Vinny: ‘We can’t let our standards slip’
CITY players are already preparing for their biggest challenge next season.
Victory over Southampton on the final day meant Pep Guardiola’s side ended a record-breaking campaign with 100 points, smashing the all-time record for Premier League points tally and a litany of other previous bests along the way.
After a season where they have ended all questions about the manager’s ability to crack English football, two sizable ones will need to be answered next season.
First, how do you defend the title? No team has managed it since 2009 but common consensus is that backto-back titles is a must if City are to further their case to go down as one of the greatest sides seen in the Premier League.
Secondly, how on earth do you go about bettering 100 points? Only Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus have managed this in the top European leagues in recent years, and none managed to replicate it.
City are looking to tackle the first part of their conundrum by forgetting about the second.
“We want to enjoy the moment, we have a little break and then are back with the national teams,” said skipper Vincent Kompany.
“We don’t want to drop too much after this. That’s key to us.
“Our biggest challenge is we’ve reached 100 points and it has never been done before, but how do you keep the level around the numbers?
“It’s difficult because it’s never been done before. I’m not talking in terms of points as much as level.
“We won this game and we have won a lot of games in the last minute – that’s why we have 100 points, but you can have a very good season without having these moments.
“But the style and the intensity with which we play is what needs to remain.”
While City are not thinking about trying to get 100 points again, it did mean a lot when Gabriel Jesus lobbed Alex McCarthy with virtually the last kick of the match to seal the title.
Kompany had been using it to motivate the players in the final stage of the season, and the Centurions will now be remembered alongside Arsenal’s Invincibles.
“I don’t know if you can put them up against each other but it was a cheeky way for me to motivate everyone to go and grab that title, that 100 points,” he said.
“When you look at Gabriel and his last-minute winner you can see how much these guys have really put into it this season.
“It meant a lot.”