CITY Magic man Pep is at it again as he ups the ante
AFTER two years in charge at the Etihad, we should no longer be surprised at Pep Guardiola’s ability to continually pull rabbits from hats.
From finding a way to play both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus, to covering for the absence of Benjamin Mendy, the City manager always appears to conjure a solution for any issues.
Even by Guardiola’s standards, though, the first game in their title defence saw an unexpected, thrilling set-up that proved too much for a limited, but industrious, Arsenal side.
One of the only real queries going into the season centred on formation: would the coach stick with the 4-3-3 that he believes works best with wingers hugging the touchline and full-backs coming inside, or revert to the 3-5-2 that looked better for Mendy where the Frenchman and Kyle Walker bomb down the channels and square for everybody else in the middle?
At the Emirates, Guardiola combined the two. They lined up in the familiar 4-3-3 shape that won them the league last year, only for Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling to cut in regularly to leave space for the full-backs to overlap.
Both City goals came from Mendy balls inside that were finished off from the centre of the goal.
If it doesn’t guarantee the Blues will do it every week, the fact it took Arsenal by surprise to put a tricky opening match behind them showed the value in City shedding skins like a chameleon.
Much has been made of Liverpool’s spending as Jurgen Klopp has bought almost an entire new spine in 2018 at the cost of £245m to try and mount a title challenge.
By contrast, Mahrez has been the only new addition for City, leaving teams to analyse essentially the same group of players as they try to upset the champions.
But as Arsenal have found out, inactivity in the transfer market does not mean Guardiola has been resting on the success of last season. The manager is constantly looking for new ways to win and improve and has already referenced the need to do better at breaking down ultra-defensive teams. City’s backroom staff will already be plotting exactly how to best their rivals as well as the teams coming up soon in what looks (with Arsenal out of the way) a gentle introduction to the season.
As Guardiola himself put it, there are more tricks to come.
“I have a feeling, still, we can improve,” he said “Inserting Mendy in the group. Playing in one or different ways. Our pressing was completely different to the Chelsea game. To understand that needs time. Still we are not good enough to know exactly what we have to do, but in general I can’t be more satisfied that in these last two games.”