Defending Champions, best team in the league last season, yet they have failed considerably this year. Now facing a daunting task to recover their season, is it all over this year for the blue half of Manchester?
Such are the expectations from this City team full of stars, anything other than a serious title charge is considered a failure. After the success of winning the league last year, many expected them to win back-to-back titles and leave a mark on the history of the Premier league.
This season, however, everything seems to have gone wrong.
City sit in 2nd place currently and head into the showdown clash at Stamford Bridge this weekend 5 points off the leaders. Surely a loss for City at the hands of Jose Mourinho's men would spell the end of their title charge.
Chelsea are too good a side this season to let an 8-point gap slip again.
It's that simple. Should City lose, they can kiss their league trophy good bye.
Dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship team Middlesbrough at home, it rounded off a disastrous few weeks for Pellegrini's men. City don't look ruthless in attack and always look vulnerable to concede a goal at the back.
They were thoroughly outplayed by Arsenal a couple of weeks back and never looked like getting a strong footing in that game. City seemed outfought and outthought by the tactics of Arsenal.
In their last four home games, City have conceded two goals in each game. They simply seem to have run out of steam at a crucial point in the season.
A large part of this comes down to the absence of Yaya Toure, without whom Manchester City have failed to win a league match all season. He is one player who makes City tick in midfield and is currently away for the African Cup of Nations in January.
Vincent Company, arguably the best defender in the league, has looked ordinary at times this year, giving away sloppy goals from easy situations. In Sergio Aguero, they have undoubtedly the leagues best striker, but since his return from an injury', he has looked a bit rusty and probably needs game-time to get back to full fitness.
Pellegrini's men had a mini injury crisis when all strikers were unfit to play, yet City dragged through that period and now they need the likes of Aguero and Edin Dzeko to fire on all cylinders if they stand any chance to catch Chelsea.
The signing of Wilfried Bony for 25 million pounds once again shows the financial muscle of Manchester City in the transfer market, and the City fans would hope he can make an instant impact in reviving their fortunes this season.
On the horizon lies a daunting two-legged tie against Barcelona in the Champions League. To have any chance to even match Barcelona, City need to hit top form and they need to do that fast.
The average age of the current Manchester City side is 29, which suggests that for many of the players, it's now or never.
For a club which has had a past investment of more than a billion pounds, patience is not a virtue they are associated with. Pellegrini, along with the core of the team including Aguero, Company and Yaya Toure must deliver, or else it may be time to take some tough decisions in the summer as far as the City hierarchy are concerned.
As for now, they face Chelsea in a do-or-die game, and as a neutral let's hope the actual champions of the Premier League turn up for that clash.
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