SMELLS LIKE TEAM SPIRIT
Champions-elect City’s domination is built on strong group mentality JULIAN’S READY TO CLEAN UP HIS ACT
fourth round of the Carabao Cup, before conceding four penalties in a shoot-out.
Argentine Speroni, 38, has a record-equalling 111 clean sheets for Palace in a 403-game career following his £750,000 move from Dundee in 2004.
Only four players have played
PARTY TIME: Kevin De Bruyne PEP GUARDIOLA is praising the Spirit in Sky Blue for putting Manchester City on Cloud Nine.
It is the same team spirit he witnessed at Barcelona and Bayern Munich as those two footballing giants swept all before them in terms of silverware.
And now his sensational squad, which is dominating the English game, bears the same titlewinning hallmarks.
It is not just wild goal celebrations, or the type of raucous dressing room singalong stuff, which got up Jose Mourinho’s nose after his derby defeat, which Guardiola adores.
The City boss is delighted that everyone involved with the club, from the players to the backroom staff, are all in this adventure together.
Just like it was at the Nou Camp and Allianz Arena, where the City boss won more for the Eagles, which is even more remarkable when you consider he went nearly two-and-a half years without a Premier League appearance before being brought back in from the cold in October by new boss Roy Hodgson.
City have scored 61 league goals this season but Speroni said: “My own clean sheet record is not the kind of thing you first think about major honours. Guardiola said: “Yeah, the team spirit is definitely high.
“Not just the team but the staff for example.
“Every day I say thank you for my physios, doctors and kit man.
“All the people like that, because they are involved. They support. They encourage the players. ‘Move forward, move forward’, they say. I cannot do it alone.
“They help me. They are encouraging, most of the time, with them.
“We always speak about how we celebrate the goals. That is simple to see. That is not the real situation which happens.
“The real situation is how the players who don’t play celebrate when they are warming up, on the bench and after that in the locker room. Every day, not just after the games.
“You can ask all the managers when you come to a football club.
“But the fact it has happened makes me very proud.
“It’s a great achievement. Another one on Sunday? Why not?”
“We know City is going to be tough but we know there are no easy games in the Premier League.
“Someone has to get a point off them some time, so why shouldn’t it be us?”