Can Anybody Stop Manchester City Making It a Fantastic Four in 2023/24?

Although Arsenal gave it a good go and, at one point, went odds on with the bookmakers, did anyone truly believe they were going to usurp Manchester City as Premier League champions?

Pep Guardiola’s team ended the season with 89 points, scoring 94 goals along the way for a goal difference of +61, to confirm their utter dominance of English football once more.

With £1 billion spent on transfers and no doubt more to come, Guardiola has turned City into a winning machine – a fourth consecutive title in 2023/24 would be the first time that feat’s been achieved in the Premier League era dating back three decades and more.

So can anybody stop the Cityzens making history?

A Tall Order

With the bookies making City an 8/15 favourite in their EPL betting odds to retain their crown, it’s certainly looking a tough task for the likes of Newcastle United (15/2), Arsenal (9/1) or Liverpool (9/1) to end the Manchester club’s reign of terror.

Load up the Premier League tips this weekend and you will see a common thread: Manchester City are not only favourites to win every single Premier League game they play, but they are also odds-on to score at least two goals into the bargain.

That highlights the difficulty of beating City on any given weekend – let alone over the course of a 38-game season, and it remains to be seen if any of the pretenders to the throne are up to the task.

Arsenal won 84 points and scored 88 goals – confirmation of their outstanding campaign, but poor performances when the spotlight was shining the brightest, such as the draw against West Ham when 2-0 up or the 3-3 stalemate with Southampton, they failed to deliver. Perhaps another year older and wiser, the Gunners can retain their form for the entire season in 2023/24.

And what will become of Liverpool? They boast sublime attacking options, but defensive woes – 47 goals conceded is simply too many for a title contender – and a lack of balance in midfield will surely see Jurgen Klopp heading for the transfer market this summer.

Perhaps it’s Newcastle United, then, that offer the most likely resistance to City’s push for a fantastic fourth straight title.

Known Unknowns

Given that they are financed by the entire sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, it goes without saying that Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has a blank check to spend on new players this summer.

Although the identities of those individuals is unknown for now, Howe will be very keen to ensure that any new faces that do come in don’t upset the balance of a team that boasted quality and togetherness in abundance in 2022/23.

The Magpies only lost five Premier League games all season – the same number as City, and it was only a failure to turn some draws into wins that prevented them from mounting a more robust title challenge last term.

A poor end to the campaign, with just one win from their last five games, also took the shine off things, but the Newcastle United that heads into the 2023/24 season is likely to be of a higher quality than the one that ended 2022/23.

But will that be enough to wrestle the crown from Manchester City’s grasp?

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