Man City try to escape looming reality amid Premier League charges storm

Manchester City know they are on borrowed time.

They know that what they have done isn't normal, not least because it had never been done before. Pep Guardiola's side will be down as favourites to win the Premier League again when it beings this weekend, yet doing so to clinch five consecutive crowns would force new adjectives for a team that have already broken countless records and suspended expectations.

Will this be the year when it all comes crashing down to earth? And, as importantly away from the pitch, will this be the year when an independent panel finds the club flew too close to the sun with their finances?

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It is all set up to be a seismic year off the pitch for the club as the arguments over whether they seriously misrepresented their financial position for almost a decade will finally be heard and judged. By the end of the season, City should know whether their insistence of innocence has been justified or whether they have been found guilty of the most serious offences ever seen in English football that could see them expelled from the Premier League.

That theme will hang around the season despite the lack of evidence that is publicly available, with everyone in the Premier League watching and waiting to see what happens. It will be painfully damaging for at least one of the parties in the hearing and any punishments for City - however menial - will be pounced upon by rival clubs and fans to try to delegitimise the Guardiola era of dominance.

If those people hope that the walls are closing in on City as a club, Arsenal are leading the