LONDON: This is how Manchester City used to be, taking their fans on a roller-coaster ride from one week to another. From delght to despair and back again. In the 3-3 home draw against Feyenoord in the Champions League they managed it all in one game.

By the 53rd minute City were leading Liverpool manager Arne Slot’s old club 3-0 before a dramatic collapse left them 15th in the Champions League table and without a win in their past six matches in all competitions. Never in his managerial career had Pep Guardiola seen his team fall apart on such a scale.

No blame attaches at least to Erling Haaland. He scored twice to match Eusebio and Pippo Inzaghi on the list of top Champions League goalscorers. Haaland’s goa;s – the first a penalty after he had been tripped – sandwiched another from Ilkay Gundogan.

Josko Gvardiol, twice at fault against Tottenham at the weekend, blundered again to ease the way towards both a first Feyenoord goal from Anis Hadj Moussa and a second from Santiago Giménez. A reckless charge out of goal by keeper Ederson cleared the way for an equaliser by David Hancko.

Guardiola said the Manchester City fans had every right to boo after his side became the first team in Champions League history to fail to win a game they had led by three goals in the 75th minute.

Guardiola said: “Of course, the fans are disappointed. We understand. I’m here not to remember success in the past, I’m here today to see the team win and perform well. I’m not one, whether the situation is bad or good, to tell them what they have to do. They support us all the time, when we go away the fans are amazing. They’re right to express what they feel.”

Asked about Gvardiol’s form, City’s manager said: “He is so young, he will learn. In the past he has been the best player on the pitch so I will be wrong if I point at him for our defeat. He is a fantastic player and more than ever must be helped.”

Guardiola must now lift his players for the visit to league leaders Liverpool on Sunday.

Asked for his response, Guardiola added: “As a team, always we found a way in the last years to win — one way or another, always different ways. Right now, in another situation, at 3-0 nothing happens. We could not score the fourth or fifth and now it happened.”

Guardiola repeated his concerns, voiced after the loss to Tottenham, that his team are “fragile” and simply cannot reach their customary defensive heights at present.

Arsenal delight

Bukayo Saka scored one goal and set up another as Arsenal thrashed Portuguese side Sporting 5-1 at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, their biggest away win in the competition in 21 years.

Gabriel Martinelli put Arsenal ahead early on before Kai Havertz and Brazilian defender Gabriel added two more goals before halftime as Arsenal overwhelmed their hosts.

Goncalo Inacio pulled a goal back for Sporting early in the second period, but Saka restored Arsenal’s three-goal advantage with a penalty and Leandro Trossard got a fifth for their biggest away win in the Champions League since victory by the same scoreline at Inter Milan in 2003.

Arsenal moved above Sporting to seventh place in the 36-team table with 10 points from five games.

The Portuguese side, who recently lost coach Ruben Amorim to Manchester United, have the same number of points but are one position back on goal difference.

“Sporting haven’t lost here in a very long time (13 months), we knew it would be a big challenge,” Saka said. “But we believed we could go out there and have a good performance and we did that.

“We realised how good they are and that we had to rise to the challenge. I am proud of all the boys, we will be a team that goes from strength to strength and keeps improving.”

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