Manchester City last lost their opening Premier League game in 2008, when the club was in a state of chaos
Losing on the first weekend of the league season is not something Manchester City or Pep Guardiola are particularly used to.
Sunday’s lacklustre 1-0 reverse at Tottenham snapped a run of 10 consecutive opening wins for the reigning Premier League champions, while they were undefeated immediately after the big kick-off for 12 years.
Guardiola himself had 11 successive opening day victories, a streak going all the way back to the start of his Barcelona tenure in 2008-09, when a shock loss to Numancia gave little indication of the era-defining successes that were about to unfold.
That same season was the last time City began a Premier League campaign with a loss. It was a chastening setback in the middle of a chaotic few weeks that threatened grim times ahead but ended with the club’s horizons altered forever.
Trawling through the UEFA Cup
Mark Hughes’ City faced Aston Villa on August 17, 2008, the start of their Premier League commitments in the calendar, even through their season had already been up and running for a month.
Any hopes of qualifying for Europe by right had long faded before Sven-Goran Eriksson’s tenure ended with a slapstick 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough.
But, despite captain Richard Dunne being sent off during the opening stages at the Riverside Stadium, City managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup via their Fair Play ranking with European football’s governing body. Once upon a time, those words came without being prefaced by “Financial”.
That meant wading through qualifying and Hughes’ men travelled to take on EB Streymur of the Faroe Islands – an away day that demanded a particular level of commitment, with one group of fans hiring a 72ft trawler.
A pair of 2-0 wins in each leg, the “home” fixture took place at Oakwell because Bon Jovi had already booked out the City of Manchester Stadium, secured more serene progress than that endured by supporters tacking the high seas.
Back in their own stadium for the next round, however, City were abject in a 1-0 loss to FC Midtjylland and events on and off the field meant the forthcoming season was anticipated with palpable dread.
‘Almost out of business’
A year earlier, new owner Thaksin Shinawatra arrived amid much fanfare, promising good times ahead. There were a slew of new signings and even slap-up curries for fans in Albert Square after a pre-season friendly defeat to Valencia.
Promising form under Eriksson faded and, a month after parting company with the former England boss in June 2008, former Thai prime minister Shinawatra went on trial facing corruption charges in Bangkok.
At the start of the week City faced Midtylland, Shinawatra’s fled bail and returned to England in exile after his wife Pojaman was convicted of fraud. The key aspect of this fiasco as far as City were concerned was the small matter of their owner’s absent fortune.
Shinawatra’s £1bn of frozen assets meant his club were feeling the heat.
“There was chaos. Everybody was clinging to the wreckage,” City’s then CEO Garry Cook recalled in an interview with BBC Sport 10 years on. “There wasn’t a lot of hope and it was born out of the fact that financially, we were almost out of business.
“We couldn’t pay the bills. We couldn’t pay the wages. Money was frozen. It was a desperate situation and, faced with that, you borrow money from wherever you can.
“We were borrowing from board members. It was not a plan to run a football club. It was one of survival.”
Even in this context, Hughes might have felt he had an ace up his sleeve en route to Villa Park. Alas, it was not to be.
His body’s been a mess
One of the men to arrive as Eriksson and Shinawatra completed a last-minute trolley dash around European football in summer 2007 was highly rated Bulgaria international Valeri Bojinov.
A stocky, powerful forward, Bojinov joined as a 21-year-old from Fiorentina, having spent a year on loan at Juventus.
On his third appearance and first start, a raucously received 1-0 win over Manchester United at Eastlands, Bojinov suffered a serious knee ligament injury and would not be seen again for the rest of the season.
He returned with a point to prove ahead of 2008-09, scoring in friendlies against Stockport County and AC Milan and celebrating with gusto. Hughes had a man to lead the line who was ready for lift-off.
During the warm-up at Villa Park, Bojinov ruptured his Achilles and spent another six months on the sidelines.
Ched Evans was hastily drafted into a City side featuring fellow academy product Kelvin Etuhu on the right-wing.
After a goalless first half, John Carew put Villa ahead but Elano – ever-dependable from the penalty spot – levelled in the 69th minute after Michael Johnson was fouled.
Parity lasted for five minutes as the often-erratic Gabriel Agbonlahor briefly became one of the most lethal strikers on the planet, plundering a seven-minute hat-trick.
“We had 10 minutes of madness. We made some bad decisions at the back and stopped defending set-plays – and you cannot afford to do that against Villa,” Hughes said afterwards – Vedran Corluka’s late consolation counted for little after a backline of the Croatia international, Micah Richards, Tal Ben Haim and Javi Garrido were ripped apart.
But, just as any pre-season optimism evaporated, things began to change. There was a promise of greater solidity the following week when a young Vincent Kompany arrived from Hamburg.
Playing in defensive midfield, Kompany was outstanding during a debut 3-0 win over West Ham and Sunderland were beaten 3-0 by the same scoreline – Shaun Wright-Phillips netting twice on an emotional second debut after his return from Chelsea.
There were murmuring of new investment. Surely, there had to be, given Shinawatra’s fortune remained as malleable as an igloo.
In between those Premier League wins, Corluka netted the decisive spot-kick as City edged past Midtylland on penalties. As such, that year’s transfer deadline day began with frustration as the classy and versatile defender was shipped off to Tottenham, all because Hughes had taken a punt on a raw and unproven Pablo Zabaleta.
By the end of the day, Zabaleta, Kompany, Wright-Phillips and the rest had a new team-mate in Robinho. Two weeks on from the Villa debacle, City’s horizons were changed beyond all recognition.
It’s hard to see any turnaround from Benjamin Mendy giving the ball away repeatedly being quite so dramatic.
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