Pep Guardiola's future clouds Manchester City mini slump as questions asked

Manchester City are walking perilous ground so early in the season, with a fifth consecutive Premier League title and another shot at Champions League glory at stake.

Being knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Tottenham last week left them at least leading the English top-flight as consolation, a picture which looked brighter at 2.30pm on Saturday when Arsenal provided the opportunity to climb eight points clear of the past two seasons' closest challengers. A shock 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth followed, however, whilst Liverpool jumped into first place with their own victory.

Days later and Man City had the chance to bounce back in a Champions League fixture with added weight now Sporting CP manager Ruben Amorim is due to take over at Manchester United. After taking the lead, Victor Gyokeres ripped the 2022/23 winners to shreds in a 4-1 hammering that could see them drop out of the automatic qualification spots by tonight. A third consecutive defeat is almost uncommon ground for City - you have to go back to April 2018 for a similar run of results.

Pep Guardiola has got his side out of rough patches plenty of times before and won numerous titles as a result, so confidence in his ability as coach is by no means questioned. The only lingering doubt to hold this time is his long-term future and how this could detract from the situation.

The 53-year-old's contract is due to expire next summer - what would be nine years after he joined the club. There is no official word at this moment in time whether he will extend his stay in England, so fears are growing.

Now with this mini-slump thrown into the mix, there are still questions to be answered over whether this serves only to increase worry about the manager's future.

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