Manuel Pellegrini is facing a high-pressure situation this weekend when Manchester City travel to Hull in the Premier League.
Having spent the past three weeks away from the competition and making excuses while departing two cup competitions (plus winning a third), the Blues’ boss turns his attention back to the only remaining trophy he can win ... and the situation is looking treacherous.
Since City last played a league game, they have lost ground on all of the top three teams. That’s not ground that can’t be recovered, mind you, but the pressure is on to take maximum points from now until the end of the season given Chelsea are ahead by nine, and Liverpool and Arsenal are two points in front. Despite having games in hand to play, any slip would hand initiative to the others, especially the current league leaders.
And no matter what Jose Mourinho says, at this stage of the season he would definitely much rather have the points on the board; his comments that City could go back to the top on goal difference by winning their games in hand were so clearly designed to pile pressure on that they were see-through. Now, any dropped points from City, even in matches before their catch-up games, could be the end of the road.
- Curtis: Nou camp concerns
Enter stage left: Hull City. The Tigers haven’t been in a brilliant run of form of late, but historically that’s never stopped a team from turning it all around when Manchester City rock up in town. In fact, in days gone by, teams on losing streaks would look at the fixture list to see when the Blues were dropping by because, if ever they were going to go on a run of wins, it usually started vs. the Citizens.
Hull have won just two of their past nine Premier League matches (losing six), while their only home wins since they tonked Fulham by six goals at the back end of December have been in the FA Cup over Brighton and Sunderland. In the middle of that, there have been home defeats to Chelsea, Southampton and Newcastle.
That said, in all competitions, the Tigers are currently boasting three wins in their past four games and just one defeat in five.
Pellegrini is looking to be the first City boss to earn all three points at the KC Stadium, where the Blues have played twice since it opened in 2002.
On their first trip, under Mark Hughes, they flopped to a 2-2 draw after a calamity of a day: Robinho was the visitors’ shock captain with Richard Dunne suspended, Tal Ben Haim gave Joe Hart an awful back pass that injured the City keeper and conceded the opening goal, before Stephen Ireland was gifted the equaliser and scored a magnificent bending effort to give the away side the lead. It was only right that Hull then equalised themselves with a daft goal, as Geovanni’s free kick was taken over and over and over again because of encroachment by the City wall.
Roberto Mancini was in charge of the club by the time their second visit to the KC arrived. Patrick Vieira made his debut, but left City fans questioning why the Italian had signed a veteran midfielder who looked out of his depth, and the away side slumped to a 2-1 defeat. For the record, Vieira impressed from the start of the following season when he had settled.
In both of those games, Hull ended a poor run of results; the first halted a three-game losing streak, while the second was the Tigers’ first win in 11 attempts. Pellegrini can’t underestimate the size of the job in hand or a repeat of what happened at Cardiff or Aston Villa or Sunderland will happen.
Should the Chilean be able to take maximum points from Saturday’s early kickoff, he’ll be the first City boss to win at Hull in the league since before the war. The First World War. The Blues’ last (and only) win when playing away at Hull in the league was in 1909, though they have been back just seven times since.
City have, however, won more recently in Hull in the cup competitions: a 1-0 win in 1970 ensured FA Cup progress, while a 3-0 victory in 1963 earned the Blues a place in Round 4 of the League Cup.
The fixture list hasn’t been overly kind with this round of matches. Not only are the Blues playing catch-up on the rest of the Premier League title hopefuls, but they’re doing it first.
Arsenal may have a tough game against Tottenham and Liverpool may feel the pressure at Old Trafford, but they’ll all know City’s result as they kick off. Meanwhile, Chelsea travel to Aston Villa, where you would expect them to emerge victors, meaning this is a must-win game for Pellegrini.
This is where the City boss will earn his corn. It sounds daft to suggest that winning one trophy would be a disappointing season (the Blues have only once in their history won two in the same campaign), but a very good opportunity to win the other domestic cup went away vs. Wigan last weekend.
With tough games to come -- starting with Saturday’s trip to the KC -- the Blues are going to have to play a near-perfect final 10 matches of the season.