Why Pep still smiles...even if City do ship a few goals

ANy manager can be magnanimous when his team has just scored seven. Even so, there was uncommon generosity in the way Pep Guardiola summed up Manchester City’s win over Stoke.

‘I am very pleased for our fans again,’ he said. ‘They came here, they could enjoy nine goals, so that is good. Football is marvellous — of course when you win — but when both teams can score a lot of goals.’

Both teams? Really? Will he truly be hoping that Napoli chip in with the odd one tonight, too? Doubt it. Looking at his reaction when opponents score, it is not like he could be mistaken for a fortnight’s holiday in Benidorm.

yet we get what he means. He doesn’t want the other team to score, but if there are nine goals going and the game is so open that they do, he’ll live with it — provided Manchester City get the lion’s share. On Saturday, City had the surplus by five — so Guardiola was buoyant, and in no mood to begrudge Stoke their two.

Those who see dark, hidden meanings in harmless sentences — Mauricio Pochettino, perhaps — may also have detected a commentary on events down the road. Guardiola will have been able to watch at least some of Liverpool’s match with Manchester United and his delight in a game in which both teams could score may have been matched by disdain for one in which a goal seemed less likely to arrive than a real-life Liver Bird.

If so, no harm in that. There cannot be a genuine football lover of any impartiality right now who would not rather watch the football Guardiola is offering ahead of the alternatives elsewhere in the Premier League.

We used to mock Kevin Keegan’s naivety for imagining he could win games 4-3 and still claim the title, but what Guardiola has laid before us is a significant upgrade on that ideal, and may just work. He has better forwards than Keegan had and a clearer vision of what he wants to achieve.

Keegan was a motivator who, on the day he stood down as England manager, as good as admitted his tactical shortcomings. He knew something was wrong against Germany, he said, but he did not know how to fix it. Guardiola is a coach, a tactician — and an extremely gifted one.

Every player at Manchester City has improved under his tutelage, even the defenders. He has made a left wing back of Fabian Delph, a centre half of John Stones, he has restored Raheem Sterling to the player that made such an impact at Liverpool. Gabriel Jesus drew a comparison with Lionel Messi on Match of the Day at the weekend, and he is turning Kevin De Bruyne into one of the greatest players in the world.

We know City are different, too, because statisticians need to hark back to Victorian times for comparisons. Their 29 goals in eight league matches is the most prolific start since Everton in 1894-95. That was the year of the first Merseyside derby, when Everton’s play- ers were rewarded with ‘silk hats worth 20 shillings’ for their 3-0 win. It was a time of Woolwich Arsenal, Newton Heath — so no Manchester United, not yet — and The Wednesday. There were 32 clubs in the Football League, only one south of Birmingham, and no automatic promotion and relegation. Juventus, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Ajax did not exist. So it is straight- out contrary to insist that what City have done so far is not special. League titles are not won in October, but potential can most certainly be shown and, this form maintained, City have the potential to be among the greatest champions England has seen. And, on the way, if they ship a few goals — four to Manchester United’s two so far — well, Guardiola will force a smile and act as if it is all for the greater good. Which it will be — because if his team continues playing like this, they have the capacity to change English football for a lot longer than one season. Just as Barcelona raised the standards of the elite in Spain.