Forget everything you thought you knew about Manchester City

Pep Guardiola only makes such substitutions when the match is won. When Manchester City went 3-0 up against Feyenoord on Tuesday evening, it was time to get fresh legs in a stable environment. But these are not steady times at City and – don’t adjust your kits – nothing seems to be going right.

With Kevin De Bruyne, James McAtee and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey coming on to get some minutes under their belts, City were heading for a much-needed win. Erling Haaland had completed a sweeping move and normal service was about to resume.

They had reached the three-goal threshold, which has traditionally been Guardiola’s cue to give minutes to players he feels need an extra helping hand – think Kalvin Phillips, Sergio Gomez, Cole Palmer, Matheus Nunes in the past few seasons.

It’s a staple of the Etihad Stadium experience, a sign of normalcy: City are going to win this game, brace yourself for a fairly quiet final 20 minutes. Maybe they’ll score another, maybe not, but they’ll win.

These insurances are now a thing of the past. Forget everything you thought you knew. City, the team that has won six of the last seven Premier League titles, one of the best teams in history, became the first Champions League side to have a three-goal lead after 75 minutes and not win.

It wasn’t a dream, the match ended 3-3. There were boos at the final whistle. Guardiola was asked about it and he said fair enough. “People come here not to remember past success,” he said, “they come here to see the team win and perform well.”

He was also asked about the substitutes, but they weren’t the problem – it’s everything else.

He was asked about the big scratch on his nose and he said he cut himself with his fingernail – which probably also explains all the others visible in the TV interviews. He either spent the fight taking care of a feral cat or scratching his head in search of answers.

Given how strange things look, you wouldn’t rule out the cat, but Guardiola has been a head scratcher at the best of times and these are among the worst.

What answers are there to be found? Some glaring deficiencies on the pitch could easily explain their recent defeats – for example, the lack of energy in midfield which allows teams to play through City and run after their injury-hit defence.

They have played very well in patches over the past six games and were solid enough for the most part on Tuesday, but the problems run deeper than physical deficiencies like age or injuries. The team’s confidence must be at an all-time low.

Even one of the most reliable players this season, Josko Gvardiol, has been bogged down, guilty of two goals against Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend and two goals again against Feyenoord.

“We’ve lost a lot of games recently, we’re fragile and we needed a win, the game was good for confidence,” Guardiola said. “We played at a good level, but the first time something happened we had problems.”

Feyenoord, having equalized, ran back into their half in fear of the City sugar rush. Jack Grealish hit the post with a deflected shot but the Dutch side were so – understandably – keen to stick to their point that they didn’t seem to realize they could have had even more if they had wanted to .

Next up is Anfield, where even the most invincible City teams have struggled over the years. Admittedly, it was against a slightly more ruthless beast in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, but what Arne Slott’s side may lack in chaos, they make up for in control – the overriding aspect of Guardiola’s big team, but something they cannot manage now.

“We were a team that always conceded few, few goals in these eight or nine years, we were so stable in the games, to control, to defend well, and now it’s not going to happen,” lamented Guardiola. “We can’t close the games and every time they arrived they scored.”

City are now without a win in six (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Guardiola has argued with plenty of justification of late that a defection of this nature was inevitable. He has been amazed that his team has kept coming back year after year to keep playing well and keep winning. He always used to point out that all the other Premier League champions had massive games next season – and they all have. United, Chelsea, Leicester, even Liverpool finished well off the pace. Even City before Guardiola shook things up.

They were always going to have a bad patch considering the number of games they’ve played over the past few years, never mind the intensity of them, but surely no one expected anything like this?

Liverpool are the worst possible opponents this weekend, but it is no exaggeration to suggest that games against Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace (away), United and Aston Villa (away) before Christmas will present some problems in their own right.

And what about the Champions League? Many would have expected City to finish in the top two in this new format, but they face a battle for a place in the top eight to avoid an extra play-off round. To do that, they will probably need to win at Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain and then beat Club Brugge at home.

The city is by no means finished. Guardiola has signed for another two years and despite the chaos, nobody is better placed to put things right. They will be back, whether it’s this season or next.

Things are likely to get worse, possibly much worse, before they get better. Forget everything you thought you knew.

(Top photo: Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)