squad who are used to having things their own way. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Lyon have already shown this season that it is possible to cope with City's attacking talent, and such results this weekend would only increase the pressure ahead of home matches with Southampton and Manchester United.
City will expect to overcome the Saints in front of their own supporters, but it is the showdown with their neighbours which will take centre stage. United have been under-performing on a regular basis this season and the trip to the Etihad will come just four days after a Champions League meeting with Juventus in Turin, but Jose Mourinho will relish the prospect of taking his side to their rivals as considerable underdogs just over six months after completing a comeback win in the corresponding fixture last season. Both managers will understand the importance of gaining bragging rights from the match but Mourinho will take confidence from that fact that City wilted under the pressure when having the chance to win the league crown against United in April. The clash on November 11 represents a different scenario, but a City defeat would have the potential to change the mood in Manchester heading into the two-week break.
Arsenal and Liverpool will do battle at the Emirates Stadium over the same period but aside from that, those clubs plus Chelsea and Spurs are involved in fixtures where they will expect to register results which would pile the pressure on City at the stage of the season when European and EFL Cup ties also take up time in the schedule. City have the squad-depth to deal with such a run of games, but one setback in the league over the coming weeks will probably hand the initiative to the chasing pack and who knows, make a long-standing impact in the title race.
