If any Manchester City fan has felt particularly Blue over Christmas at the form of the team, they can take solace in what has gone before.

The Pep Guardiola team that spent January 2023 losing to Southampton and United looked nothing like the side that would win the Treble five months later, and last year the Club World Cup triumph was only a minor distraction from a Premier League battle that would be uphill for months. So while this particular run of form may be unprecedentedly bad for Guardiola and his players, it is not unusual for them to head into a New Year with serious questions over whether they can still be successful.

In 2024, they answered those emphatically by arguably topping their achievements the previous year. Nothing will top that giddy run for supporters that culminated with beating Arsenal to the Premier League title, seeing United off in the FA Cup final and claiming their first Champions League trophy in Istanbul, but they have now made even more history.

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No English team had ever won four league titles in a row...until May 2024, when Guardiola and his players made history. Rodri was unbeatable, Phil Foden was flying, and everyone in the squad pulled together to do something that may well never be done again. City can boast about something that nobody else in the country has done, and likely never will.

Even then, there were signs of the injuries that would define the second half of the year. City were in with a shout of another Treble as the business end of the season approached and the word among executives heading into the March international break was that as long as there were no issues when the players went away they would be in a good position to challenge for all three major trophies again.

Except John Stones and Kyle Walker suffered problems that left Guardiola livid, Nathan Ake went down in the first game back, and Kevin De Bruyne was hit with sickness hours before their Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid. The squad was still strong enough to hold on for their main goal, but the other trophies left a case of what might have been.

The summer transfer window saw concerns grow for what may lay ahead when the club were content not to get cover in for Rodri despite his extreme workload for the past two seasons that included breaking down in the final of the European Championship. The Spaniard would end the year with another piece of history as the first City star to win the Ballon d'Or, yet he won't feature much in 2025 after his season-ending injury suffered in September.

City confounded even Guardiola's expectations by starting the season well, and they led the Premier League as Bonfire Night approached. The fireworks have been replaced by damp squibs though, with a win to end the year at Leicester just their second in their last 14 games in all competitions after an injury crisis led to a confidence crisis and then simply an all-consuming crisis.

It still isn't as bad as it could be - City fans only have to look down the road to Old Trafford for a laugh to cheer themselves up - but they enter 2025 with virtually no chance of winning the Premier League and even qualification for the Champions League knockout rounds in doubt. Pep Guardiola's new contract does at least give stability until 2027, yet he needs to be convinced that he can motivate the players to deliver more.

Much was made of hangovers from the Treble but if anything it is more understandable to have come this year. That fourth consecutive league title was the focus of City lives every day for eight months, and having done it the whole group has lost their primary motivation.

The desire to win more is always there, yet in a game where more and more teams are upping their levels City have been found wanting to leave questions over whether their squad is still capable of winning. If not, are the club capable of doing the business that is needed as Txiki Begiristain aims to go out on a high?

City obviously face external questions over their Premier League charges, with a verdict expected in 2025 - more than two years since they were first brought. That could have cataclysmic consequences that would define not just next year but those before and after it, although it would be a surprise if it proved a major disruption; City continue to insist on their innocence, as they have since the start.

2024 has also been the year when internal scrutiny from their own fans has stepped up. 'Record profits but record prices. Stop exploiting our loyalty' was the banner displayed in the South Stand in March after season tickets were hiked again, and it was only organised protest that stopped the club from enforcing a parking tax on its disabled supporters for the first time.

The latest annual report brought another profit and next season will see the North Stand expansion completed to take the club forward again, but holding them to account will be supporter groups determined to keep prices affordable and maintain the core of the fanbase that ended 2024 on a high with endless noise at Leicester. On and off the pitch, fans are keen for the club to show that they are not putting profits over performance.

Next year could yet bring more silverware - the lucrative Club World Cup will also be tempting if City have more like a fully fit squad but the bigger concern is setting the team up and rebuilding the squad to be able to have multiple successes in multiple seasons to come. City have risen to the challenge again and again when they have been questioned, but the doubts have rarely before under Guardiola been this big.

Clear heads are needed in the New Year to shift the hangover that has put a downer on another historic year at the Etihad.