If you discount the gift of facing Manchester United at their bedraggled worst, Manchester City would have scored three goals in their last four games. That 4-1 thrashing of their neighbours and erstwhile title contenders was a shining beacon in what has become, if not exactly a gloomy part of the season, at least a slightly murky one.
The fluent, all-consuming machine that rolled through the Premier League in autumn and winter seems to have got slightly bogged down in the spring, and that has allowed Liverpool to close the gap at the top to just one point. Everything points to that Etihad Stadium showdown on April 10 as being crucial to the destiny of the crown, with both teams knowing that winning all of their remaining games would ensure they end the season as champions.
But City need a tweak to get themselves back on track before they head into that game - and they have just two games in which to do so, starting with Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Southampton. Normally Pep Guardiola would rotate, to some degree, for a domestic cup tie, and players like Ilkay Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling will all be in the mix when he sits down to pick his team.
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There is not much wrong with his team, even though the lack of goals recently - which has also allowed the Merseysiders to overhaul what had been a considerably better goal difference - has predictably reawakened the old spectre of whether the Blues can consistently win trophies without a recognised goalscorer. Many thought that City’s failure to land Harry Kane, or any other player capable of filling Sergio Aguero’s boots, would cost them, especially as Chelsea had hauled in Romelu Lukaku and Manchester United had picked up Cristiano Ronaldo while Liverpool had strengthened their main problem area simply by getting Virgil Van Dijk back from injury.
That view was encouraged as the Blues lost at Tottenham on the opening day after scorning several chances, but they quickly made light of the obvious gap in their squad by finding ways to thrive with one or more false nines. Guardiola has become weary of the fact that every time City do not score, or at least struggle to score, the line of questioning wanders back to the lack of a striker.
That has never been more evident than in the last five matches - or four of them anyway, disregarding hapless United. They scraped a 1-0 at Everton that would have been a draw if the officials had got the Rodri handball call right, they were not hugely convincing in a 2-0 win at Peterborough and while the goalless draw with Sporting Lisbon can be put down to a weakened team and lack of jeopardy, it was still unlike them not to score.
With the 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace following, it was the first time since October that the BLues have drawn a blank in consecutive games - the last time being when they crashed out of the Carabao Cup at West Ham and then lost at home to Palace a few days later. The flip side of that worrying trend is that City tend to snap out of such moments quickly - they followed that home defeat by Palace with a 4-1 dismantling of Club Brugge, the effortless 2-0 win at Old Trafford and a 3-0 home win over Everton.
But the fact remains that, unusually, Liverpool have a better goal difference than City, and with five world-class options up front - all of whom are consummate goalscorers - are fancying their chances of storming past the Blues in the final straight, following the 3-0 win at Arsenal. There was not much wrong with the Blues at Palace - the fact they hit the post twice, just as they did when they drew at Southampton in the league in January, tells you that.
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City’s trip to Southampton offers the perfect opportunity to hit the refresh button on their season and re-assert the notion that, while a striker would be a big asset, they can still score goals, win football matches and lift trophies without one.
