Pep Sweats as Defenders Fall Like Autumn Leaves…
Just three games into the season and Pep Guardiola is already pulling his hair out (well, the rest of it anyway) as his Manchester City defenders are dropping like bad jokes at a comedy club. It’s last season all over again with a side dish of dĆ©jĆ vu as City’s defensive line faces a series of injuries just before the big clash against Manchester United. If anyone can recall Jahmai Simpson-Pusey from last year’s patchwork defense, it’s probably like seeing an old friend you wish you’d forgotten. City is stumbling after defeats to Tottenham and Brighton ā clearly not reading the script to start off with a bang.
Last week, Josko Gvardiol was a question mark, and now it seems Manchester City has a ‘spin-the-wheel-of-worry’ scenario. Abdukodir Khusanov left the field faster than a superhero whose planet is calling. Diagnosed with a calf injury, he may not even see the Etihad on derby day. Then there’s John Stones who rejoined England only to exit with a mystery muscle twinge like a magician who ran out of tricks. Meanwhile, Rico Lewis and Rayan Ait-Nouri are also nursing aches and wonāt be swapping travel stories anytime soon. So, unless Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, and Matheus Nunes transform into some kind of defensive superheroes by next Friday, it might be time for Guardiola to look into cloning technology.
