Man City 2022/23 season review:

The most successful season in Manchester City’s history has come to an end.

They won the Premier League. They won the FA Cup. They, at last, won the Champions League.

It finally all came together for the Citizens, who for long stretches of the season looked as if they wouldn’t add anything to their trophy cabinet.

Here’s a look back at a quite remarkable campaign for Man City.

It was the summer arrival of Erling Haaland that really sent expectations into overdrive.

City fans always expect to win the Premier League and sweep up the domestic honours, and there was real hope among supporters that the addition of a proven, elite centre-forward would be enough to end their long wait for Champions League glory.

It’s worth noting that the sales of key squad players like Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and Oleksandr Zinchenko did have some City fans sweating, but the overwhelming feeling heading into the campaign was one of real promise.

Erling Haaland

It’s hard to argue that anybody other than the man responsible for the single-most devastating goalscoring season in Premier League history can win this prize.

Erling Haaland has steamrolled his way through English football, bagging 36 goals in just 35 Premier League games to fire City back to the title, adding a terrifying edge to a team who were already rolling in the goals even without a recognised striker.

A season which will not soon be forgotten from Haaland.

Honourable mentions: Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Nathan Ake

Rodri vs Bayern Munich

City’s highlight reel this season is wild. There are so many screamers that it’s incredibly tough to pick one from the bunch.

After plenty of deliberation, we’re giving it to Rodri for this absolute rocket against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final.

The Spanish midfielder has a penchant for a screamer from range but will do well to top this curled effort which left Yann Sommer floundering.

Honourable mentions: Erling Haaland vs Borussia Dortmund, Kevin De Bruyne vs Brighton, Kevin De Bruyne vs RB Leipzig, Erling Haaland vs Southampton, John Stones vs Leicester, Julian Alvarez vs Fulham, Ilkay Gundogan vs Everton

Man City 4-0 Real Madrid

The first leg of the Champions League semi-final away at Real Madrid was a little uncomfortable for City, who were a little fortunate to bring a 1-1 draw into their home fixture eight days later.

When the greatest side in competition history came to the Etihad, they were comprehensively dismantled with a blatant disregard for their legacy and success in the tournament. City breezed past the unrelenting juggernaut that has ruled this competition for the past few years, dismantling Real Madrid with such quality and efficiency that it was almost scary to watch.

Beating Real Madrid 4-0 is hard enough, but doing so in the Champions League is a whole different level. It was the statement performance to end all statement performances.

Honourable mentions: Man City 7-0 RB Leipzig, Man City 3-0 Bayern Munich, Man City 4-1 Arsenal

Erling Haaland

Look, it’s Haaland. It’s obviously Haaland. How could anybody else snatch it away from him after the sort of season the Norwegian just had?

It’s a bit boring talking about Haaland now, however, so we’re going to use this opportunity to give some well-earned recognition to Manuel Akanji, who 100% deserves this award and only misses out because he’s up against a freak of nature.

Few expected anything of note from Akanji after his summer switch from Dortmund, but the Switzerland international was among the team’s most reliable performers. Don’t sweep that under the rug just because Haaland did Haaland stuff.

Honourable mention: Manuel Akanji

Jack Grealish

City’s £100m acquisition of Jack Grealish in the summer of 2021 immediately felt like good business but soon began to cause concerns as the former Aston Villa man looked, well, ordinary in his debut season.

Guardiola kept the faith with Grealish and was rewarded with an outstanding leap in performance from the 27-year-old, whose impact this season goes well beyond his return of five goals and seven assists in 28 Premier League games.

This was the Grealish we all expected to see when he first joined City. This was more of the £100m player we were promised.

Honourable mentions: Nathan Ake, John Stones

Carabao Cup failure

It’s absolutely mental to think that we could be talking about City winning the quadruple right now had it not been for Nathan Jones’ Southampton.

Nathan. Jones’. Southampton.

Jones managed just 15 matches in charge of the Saints before the team who finished dead last in the Premier League decided he wasn’t good enough for them, and yet he still managed to dump Guardiola’s dominant machine out of the Carabao Cup.

City obviously rotated their squad for the game but there are probably three strings of City lineups which should be good enough to beat a Southampton side who didn’t even really care about winning. To miss out on a quadruple because of a slip-up in this of all games is utterly devastating.

Honourable mention: Kalvin Phillips’ weird role, Joao Cancelo’s slump

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