How Man City's season unravelled: From beating Barcelona and challenging Chelsea in the WSL to fighting for Champions League qualification amid a crippling injury crisis

There's one really obvious issue to point to here and that is the injuries City have sustained. Perhaps the tone was set back in July, before the season had even began, when summer signing Risa Shimizu was stretchered off at the Olympics with an ACL injury, just two weeks after being unveiled as a City player. Bad luck is also encapsulated by the fortunes of young defender Naomi Layzell, who had a breakout game with a goal and assist against Barca, only to be forced to leave the field with an ankle issue before full-time. She would be sidelined for two months.

In the time since, Greenwood, Vivianne Miedema and Lauren Hemp have all undergone knee surgeries, star striker Khadija Shaw only came back from an injury last month and Laia Aleixandri hasn't quite rediscovered her best form yet since returning from a problem sustained on international duty before Christmas.

It's not just the importance of these injured players that has knocked City, but also the quantity of them, as Taylor doesn't have the deepest squad. That's not a passable excuse for their struggles, as they are a huge club with the finances to stock a big squad. However, it does offer an explanation for why they have endured such a devastating few weeks.

That's not changed much despite them being active in the January transfer window, either. Yes, they've done well to bring in Brazil forward Kerolin, named MVP in the NWSL in the 2023 season; defender Rebecca Knaak, who looked particularly good against Arsenal; and Austria international Laura Wienroither, to add necessary depth at full-back. Aemu Oyama, a star for Japan at youth level, is an exciting signing for the future, too.

But the departures of Alanna Kennedy and Chloe Kelly mean they're still a little short in some key areas, especially while players like Greenwood and Hemp are on the sidelines. In hindsight, this squad probably needed to avoid any mid-to-long-term injuries this season in order to really go toe-to-toe with Chelsea in the title race, particularly given how efficient the Blues have been.

"This season, we're probably feeling the strain of being a Champions League group for the first time," Taylor said on Tuesday, speaking about that lack of depth. "That changes the schedule a lot. But squad depth, and quality of squad depth, is always going to be really important for any team to compete on multiple [fronts]. We've probably had to turn to young players quite a bit.

"Most coaches will always say they want that depth of quality to be a little bit better, but the teams that have done well, if you look at Chelsea, they've been able to build a squad over the last five, six, seven years, through the successes they've had. When you win the league, it gives you that two months then to be able to invest, knowing that [you're] going to be playing in the Champions League [group stage] and in multiple competitions, while the other two teams who qualify for the Champions League [qualifying rounds], there's no guarantee you're going to be in that competition. By the time you have qualified for [the group stage], the transfer window has closed. You're hedging your bets a little bit."

This makes sense to some degree. After all, having Champions League football makes it easier to attract top players, while giving minutes to a squad built for four competitions becomes tougher if you then lose out on European qualification. Yet, Man City are not a small club. They should be able to attract players regardless, they are certainly in the financial position to be able to build a big squad and may well have avoided some of those qualifying defeats if they had one.

As it is, that lack of depth and the injuries suffered has impacted the back line more than any other area of the team. The time spent on the sidelines by Greenwood, Layzell, Aleixandri and Shimizu has left City with only one senior right-back for most of the season, and often just two centre-backs until Knaak's January arrival, while Leila Ouahabi is the only left-back in the squad to have played a game for the club. Again, this comes down to squad composition as well as absences.

As a result, City have conceded an uncharacteristically high number of goals, with 18 shipped in 13 WSL fixtures. That's an average of 1.38 per game, up from 0.68 last season. Most notably, in the four WSL outings since Greenwood's injury, which began with that defeat at Everton, City have conceded 12 times. That's an eye-watering three goals per game.

It's no huge surprise that Taylor's team don't look as sturdy at the back without their captain, and Aleixandri's surprising dip in form hasn't allowed her to step up and lead the defence as well as many might've have imagined - not yet, at least. As they say, form is temporary, class is permanent. But some of the problems have been preventable, too. For example, when Kennedy came in for Greenwood for the Everton game, City didn't adjust their high line. That inability to recognise that tweaks were necessary, in order to account for the two centre-backs having differing strengths, proved costly.

Also preventable have been the individual errors made while playing out from the back. The 4-2 league loss to United in January was full to bursting with mishaps in defence, and so it was no surprise that Arsenal boss Renee Slegers took a leaf out of the Red Devils' book on Sunday, and pressed City high. Within 42 seconds of kick-off, it gave Mariona Caldentey a goal.

Asked if it was a concern for him that errors were consistently coming from careless possession in dangerous areas, Taylor replied with a firm 'no'. "We know that teams are going to do that between now and the end of the season, because others will see that they can get joy from it. That's fine," he said, bullishly. "We need to be better in those moments to be able to play past that."

For a club like City, this happens, because the philosophy is built on these risks and all of their teams are happy to live and die by the sword. But opponents will target this and have joy. Young goalkeeper Khiara Keating has come under fire for some of her errors here, though Taylor has stuck by the 20-year-old. "If you want to blame someone, blame me," he said on Sunday. "I pick the team."

And perhaps there is some blame there. Is the regular rotation between Keating and Ayaka Yamashita harming the rhythm of both? After all, Yamashita hasn't been error-free herself this season, despite being a very experienced senior international. But the whole process of playing out from the back, from the decision-making to the quality of options available to pass to, needs to get better if City are to have a successful end to the season.

And that's a point that is important to make: City can still have a successful season. The WSL is the trophy that was spoken about most in the build-up to this season, one City have only won once - and not since 2016 - but there are plenty of others on offer.

On Thursday, Taylor's side will take on Arsenal for the second time in five days, this time with a place in the League Cup final on the line, rather than three points. The following day, they will discover their Champions League quarter-final opponents when the draw takes place at lunchtime. Then, on Sunday, they host Leicester in the FA Cup fifth round.

"This group is usually pretty good at fighting back," Taylor said on Sunday. "It's always the job. You win, you move on to the next game with confidence. You don't win, you have to pick the players up to be ready for the next game. Usually, we strike back and fight back every single time."