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Hello! There are always setbacks for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola’s wounds are visible.

On the way:

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The city’s headache: Guardiola’s team is experiencing a historic collapse

If you know the movie Full Metal Jacket, you remember the scene where Private Pyle is pinned in his bed and attacked with bars of soap. Everyone tries, even Private Joker.

This is Manchester City: so obviously vulnerable that the teams playing there are almost forced to try. They haven’t won in a month, six games and counting. During last night’s 3-3 draw against Feyenoord, Pep Guardiola scratched his head, leaving him with scars on his scalp and a cut on his nose (above).

The good news is that he made history. The bad news, as Opta pointed out, is that he did this, with City becoming the first team to take a 3-0 lead in a Champions League game after 75 minutes, but failing to take the decider. Guardiola will get it under control eventually, but City’s downturn has turned into a picture-perfect crisis. “We are fragile,” said Guardiola, and lack solutions.

Most worrying is the deterioration of basic functions. Take Feyenoord’s equalizer in the 89th minute. City’s defensive line (below) is a strange dogleg when passing the ball through.

At the point where David Hancko tries to score (below), they are outnumbered five to two. With a 3-2 lead, it’s not like they’re chasing the game either.

City are off the pace in every way. Rodri’s absence in midfield is killing them, and the longer this goes on, the less it looks like an overnight solution is at Guardiola’s fingertips. He’s Private Pyle with the blanket over him, quietly praying for the beating to stop.

What is PSG doing?

Guardiola can at least find solace in City’s years of dominance. Not so for Paris Saint-Germain, whose dreams of global supremacy have long been over.

PSG believed they could win the Champions League and to be honest they almost did. But after remaining loyal to Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and Lionel Messi, that opportunity has been lost, and with it these players.

Today they are just a shell of a European military force. A 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich yesterday means they risk missing out on the new Champions League knockout stages altogether. Oli Kay asks where the PSG project is going.

Lewandowski is a lot of fun

A bit of the yin and yang of European misery: Robert Lewandowski has joined the 100 club, scoring more than a century of Champions League goals in Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Brest.

Lewandowski has Peter Pan vibes. The first of his goals was so long ago, in 2011, that Guardiola was still coaching Barca at the time. At 36, he won’t be able to catch Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but he’s far from out of place in a group of three players reaching the 100-goal mark.

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News summary

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Distance: Barca bans fans and wants money back

Some FC Barcelona supporters were denied the pleasure of watching Lewandowski reach his 100th century. Part of Barca’s temporary home at Montjuic – their stadium during the Camp Nou renovation – has been closed to fans due to poor behavior.

At first glance this is nothing new – there have been stadium closures elsewhere too – but the difference is that it is Barca’s decision to leave empty seats. To add to the intrigue, the club refuses to reopen the area until fans pay the fines imposed on them.

Since the start of last season, incidents in this area of ​​the stadium (no fewer than 14, according to Barca) have resulted in fines from various governing bodies totaling £18,000. We see a lot of that here too. Scotland’s Celtic, for example, have a string of UEFA fines behind them. What we never see is clubs trying to recover this money from the fans in charge.

Barca want to stand firm until the score is paid. The fans they’re targeting aren’t willing to put up with it. I’ll be interested to see when and how the stalemate resolves itself and whether Barca’s attempt to financially discipline its crowd tempts other teams to follow their example.

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Bell’s toll: “I was England’s scapegoat”

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Jude Bellingham in Ballon d’Or terms. When the award was presented last month, he was not in the conversation despite a phenomenal first season at Real Madrid.

Would he have come closer if England had won the Euro 2024 final instead of losing to Rodri’s Spain? Possibly, and you’re wondering if the events of the summer have dragged Bellingham into the abyss. Like Real itself, Bellingham is also experiencing a rather flat season. Tactical changes haven’t helped him, but he hasn’t scored in his first 12 games for Real Madrid this season.

Mentally speaking, there is clearly scar tissue from the EM. Bellingham addressed this at a press conference yesterday, claiming he was the scapegoat for England’s failure to make it to the end of the tournament and criticizing the English press for harassing his family during the tournament. “My mother didn’t want to leave the house,” he said, explaining why he abruptly refused to give interviews.

It doesn’t take much to strain the relationship between England’s players and its media. Gareth Southgate recognized this and tried to keep things running smoothly by instigating darts between the two camps. Bellingham is one of the country’s brightest stars and he’s only 21 years old, but it already seems like the battle lines have been drawn.

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Made for Messi?

Javier Mascherano’s move to Inter Miami is signed and sealed. He replaces Gerardo Martino as head coach until 2027.

I’m not saying it’s a bad appointment, I just can’t give you a reason why it’s a particularly good appointment. Given that Mascherano, the former Barcelona and Argentina midfielder, is such a great pal of Lionel Messi, the cynic in you thinks it’s all a bit cozy.

Miami co-owner Jorge Mas admitted last week that he wanted Messi to “feel comfortable with the new coach,” so you can say there is no pretense. And perhaps this just highlights the way Miami is using its golden goose. Nothing is better for business than Messi being happy and on board, not even an MLS trophy.

Mascherano is an interesting character. He was a good footballer in his time (and he was also linked to one of the Premier League’s most controversial transfers), but he is not a proven first-team boss. If Miami chooses him, one wonders how much the tail wags the dog.

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All about Athletic FC

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Catch A Match (ET/UK times)

(Selected games)

Champions League (all Paramount+/TNT Sports unless otherwise stated): Crvena Zvezda vs Stuttgart, 12.45/5.45 p.m.; Aston Villa vs Juventus, 3pm/8pm; Celtic vs Club Brugge, 3pm/8pm; Liverpool vs. Real Madrid, 3:00 p.m./8:00 p.m. – Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports; Monaco vs. Benfica, 3:00 p.m./8:00 p.m. – CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/TNT Sports.

Championship: Leeds United v Luton Town, 2.45pm/7.45pm – Paramount+/Sky Sports.

(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)