No chance for the title! Guardiola's two stubborn decisions cause Man City to drop points again as a 2-goal lead slips into a 2-2 draw with Spurs.

At 00:30 on February 2nd Beijing time, the 24th round of the Premier League featured a Big Six clash with Spurs hosting Man City; both teams have already qualified directly for the Champions League knockout stage.

In the first half, Haaland assisted Shelvey to break the deadlock, then Bernardo Silva set up new winter signing Semedo to extend the lead, with Man City ahead 2-0 at halftime; in the second half, Simmons assisted Solanke for a controversial goal, and Spurs’ winter signing Gallagher assisted Solanke’s scorpion kick equalizer, which Donnarumma tried hard to stop but couldn’t prevent the ball from crossing the line.

In the end, Man City conceded two goals in a row and were held to a 2-2 draw away by Spurs; Man City has only won once in the last six matches, faltering badly in the league and now trails league leaders Arsenal by six points.

In Spurs vs Man City, Flick deployed a 3-4-2-1 formation with Solanke upfront, supported by Muani and Simmons behind, Archie Gray, Gallagher, Bissouma, and Udogie forming a midfield four, Palinha, Romero, and Dele Guzmán as three defenders, and Vicario in goal; the starting lineup’s total market value is €382 million.Guardiola lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Haaland leading the attack, Semedo, O’Reilly, Bernardo Silva, and Shelvey in midfield, Rodri as the lone defensive midfielder, Ait-Nouri, Gueye, Khusanov, and Nunes as a back four, and Donnarumma in goal; the starting lineup’s market value is €670 million.

In this match, Spurs’ defense and defensive midfield had three players rated below passing, indicating their defense was full of holes. Man City's two major new signings, Shelvey and Semedo, helped build a 2-goal lead, but Guardiola’s twostubborn decisionshurt Man City. With De Bruyne and Gundogan gone and Rodri severely injured, his overly aggressive playing style, especially defensively, has left Man City’s midfield unable to perform true possession football. Guardiola’s insistence on possession is actually pseudo-possession, mostly lateral and backward passes, which only looks like high possession but lacks threatening through balls. A more direct approach exploiting Man City’s frontline speed and agility would be better.

Another stubborn choice by Guardiola is Haaland, whose form has been poor recently. The Norwegian striker has started every Premier League game but has been like a sleepwalker, enduring a long goal drought in open play. Guardiola’s faith in Haaland led to Alvarez’s departure, and now continuing to rely on Haaland causes Man City’s attack to suffer from a lack of firepower. Ultimately, Man City conceded two goals consecutively and were held to a 2-2 draw away by Spurs, losing crucial points in the title race with only one win in the last six matches. After this defeat, Man City trails Arsenal by six points and has three fewer goal difference, effectively falling behind in the title race.

Throughout the match,Man City held 61% possession and had 15 shots, with 3 on target; Spurs had 12 shots in total, with 6 on target, which is double Man City’s number of shots on goal..

In my opinion, Guardiola’s overreliance on Haaland combined with his obsession with pseudo-possession means Man City will definitely lose the Premier League title this season and will struggle to win cup competitions as well.