2020–21 Manchester City F.C. season

The 2020–21 season began in September 2020 during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The protocols used to permit the 2019–20 Premier League season to be concluded were extended into the new season so that professional sport could be played in front of a television audience, with the expectation that fans would be able to attend games in person once infection rates fell and public health restrictions could be lifted. However, by the end of March 2021 only one game involving Manchester City (away against Southampton on 19 December) had been played in front of (2,000) spectators.

City had invested heavily in their central defence during the summer with the purchases of Rúben Dias from Benfica and Nathan Aké from Bournemouth. Nicolás Otamendi moved in the opposite direction to Dias to join the Portuguese side. The transfers were designed to improve the team's perceived weakness in the defensive area since Vincent Kompany had left City at the end of the 2018–19 season. Ferran Torres was also signed from Valencia as a replacement winger for Leroy Sané, who had departed for Bayern Munich.

Some initially inconsistent league results left City in the bottom half of the table when they were defeated 2–0 by Tottenham Hotspur on 21 November (albeit with a game in hand over many of the clubs above them). However, their league form improved for the remainder of the year as the Blues ended 2020 with no further defeats. This was mainly due to City's defensive record, with them registering six consecutive clean sheets in all competitions and ending the year with 13 clean sheets in total from 23 games played. City were undefeated in cup competitions by the end of 2020, reaching the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup for the fourth consecutive year and, more importantly, the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League for the eighth consecutive season, with their highest ever group stage points total (16 points).

Initially, City were less effective at the other end of the pitch than they had been in the previous three seasons. In part, this was due to the injury of Sergio Agüero, that had been carried over from the end of the prior season, and further injuries to Agüero and Gabriel Jesus that left City without a recognised first team striker in the squad until the beginning of December.

A SARS-CoV-2 outbreak at the City Football Academy over Christmas led to the postponement of City's game versus Everton on 28 December to 17 February, and up to nine first team players were in isolation at the beginning of the new year, including, once again, Sergio Agüero and Gabriel Jesus.

Nevertheless, City's good form continued into January 2021, with the team ending the month with a perfect 100% win record in all nine of their competitive fixtures, the most by a team in the top four tiers of English football in a single month since the formation of the Football League in 1888.[12] In the process they beat Manchester United in a single legged semi-final to reach City's fourth consecutive League Cup final, reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, extended their unbeaten run in the Premier League to twelve games with eight consecutive wins, climbed the table from 9th to 1st and achieved nineteen games unbeaten with twelve consecutive wins in all competitions to the end of January.

At the halfway point of the season (Game Week 19), Manchester City were leading the Premier League with 41 points from 19 games, a point ahead of Manchester United and with a game in hand.

In February and March, City maintained their form to extend their winning run in all competitions to 21 games, a new record for a top flight side in English football. They also matched their previous club record of 28 games unbeaten and broke their own national top flight record by winning fourteen consecutive away games in all competitions.[4] Pep Guardiola went on to record his 200th win when his side defeated West Ham 2–1 at the Etihad Stadium. At the time, he had also achieved a higher win percentage managing Manchester City than he had when he managed Barcelona.[13]

On 7 February, City thrashed Liverpool 4–1 on the road to achieve their first victory at Anfield in almost 18 years and only their third win there in fifty games since 1956.[14][15] Their winning run was ended when City were beaten 2–0 at the Etihad by rivals Manchester United on 7 March.[16] On 16 March, City defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach 2–0 (4–0 on aggregate) and advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals for the fourth year in a row.[17] On 20 March, the Blues scored two late goals to beat Everton on the road and advance to the FA Cup semi-finals for the third consecutive year.[18]

On 29 March, the club announced that Sergio Agüero would be leaving at the end of the season on expiration of his contract. In 10 seasons at City Agüero had become, at the time, the club's all-time leading goalscorer, the fourth highest goalscorer in the history of the Premier League, the goalscorer with the most Premier League goals at a single club (and its leading non-English scorer) and the holder of a plethora of club goal scoring records. At the time he was also City's most decorated player of all time with fifteen league and cup winner medals. He would also be remembered in club and English football history as the winning goalscorer at the denouement of the 2011–12 Premier League season, when City won their first title in 44 years by defeating Queens Park Rangers 3–2, with Agüero scoring in the 94th minute to clinch the title for Manchester City. The Blues finished ahead of closest rivals Manchester United on goal difference.[19]

In April it was announced that the Carabao Cup final between City and Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley would be a test for the return of spectators to sports events with 8,000 tickets available: the two clubs would be allocated 2,000 tickets each with the remaining 4,000 made available for the residents of Brent and local NHS workers. All attendees would have to consent to mandatory COVID-19 testing before and after the event, travel only by car or on specially chartered trains and coaches from Manchester and provide contact data for track and trace purposes. The match would be the first outdoor sports event with supporters of the teams involved in attendance in the UK in 2021.[20]

