If Raheem Sterling has one wish when the fixtures come out for next season, it will probably be that Manchester United’s visit to the Etihad Stadium does not come in the first week of March.
Twelve months ago, Sterling turned in a disappointing display, culminating in a wretched late miss as Manchester City lost 2-0 to their crosstown rivals.
He was benched for the following game against Southampton and then left out of the matchday squad to face Fulham altogether amid reports of a row between himself and Pep Guardiola - something both men denied.
Sterling then played the remainder of the season as a backup option, with a recall for the Champions League final not exactly amounting to the blessing it looked like on a strange teamsheet.
The England forward’s City career was in a rut that even his star turn at Euro 2020 couldn't remedy. By the November international break, he had a solitary Premier League goal in 2021/22.
Then everything clicked, with a goal-of-the-season contender against Everton and an equaliser in the 2-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain kicking off a hot streak.
Sterling kept his cool from the penalty spot to secure a 1-0 win over Wolves and score his 100th Premier League goal. His 13 in all competitions, including a hat-trick in the 4-0 win at Norwich City, put him second behind Riyad Mahrez for the Blues this season.
It isn’t all about goals with Raheem - his tone-setting displays against Aston Villa and Chelsea are among the best any City player has produced this term, but his teammates made the decisive contributions.
Even so, a sumptuous strike to cap the 5-0 Champions League win over Sporting Lisbon was his 127th for City, moving him into the club’s all-time top 10 goalscorers.
Guardiola then saw his side experience a blip, with a shambolic 3-2 defeat to Tottenham followed by a scrappy 1-0 win at Everton. Those displays probably informed a change of tact for Sunday’s Manchester derby.
Jack Grealish was preferred to Sterling on the left wing and responded with his best outing in a City shirt, while Mahrez was restored on the right and scored twice in an emphatic 4-1 win.
Such is the lot of a Manchester City forward. If you dip out of the team for just a game and all your colleagues excel, everyone is suddenly scratching their heads to work out how you find a way back in.
Sterling would be forgiven for raising a wry smile over having travelled all that distance in the space of a year, only to find himself out of the team after playing United in early March. Those pesky fixtures.
At which point, it’s probably legitimate to wonder whose fixtures will concern Raheem next season. His contract expires in June 2023 and an extension will in part be dependent upon how much game time he enjoys at this business end of the season.
If it ends as 2020/21 did, then one of the most popular players at the Etihad Stadium might look to ply his trade elsewhere.
It should be pointed out that Sterling was a picture of beaming happiness during Tuesday’s training session for the second leg against Sporting, where it is anticipated he will return to a rotated starting lineup.
City’s players probably hear more than enough from Guardiola over the course of a week to give his press conferences a wide berth but the manager gave a clear indication of Sterling’s invaluable worth within his squad.
“How do we arrive with as much players there? After 50 passes, after a lot of passes,” he said when discussing the packed penalty areas that led to both Kevin De Bruyne’s goals against United. “Don’t lose stupid balls to avoid the counter-attacks and a lot of passes.
“After a lot of passes, we arrive. We can make good transitions [but] Bernardo [Silva] cannot make 45-metre transitions. Leroy [Sane] could do it, Raheem still can do it, Sammy Edozie can do it. But the rest? Riyad cannot do it.”
Sterling is not alone in being out of contract next summer. But Gabriel Jesus, Ilkay Gundogan and even the free-scoring Mahrez all have colleagues who can perform similar jobs.
With Sane now at Bayern Munich and youth teamer Edozie in the infancy of his career, Guardiola was quite clear that he needs Sterling to be a point of difference when plan A of control and death by 1,000 passes comes up short.
If the likes of Grealish, De Bruyne, Bernardo and Phil Foden maintain their weekend levels, plan A will probably suffice and any knock-on for Sterling’s future will be intriguing to witness.
Hopefully more electric performances help to settle the issue for Raheem because it feels like Guardiola has already made his mind up about a player he would be loath to lose.
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