Mateo Kovacic on Manchester City’s Title Expectations

Mateo Kovacic admits the weight of expectation is back on Manchester City’s shoulders as they chase a Premier League title they have not touched for two seasons – and he is not certain he will be around when the Pep Guardiola era finally closes.

City, once the immovable object at the top of English football, have watched Liverpool and Arsenal take turns at the summit over the past two campaigns. For a club that rattled off four straight titles, 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. There was no attempt to soften it, no dressing it up. City know exactly where they stand.

The landscape around them has shifted again. Chelsea, the club where Kovacic spent five years before moving to the Etihad in 2023, have opened the taps in the transfer market in a bid to crash the title race once more. The Croatian has watched his former side from a distance, and he recognises the intent.

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

Arsenal, meanwhile, are not hiding either. Mikel Arteta has made it clear the London club is “very active [in our player search] trying to improve and evolve” as they try to turn near-misses into silverware. The rivalry at the top is sharpening again, and City are right in the middle of it.

For Kovacic, none of this is new. He grew up at clubs where second place is failure, and that mindset has followed him from Stamford Bridge to Manchester.

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

The difference now is the clock ticking on Guardiola’s time in charge. City are edging towards their first season after the most transformative manager in their history, a campaign that will test the club’s identity as much as its squad depth. Kovacic stopped short of promising he would be part of that next chapter, but he knows the standards will not drop.

Whether it is under Guardiola or his successor, City’s mission has been laid out in blunt terms by one of their senior midfielders: the title has been away for two years. That, at this club, is long enough.