MANCHESTER CITY CAN reclaim their title as early as this weekend, though will ironically need Liverpool’s help to refix the crown: a win against Crystal Palace tomorrow coupled with a Liverpool victory against Manchester United on Sunday will give Guardiola and his players a third title in four seasons.
That they have cantered to the league title in a compressed season having fought on all fronts is a superb achievement.
It is of course, a testament to the sheer weight of resources: City have a depth of squad nobody can match.
But this shouldn’t diminish Guardiola’s achievement in this hectic but antiseptic season. He has adapted his side to Pandemic Football better than any other manager has changed theirs, accentuated by the fact their great rivals Liverpool have collapsed by sticking rigidly by a style for which they no longer have the personnel nor the energy to execute.
City took some time to find their rhythm this season, and consecutive draws with Manchester United and West Brom in mid-December left them ninth in the league and eight points behind leaders Liverpool.
By the time they next met United, however, City had won 17-straight league games, were 12 points clear at the top and now 25 points ahead of Liverpool.
There are many reasons underpinning City’s superb season, of course – the signing of Ruben Dias, the true breakout of Phil Foden and the thriving of Joao Cancelo and Ilkay Gundogan – but as a collective they have adapted to this demanding season by running less.
A recent analysis of Premier League running stats by The Athletic found the bulk of City’s players were running less than the Premier League average for their positions, with only Riyad Mahrez and Foden above the mean.
The midweek win against Paris Saint-Germain proved a microcosm of City’s success this season. After an uncomfortable opening quarter, City found a foothold in the game and then utterly dominated the second half by starving PSG of possession.
Kevin De Bruyne put their improvement down to “patience” and a trust in their passing; Guardiola said the City players simply needed to “take more touches” to find their way into the game. They pressed aggressively, of course, but there passing soon wore down PSG and led them to completely lose their discipline.
Even Guardiola himself can be said to have trusted what he knows best: gone were the maddening tactical tweaks and personnel decisions that have interrupted his side’s momentum and led to a succession of missed chances in the Champions League. Instead he picked the team you might expect, and says the ambition for the second leg is to simply “be ourselves.”
This will be remembered as the season in which Guardiola returned to what he knows best himself: take the ball, pass the ball.
In 2004, Guardiola was winding down his playing days in Qatar at the age of just 33, lamenting his talents were no longer prized in the game.
“If I were a 20-year-old at Barcelona today, I would never make it as a professional”, he told The Times. “At best I’d be playing in the third division somewhere. I am not quick, I never had the stamina to run and run for 90 minutes like central midfielders have to do today. I am not particularly good in the air, I am not physically strong, I don’t dribble past opponents and I am not a good tackler. But I can pass the ball fairly well.”
Five years later he conquered Europe with his famous Barcelona team and then remoulded the game in his own image. The extreme pressing game pioneered by Jurgen Klopp has proved to be the most successful counterpart for Guardiola’s principles, and, in fairness, both styles have bled into each other over the last few years and now share many similar characteristics.
But in a season which posed questions never before asked, Pep Guardiola found the answers. And they are answers he has always carried.
Premier League fixtures
Friday
Southampton vs Leicester City 8pm
Saturday
Crystal Palace vs Manchester City 12.30pm
Brighton vs Leeds 3pm
Chelsea vs Fulham 5.30pm
Everton vs Aston Villa 8pm
Sunday
Newcastle vs Arsenal 2pm
Manchester United vs Liverpool 4.30pm
Spurs vs Sheffield United 7.15pm
Monday
West Brom vs Wolves 6pm
Burnley vs West Ham 8.15pm
