Manchester City: captains of the EPL, falling everywhere else

On a Wednesday night, premier league leading Manchester City fell to their Lancashire neighbors Liverpool, in a Carling Cup semi-final first leg clash.

photo: Nigel Roddis/Reuters

In a game where Man city were without African brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure, as well as the playmaking abilities of Vincent Kompany and David Silva, Liverpool took advantage in the first leg cup tie with an away goal put home by Steven Gerrard.

 The game was not pretty and came on the heels of City's loss Sunday to municipal rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup. Manchester City have now lost three of their last four games. Being the business that this is, any negative trend, no matter how small is hard to ignore. City's early season was brilliant, offering some fantastic results in the league including a 6-1 win at Manchester United. That win came in the middle of a 7-game winning streak in the BPL. 

However, one's view of things on a broader scale is not quite so bright. City were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League in December following an inconsistent run. Such a result could be attributed to one of the tougher groups we've seen in years. Excuses could be drawn for both their fa cup exit and their potential soon-to-be release from the league cup. But what amazes me is that excuses could even be part of the vocabulary for a team so wealthy, so talented, and so successful for much of the season.

The final defense for City in this situation is that the other three competitions fall by the wayside if the blue half of Manchester is celebrating a Premiership title come May. However, such is far from a definite for the wealthiest club in the world as the table below dictates.

1

Manchester City

20

15

3

2

56

16

40

48

10-0-0

5-3-2

2

Manchester United

20

14

3

3

49

20

29

45

7-1-2

7-2-1

3

Tottenham Hotspur

20

14

3

3

38

20

18

45

8-1-1

6-2-2

4

Chelsea

20

11

4

5

39

25

14

37

6-1-3

5-3-2

5

Arsenal

20

11

3

6

36

28

8

36

7-2-1

4-1-5

6

Liverpool

20

9

7

4

24

18

6

34

4-6-0

5-1-4

7

Newcastle

20

9

6

5

29

25

4

33

5-3-2

4-3-3

8

Stoke City

20

8

5

7

22

31

-9

29

4-4-2

4-1-5

9

Norwich City

20

6

7

7

30

35

-5

25

4-3-3

2-4-4

10

Sunderland

20

6

6

8

27

23

4

24

3-4-3

3-2-5

11

Everton

20

7

3

10

20

24

-4

24

3-2-5

4-1-5

12

Swansea City

20

5

8

7

20

23

-3

23

4-5-1

1-3-6

13

Aston Villa

20

5

8

7

22

26

-4

23

3-2-5

2-6-2

14

Fulham

20

5

8

7

22

26

-4

23

4-3-3

1-5-4

15

West Brom

20

6

4

10

19

28

-9

22

2-2-6

4-2-4

16

Wolverhampton

20

4

5

11

22

36

-14

17

3-2-5

1-3-6

17

Queens Park Rangers

20

4

5

11

19

35

-16

17

1-4-5

3-1-6

18

Bolton Wanderers

20

5

1

14

25

43

-18

16

1-1-8

4-0-6

19

Wigan Athletic

20

3

6

11

18

41

-23

15

1-4-5

2-2-6

20

Blackburn Rovers

20

3

5

12

29

43

-14

14

2-0-8

1-5-4

                                                                            courtesy Fox Soccer

Until that fateful day in May comes, we'll have to wait to see if the boys in sky blue will sacrifice their other silverware for a chance at raising the premier league trophy.