Manchester City: Can Pep Guardiola's team learn from their mistakes before it costs them trophies?

Will Manchester City learn to stop turning off before it hurts them?

No, it has not hurt them much. They can win their first trophy of the season this Sunday in the final of the Carabao Cup. It would be a surprise if they stopped only at one. They are inches from Liverpool in the Premier League race and are also well placed in the FA Cup and Champions League. However, their season ends with no trophy or four, no one can say that it is going badly now.

And yet, despite this, it seems that City may not be playing at full speed right now. That they have developed a bad habit, losing their concentration when they feel that a game is already won. Especially a game outside that they should win. As if as soon as they scored, they thought who they were playing next, rather than see that victory. That happened in Leicester in December and Newcastle in January, with two wins before 1-0 and two losses.

Until then, the city is drawn from it. Liverpool 's draw with West Ham and Leicester allowed City to return to the title race, though after the Newcastle match, it seemed like City was over. In the Champions League on Wednesday night, it looked like a familiar story, another defeat careless 2-1, but Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling were decisive to turn the game in the last five minutes. The city has escaped again and is now probably moving towards the quarterfinals.

But can the city continue to flee or be saved by others? Probably not.

The luck will eventually fail. And if they continue to let their standards go down, even a percentage here or there, it will cost them. And as February becomes Mars and we get closer to the decisive moments of each competition, the stakes increase. Any mistake now could cost a trophy to City.

That's why City's Sunday performance against Chelsea is so intriguing. The Carabao Cup final is only two weeks after City beat Chelsea 6-0 at Etihad Stadium. Given that Chelsea has not improved much since then, City must be a favorite for the match. But City have already lost to Chelsea once this year, and if they lose focus on Sunday, they will not win the League Cup.

Bernardo Silva knows this and he told his teammates in the City that in the first hour of the first leg at Schalke, they had achieved "a performance that was not very good" before changing direction. And that they can not allow any complacency on Sunday. Because they do it, Chelsea will "destroy" them.

"To be honest, we should forget this match [the 6-0 win] because it will not happen again, "said Silva.

"We do not expect the same result. We play against one of the best teams in the world, even if lately, their results are not the best. Against this kind of players, you will never relax. If you give them time to think about the time to play and the time to decide, they will destroy you. So yes, we have to play with the same intensity and try to win another trophy.

This seems to be the definitive test for City that begins Sunday, whether it can find the same intensity as it shows at its best. And while Guardiola was resolutely defending City's performance at his post-match press conference on Wednesday night, he also had his own warning for City players. That they can not continue to let in weakness, because it will end up being punished. Guardiola only hopes that the risks to the city of Schalke will be sufficient to prevent them from making the same mistake at Wembley.

"When the opponent does brilliant things, does great things, you have to accept them," he said. "Show me how good you are, adversary, show me. So maybe in the future, for the Sunday final against Chelsea, and for our future, maybe that'll help us. It is necessary to live this kind of situation, this competition, to be realized and to improve. "

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