What's More Important to Manchester City: Champions League or Premier League?

It’s been a fine season so far for Manchester City. Top of the Premier League after 11 matches, through to the knockout stages of the Champions League with two games to spare and into the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup having used the competition to blood in young players.

It’s a significant improvement on last season, when City stuttered their way through the campaign, never really hitting top form at any stage. Manuel Pellegrini has reinvigorated his side, adding pace and tactical flexibility to the Blues’ repertoire.

Tuesday’s Champions League win over Sevilla was perhaps the highlight so far. Pellegrini altered his tactics, was bold in his selection and his team played superbly well. They mixed quick passing and movement, overwhelming the hosts with periods of total control that sapped Unai Emery’s side of hope and energy.

Fernandinho, a player who was said to have dipped badly last season after a damaging World Cup campaign, gave arguably his finest display in a City shirt and represented everything that has changed at the Etihad Stadium in recent months. He combined drive, energy, power, pace and technical ability—a world-class performance that made him the standout player on the pitch.

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He has been City’s best player so far this term, and with David Silva and Sergio Aguero currently on he sidelines through injury, City have their finest talents to add to the side. Indeed, Pellegrini and his staff haven’t received enough credit for the way in which they have negotiated what has been a constantly debilitating injury list, with 15 members of City’s squad having spent time on the treatment table since the season began.

It’s a situation that will make Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the City chairman, very satisfied. With many people expecting Pellegrini to be replaced at the back end of last season after a dreadful run of results at the turn of the year left their hopes of silverware completely obliterated, Mubarak stood by his man.

He offered the Chilean a one-year extension to his existing contract, which was set to run until 2016, to quell media speculation surrounding Pellegrini’s position, having issued a personal address to the fans that lamented the team’s achievements in 2014/15. Firm but fair.

It seems Mubarak is being rewarded for his patience. He instructed Txiki Begiristain, the club’s sporting director, to add new players to Pellegrini’s squad, bankrolling significant investment. It’s paying dividends thus far.

City now find themselves in a strong position to compete for silverware, and with a quarter of the season gone, they look capable of success.

Which raises the question, which is more important to City—winning the Premier League or the Champions League?

When determining the answer, it’s important to make the distinction between the club and the supporters. For the club, it’s a much closer call than it is for the fans.

Since the game-changing takeover of the club by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, the club has been in a state of almost constant progression. The 2011 FA Cup brought to an end the club’s 35-year wait for a major trophy, and the league title the following season was their first in 44 years.

Their League Cup triumph in 2014 saw them complete a clean sweep of domestic honours post-takeover, and their league title later that year confirmed their status as the dominant side in English football in recent years.

Indeed, a Premier League table starting at the beginning 2011/12 season and running up to the present day highlights City’s total domination. The Blues have amassed 357 points from 163 games during that period. Their nearest rivals, Manchester United, have taken 333. Arsenal are third with 322, and Chelsea sit fourth on 319.

But it is perhaps City’s goals, both for and against, that highlight their superiority over their rivals in even greater clarity. City’s goal difference in those 163 games stands at +223. United’s is +152, Arsenal’s is +135 and Chelsea’s is +134. No English side has been able to compete with City over the past four-and-a-bit years.

The board wants to reclaim the title because it represents their staple desire, but the Abu Dhabi regime is looking beyond domestic success. For them, winning the Champions League, and the status that brings across the world, is a vital step toward achieving their ambition of making City a global superpower.

Mubarak has shown he is a tolerant man who understands success in football takes time to achieve. Conquering Europe can wait for now. It’s strange, therefore, that City are seen as having a short-term view despite their chairman’s obvious patience and the foundations and infrastructure the current owners have established revolutionising every aspect of the club.

For the fans, though, there’s only one winner. The Premier League, for them, trumps all. During the club’s years in the doldrums, winning anything seemed like a remote possibility, but certainly European success felt like an unimaginable goal. Readjusting their ambitions hasn’t come naturally to all the supporters.

However, perhaps more significantly, their fans have a distrust of UEFA for a variety of understandable reasons. It means the Champions League simply isn’t held in anywhere near the same esteem as the domestic title, the trophy they dreamed of winning for so long.

Most prominent on their list of complaints is financial fair play, a set of regulations introduced by UEFA that has been viewed in the stands at the Etihad as designed exclusively to damage their club. It protects the established elite and has penalised City for investment, even though Mansour has taken them out of debt and, as of this season, made them profitable. If FFP was about financial security, City would pass any tests with flying colours. 

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The net-spend limit imposed on the club last summer hurt them. The fine seemed absurd. The fact the regulations have since been watered down is a sign to some Blues supporters they weren’t fair in the first place.

What’s more, back in 2011, during a Europa League tie, Porto fans racially abused Mario Balotelli in a game at the Estadio do Dragao. They were found guilty by UEFA and fined 20,000 euros, a pitiful sum that suggested kicking racism out of the game wasn’t exactly a priority.

A few weeks later, in a game against Sporting Clube de Portugal at the Etihad, City came back from the half-time break later than allowed. Their punishment of 30,000 euros exceeded Porto’s and left the City fans scratching their heads. How on earth can such a discrepancy be justified?

Then came last season’s farcical events in Moscow. The fans of CSKA, who were drawn in the same group as City for the second consecutive year, were found guilty of racism. They were ordered to play their home fixture with City behind closed doors. Hundreds of City fans had already booked travel and were out of pocket when they were told they would not be allowed in, but further insult was added when around 650 CSKA fans found a way inside the stadium on corporate tickets.

This, for the City fans, was the final straw. They now boo the UEFA anthem before each game in protest at what they see as unfair treatment.

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Perhaps Tuesday's win over Sevilla, which was exhilarating and a long overdue performance in Europe's elite club competition, will ignite some passion in the stands. For now, though, if faced with a choice, the City fans have their eyes firmly on domestic prizes.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2015/16 season. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @RobPollard_.