History, hangovers and protests - Man City enter 2025 with fresh questions

If any Manchester City fan has felt particularly Blue over Christmas at the form of the team, they can take solace in what has gone before.

The Pep Guardiola team that spent January 2023 losing to Southampton and United looked nothing like the side that would win the Treble five months later, and last year the Club World Cup triumph was only a minor distraction from a Premier League battle that would be uphill for months. So while this particular run of form may be unprecedentedly bad for Guardiola and his players, it is not unusual for them to head into a New Year with serious questions over whether they can still be successful.

In 2024, they answered those emphatically by arguably topping their achievements the previous year. Nothing will top that giddy run for supporters that culminated with beating Arsenal to the Premier League title, seeing United off in the FA Cup final and claiming their first Champions League trophy in Istanbul, but they have now made even more history.

No English team had ever won four league titles in a row...until May 2024, when Guardiola and his players made history. Rodri was unbeatable, Phil Foden was flying, and everyone in the squad pulled together to do something that may well never be done again. City can boast about something that nobody else in the country has done, and likely never will.

Even then, there were signs of the injuries that would define the second half of the year. City were in with a shout of another Treble as the business end of the season approached and the word among executives heading into the March international break was that as long as there were no issues when the players went away they would be in a good position to challenge for all three major trophies again.