BPL 2015: City tries to reclaim crown

After once again failing to defend their Barclays Premier League title, Manchester City made a huge splash in the transfer market as they take another run at lifting the championship trophy. TSN.ca’s 2015-16 team preview looks at the year ahead for the blue side of Manchester.

Who’s In?: Raheem Sterling (Liverpool, ENG), Fabian Delph (Aston Villa, ENG) and Patrick Roberts (Fulham, ENG - loan)

Who’s Out?: James Milner (Liverpool, ENG), Matija Nastasic (Schalke, GER), Scott Sinclair (Aston Villa, ENG) and Stevan Jovetic (Inter Milan, ITA - loan)

On the first day of 2015, 20 games into the season and following a win over Sunderland, the only thing that separated defending champion Manchester City from the top of the table was the alphabet.  Level on points, goals scored, goals conceded, wins, draws and defeats with Chelsea, the teams were listed in alphabetical order on the table.

Earning points in 12 straight contests, including 10 victories, had seemingly rescued a title defence that looked like it might be over before the turn of the calendar.  However, City would only collect two more points in January and Chelsea would cruise to the championship with an eight-point margin by season’s end.

With their financial fair play restrictions lifted, Manchester City was not limited in summer transfer window spending as they attempted to retool their squad to make a bid for more trophies.

City made one of the window’s biggest splashes when they spent a record £49 million on 20-year-old England international midfielder Raheem Sterling from Liverpool, the most money ever spent for an English player.

Last season’s runner-up also added midfielder Fabian Delph on an £8 million transfer from Aston Villa. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait to see him in sky blue after he left his Manchester City preseason debut on a stretcher just 18 minutes into the first half.

The offence at Etihad Stadium still runs through the very skilled duo of Spaniard David Silva and Argentinian Sergio Aguero.

Aguero captured the Golden Boot last season with 26 goals, while Silva added 12 goals and seven assists to the highest-scoring offence in the Premier League.

If City can get a bounce-back season from midfielder Yaya Toure they should find themselves right at the top of the scoring list again in 2015-16.

Defensively it will be keeper Joe Hart, last season’s Golden Glove winner, and a core once again marshalled by captain Vincent Kompany that will have to support an attack-minded squad that conceded more goals than any of the other Champions League qualifying teams.

Despite a title and a second place finish in his two year tenure, manager Manuel Pellegrini will be under fire from the first kick of the season and will need to have results in the Premier League and Champions League if he is to hold on to the position for the entire season.

City enter the season second favourite to Chelsea to capture the title and, with the Champions second on their fixture list, it won’t be long before we see if they have regained their title winning form or if they will be chasing once again in 2015-16.