Quadruple is still on but Sunday’s trip to Crystal Palace and the midweek visit from Spurs could prove to be telling

The nervous mood around Manchester City as they push for a historic quadruple can be gauged by the decision of Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, not to discuss the prospect in case he proves to be a jinx on Pep Guardiola’s side.

For the mayor to turn down a chat politely also underlines what is at stake as City enter the crucial phase of their tilt at a clean sweep of trophies that began with February’s League Cup final victory over Chelsea.

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Before next month’s FA Cup final against Watford comes a pivotal four days in the Premier League and Champions League. On Sunday City are at Crystal Palace, knowing a win would take them a point ahead of Liverpool before Jürgen Klopp’s side host Chelsea later that afternoon. City then host Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Tottenham Hotspur in which they hope to overcome a 1-0 deficit.

Andy Morrison captained City to their famous Second Division play-off final win over Gillingham in 1999 and has been the official fan ambassador since 2013. “That they are even in with a chance of this shows the ambition of the club,” he says. “But you have to be mindful that these things can change overnight. It’s one game and then that’s gone [with a loss] and then a week later you could have another gone, too.

“But there’s always that possibility [it can be done]. If they actually achieve it, whether a treble or a quadruple, they will be able to look back and reflect on what an amazing achievement it’s been.

“For now there’s no way the players will be talking about quadruples, doubles, trebles. The players, the manager and everyone else will not be looking at creating history – it will just be trying to win the next game.”

After Palace, City’s next league game is Saturday’s visit of Tottenham before Manchester United and Burnley (away), Leicester City (home) and Brighton & Hove Albion (away) completes the title defence. If City are to do the quadruple, then they will have 11 more matches, starting with Palace.

Supporters are beginning to feel nervous. Rachel Johnson is a 52-year-old fan who has held a season ticket for 25 of them.

“There’s no comparison between this season and years ago,” she says of the era before Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2009 and began his £1bn-plus investment. “We went to watch City in those days with no expectations, and the result could be anything from heavy defeat to big win. Going to a match was more about the experience. Now City go into virtually every game as favourites, and any points dropped or games lost have a big impact on the chances of success. That makes things a lot more stressful.

“It’s difficult not to become complacent now. The FA Cup semi-finals showed what an appearance at Wembley meant to Brighton, Wolves and Watford fans. For us, it’s becoming quite frequent. I remember the 2011 semi-final against [Manchester] United, and being in awe at the occasion and the result [City went on to win the final, 1-0 against Stoke]. Now, the semi-final is just a gateway to the final for City, rather than an achievement in itself.”

David Mooney, of the Blue Moon podcast, says: “The mood is one of mini-excitement. It’s so close and within touching distance to have, effectively, the perfect season. I don’t think City fans expect it to happen, so they’re enjoying it while they can. City fans aren’t built like other fans – they didn’t want to tempt fate by singing ‘We’re gonna win the league’ last season until they were 2-0 up against United [at home]. That game would actually have won the league so when they lost that I think it showed the ‘typical City’ feeling lives on.

“Before each match fans are nervous, but knowing that the impossible is so close, it’s hard not to enjoy these last few weeks of the season, however it pans out.”

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Guardiola’s default stance is to describe the quadruple as “nearly impossible” and Morrison believes the psychological demand on the squad may prove telling. “If anything’s going to catch them out it will be that mental tiredness, not being able to raise their game again to that huge level that they have to every single time they go on to a pitch now,” he says.

Yet Nedum Onuoha, a defender for City between 2004‑12 and now with Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer, believes they could do it. “It would have to be an outstanding effort,” he says. “But in the same way, the last time I had feelings like this was when people were saying: ‘Will Arsenal go the whole season not beaten?’ It was in 2004 and you say: ‘Well, it’s not impossible. They probably won’t do it, but it’s not impossible.’ But then they went out and did it.”

Calum Johnson, son of the veteran supporter Rachel, says: “City have had to cope with the expectation that the quadruple is a possibility. The agony of what might have been [if they fail], combined with the feeling that City achieved so much only to fall at the final hurdles, would probably be more crushing than the quadruple would be incredible.”

City may require some luck, moreover, and Morrison pointed to Manchester United’s good fortune 20 years ago. “You look at what United did in 99,” he adds. “They’d been battered by Bayern Munich all the way through [the Champions League final] and then they get two late goals to complete the treble. If it’s your time, then it’s your time.”