If not from a big fan of Manchester City, I don’t think someone will just wake up and alter that word that Manchester City will be the favorite to win the title of the Champions League this season, claiming they are strong. When we all know that this season's Champions League is filled with competition and challenges from many other sides of many other teams. So claiming a best or favorite team that will win the title of this season's Champions League is not that simple that you can just wake up a day and decide. Although it is coming from a club fan, he needs to have that belief and hope in the team, so it is not his fault; he is just motivating himself.
I am removing Manchester City and Real Madrid among the favorites to win the Champions League in my own list because that’s my opinion based on how we have seen each team’s performance so far after four matches, and how all teams perform in their domestic league.
This season’s Champions League is given us surprising results from small teams we never expected to win a single match in the competition; the new format of the group stage made the competition more competitive because even small teams will no be afraid of big teams since points will be used to rate or rank teams based on their performance in the competition .
Real Madrid can even try, but Manchester City is not in good form now, they are struggling to win matches due to injuries to some of their star players, and the team cannot perform perfectly without these players; however, I will be waiting for more matches before I can recode who to bet on to win the Champions League.
Everything is situational, isn't it? We never talked about how Manchester City was going to be the favorites when Manchester United was in great form a decade ago. now there is no chance that anyone even thinks Manchester City is not going to be different when these two meet. At the same time whenever it was a Champions League match we would always give a chance to Real Madrid because of the capability that they have of making a comeback from difficult situations.
But right now it looks like for some reason the chemistry between the players is just not there. Maybe if the situation gets better for them in the upcoming times they will be able to do well in the Champions League competition. But right now it seems very tough for both of these teams. Not only in the Champions League but also in the Domestic League as well.