City began their April and May season run-in still in contention for an unprecedented quadruple of major English and European titles, a feat they had been close to achieving in three of their previous seven seasons, and which they previously came closest to in the 2018–19 season when the Blues won an also unprecedented domestic treble. On 1 April, they led the league on 74 points, 14 points ahead of Manchester United in second place who had a game in hand.[21]

This lead narrowed to 11 points on Game Week 31 when City suffered a 1–2 home defeat to Leeds United, leaving them requiring at most 11 points from their remaining six fixtures to secure the league title. This defeat occurred between the two legs of City's Champions League quarter-finals against Borussia Dortmund. The first leg at home in Manchester ended as a 2–1 victory to City and Guardiola made seven changes to his team in the Leeds fixture to rest key players for the second leg in Dortmund.[22][23]

On 14 April, City defeated Borussia Dortmund 2–1 away from home (4–2 on aggregate) and advanced to the Champions League semi-finals for the first time under Pep Guardiola and only second time in their history.[24]

On 17 April, City's hopes for an unprecedented quadruple were tarnished, as the Blues were defeated 1–0 by Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, the second consecutive time City had been eliminated at this stage.[25][26]

The following day, 18 April, it was announced that City had joined the proposed European Super League as one of its twelve founder members together with the five other "Big Six" English football clubs.[27] However, the announcement led to widespread condemnation from The Football Association, the Premier League, UEFA and FIFA, as well as from the UK's Conservative government and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[28][29][30] Within 48 hours of the initial announcement on 20 April, City announced that they had withdrawn from the Super League to be followed shortly by the other five English clubs. By the following day, only three of the original founders – Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus – remained committed, and it seemed that the proposal had collapsed.[31]

On 25 April, City defeated Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 in the League Cup final to lift their first trophy of the season. This victory was the club's fourth consecutive EFL Cup title and their eighth overall, matching the records held by Liverpool.[32] On 4 May, City reached their first ever European Cup / Champions League final by defeating Paris Saint Germain 2–0 (4–1 on aggregate) in the semi-finals.[33] They would face Chelsea in the final, making it the third all-English final in the competition's history.

On 11 May, City were officially crowned Premier League champions, clinching their third title in four seasons and their fifth in ten seasons. The Blues previously failed to complete their league victory on the previous weekend, when they fielded a team with eight changes from the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals and were beaten 1–2 at home by Chelsea, but second-placed Manchester United's 1–2 home defeat to Leicester City three days later left City ten points ahead with only three games of the season left to play.[34] In the end, they won the league by twelve points from second-placed Manchester United. On 23 May, City completed the league season, beating Everton 5–0 in front of 10,000 spectators at the Etihad Stadium. This would be the club's only home game in front of fans that season. This was also Sergio Agüero's final home game in City colours, an occasion he marked by coming off the bench in the 65th minute and scoring two goals, mirroring his debut performance against Swansea in August 2011 and also breaking Wayne Rooney's record for most Premier League goals at a single club (184).

On 29 May, City were defeated 0–1 by Chelsea in the Champions League final in an anti-climactic performance. Kevin De Bruyne was brutally injured by Antonio Rüdiger in the second half, and N'Golo Kanté's brilliant performance limited City's attacking options. Guardiola's decision not to start a holding midfielder was also criticized as one of the reasons behind City's defeat.[35] Still, City's European breakthrough signified their most successful season to date and Pep Guardiola showed his pride in the runners-up medal.[36]

The league fixtures were announced on 20 August 2020.[123] The 2020–21 season officially began on 12 September 2020.[124] However, clubs who had participated in the latter rearranged knockout rounds of the previous season's Champions League and Europa League competitions in August 2020 were allowed a further week to rest and prepare their squads for the new season. City's game at home versus Aston Villa originally scheduled for Game Week 1 was therefore postponed until later in the season and instead they started their campaign on the following Monday night away to Wolves. The Aston Villa home game was eventually rearranged for 20 January 2021.[125]

On 28 December 2020, City's away game at Everton was postponed four hours before kick off following a Premier League Board meeting. Manchester City lodged a request with the Premier League to rearrange the fixture following an increase in positive SARS-CoV-2 test results received by the club earlier the same day, on top of four positive cases reported on Christmas Day for two non-playing staff, Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus. The Board agreed to rearrange the game as a safety precaution.[126] The game was subsequently rescheduled for 17 February 2021.[127]

Note: Match numbers indicated on the left hand side are references to the Game Weeks (GW) scheduled by the Premier League, and not the order in which matches were played after postponements and schedule alterations.[128]

The draw for the third round was held on 30 November 2020 by Robbie Savage and shown live on BBC One.[132] The draws for the fourth and fifth round were both made on 11 January, conducted by Peter Crouch.[133] The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 11 February 2021 and conducted by Karen Carney.[134] The draw for the semi-finals was made, live on BBC One, by Dion Dublin on 21 March 2021.[135]

The draw for both the second and third rounds was confirmed on 6 September, live on Sky Sports by Phil Babb.[136] The fourth round draw was conducted on 17 September 2020 by Laura Woods and Lee Hendrie live on Sky Sports.[137]