Manchester City's hopes of collecting 114 points in the Premier League this season are over after defeats to Aston Villa and Brighton. If an independent panel does not find the club guilty on 114 counts, the celebrations will have been for nothing.
The football continues, and while there is an undercurrent of City being labelled cheats wherever they go following the independent commission's findings, there are plenty of talking points from all the matches.
Defensive concerns and January plans
City have lost two league games, and the Villa match highlighted the importance of Matheus Nunes, despite his error for Brighton's winner on Saturday. Nunes is almost more valuable when he does not play than when he does, and that is the one position City could target in January.
The club shelved plans in the summer to prioritise other areas, but neither Abdukodir Khusanov nor Rico Lewis has looked comfortable in that role, leaving Nunes without a reliable back-up. Erling Haaland also lacks a deputy because it is difficult to find a player willing to come in and play only a few times a year.
City do not have two players for every position, and the possibility of minutes at right-back likely played a part in keeping Lewis, Khusanov and Vitor Reis at the club. The squad has been assembled at significant cost, with Ruben Dias and Marc Guehi among the top earners and Josko Gvardiol nearly a world-record transfer for his position in 2023.
Vitor Reis and Marc Guehi form
Vitor Reis has made a bright start to the season. He has not made the squad for every game but has shown the right attitude and looked decent whenever he has played, with his goal on Wednesday a bonus.
Reis knew when he accepted the position of fifth-choice centre-back that it would mean far less game time than last year, but he also recognises it is about growth and opportunities as the season progresses. He needs to be in a stronger position by the end of the campaign than he was at the start.
Marc Guehi, who had started the season better than any defender in the squad a few weeks ago, was not great against PSG, had a torrid time against Ipswich, and made another mistake against Aston Villa before being dropped to the bench against Brighton. He looks jaded from the amount of football he has played for club and country, but he wants to play every game, and Maresca made him captain on Wednesday night.
Guehi has also been trusted in midfield and bumped up into the captaincy group, showing he is clearly valued as a senior player. He needs to cut out the mistakes, but so do many of his teammates, with defensive errors occurring all season and raising questions about whether the playing style is a factor.
Appeal chances and timeline
On the question of whether UK journalists are portraying City's chances of winning their appeal as virtually non-existent or showing bias towards the Premier League, the few facts available point towards a giant Premier League victory that exposes nearly a decade of City cheating to the tune of £900m.
City appear to be bang to rights, and it will be very difficult to overturn the original decision on appeal. However, experience from covering the UEFA investigation and CAS, and the Associated Party Transaction skirmish between City and the Premier League, shows things can quickly turn on their head.
No evidence has yet been seen from either the Premier League or City, and with so many questions unanswered, writing off City's chances completely would be premature. Others are fine with hammering City on the facts available and will presumably about-turn if required.
An exact date for the conclusion of the 114-charge process cannot be given, though it may not matter. Most people made up their minds when the charges were first levelled in February 2023, and a successful appeal would be unlikely to change many opinions. Even if all verdicts go against the club, it is hard to see executives accepting such a ruling.
The best thing to do is make peace with how you feel about it, as any decision by one set of three judges or another likely will not change that.
