From the 2020/21 season that Manchester City reached the UEFA Champions League final that they narrowly lost to Chelsea to 2021/22 that they were eliminated by Real Real Madrid in the semi finals and to 2022/23 they finally won the European Cup for the first time in the history of the club and finally last season they were ousted by Real Madrid in the quarter finals, never had Manchester City been as poor as they've been this season.
I have no doubt that they'll make it out of the group stages of the competition but I don't think Pep Guardiola's men are a strong contender for the European title this season.
Manchester City in the last few seasons has been a strong candidate in the Champions League but that was accompanied by its good performance in the Premier League but this season Manchester City does look like it has declined drastically especially in the Champions League Man City does not look like a strong club and even had difficulty qualifying for the last 16, I am also starting to think that most likely this season Man City will not participate in the hunt for the UCL trophy even Real Madrid also looks not as strong as before, we'll see if there will be any surprises this season regarding the winner of the UCL title.
The change in the format of the Champions League seems to have given a lot of significant changes to the competition and also the current pressure, so it really affects the performance of the favourite teams this season, this season the champions league looks more competitive and unpredictable which is when teams like Manchester City and Madrid, who are usually the favourites, seem to face greater challenges, so this opens up opportunities for other teams and even the underdogs benefit greatly from the schedule and also the selection of opponents based on the coefficient value, because that allows them to get equal opponents in the semi league phase.