WITH A BANG

Guardiola on Friday, when asked about the prospect of his side ending 2017 with another remarkable landmark.

For if City win at Crystal Palace in today’s New Year’s Eve fixture, it would be their 19th Premier League win in a row, matching the all-time record victory sequence in any of the top five European leagues, set by Bayern Munich in 2013-14.

Of course, as the man who also oversaw that Munich run, that would just be another measure of Guardiola’s rare quality of fashioning not just winning machines, but attractive winning machines.

For it’s the way they are creating their milestones, not the records themselves, that appears to most energise the Spanish perfectionist.

“The record’s not what counts; what counts is what we have to do against Crystal Palace and their four amazing strikers,” said Guardiola.

“I’m really impressed. Sooner or later, we are going to drop points and we have to see how we react in that moment.”

Still, that idea of them dropping points feels increasingly fanciful and if they win today, they will enter 2018 with a points lead of at least 15 — a number that might even interest Guardiola.

One thing seems certain. Palace will not go into the match as tamely as Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle United on Wednesday when they lost only 1-0 thanks to City’s generous Yuletide profligacy.

Palace, in contrast, had a go at Arsenal before going down 3-2, thanks largely to Alexis Sanchez’s double.

Arsene Wenger, who praised his unsettled Chilean striker’s commitment, will be looking for more of the same today as the Gunners seek to mark the Frenchman’s record 811th Premier League match in charge – topping Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United record — with a win at struggling West Bromwich Albion.

City’s nearest challengers, neighbours Manchester United, need a morale-boost after a stuttering end to the year which saw them knocked out of the League Cup by second-tier Bristol City followed by two draws against Leicester