Kovacic acknowledges pressure on Manchester City amid title race

Mateo Kovacic admits the clock is ticking on Manchester City’s response to losing their grip on the Premier League – and on his own future at the Etihad once Pep Guardiola departs.

City, who turned four consecutive titles into a kind of domestic routine, have now watched Liverpool and Arsenal take turns at the summit in the past two seasons. For a club that built its identity on relentless dominance, that stings.

“The pressure is on everybody … on us especially, because we haven’t won it two years in a row,” Kovacic told the South China Morning Post.

No dressing. No escape clause. Just a senior midfielder acknowledging what everyone inside the league already knows: the champions-in-waiting aura has slipped, and City are being hunted again.

City’s crown under siege

Kovacic arrived from Chelsea in 2023 expecting to plug straight into a title-winning machine. Instead, he has walked into a league that has reset around City’s brief wobble.

Liverpool have retooled. Arsenal have hardened. And Chelsea, the club that shaped much of Kovacic’s Premier League career, have started throwing their financial weight around again.

“Clubs are spending a lot. Chelsea’s one of them, and I think they added some great players,” he said.

It was less a compliment, more a warning. The chasers are not standing still.

Mikel Arteta has already made it clear that Arsenal intend to keep pushing. The manager described his club as “very active [in our player search] trying to improve and evolve”, a pointed reminder that last season’s title was not a one-off surge but the foundation of a project designed to last.

City, for once, are not the only side talking like champions.

Life after Pep – and life after Kovacic?

The more awkward question for City comes after Guardiola. Kovacic did not promise he would still be around for the first campaign of the post-Pep era, and that uncertainty hangs over more than just one player.

This is a squad built in the image of a manager who has defined a decade of English football. When he goes, the club must prove that the winning culture outlives the man who created it. Some players will stay for that transition. Some will not. Kovacic has left the door open to both possibilities.

“Big clubs are about winning, so you always feel the same pressure,” he said.

It is a line that cuts both ways. The badge guarantees pressure, not patience.

Chelsea know that feeling. Arsenal are rediscovering it. City have lived with it for years and turned it into silverware. Now, with rivals spending, challengers emboldened and Guardiola’s eventual exit looming, the question is no longer whether they can handle the pressure.

It is how quickly they can turn it back into a title.