CITY SPECIAL Dinho should Sterling hits new heights with latest run of form be considered for top award
IN an admittedly uncrowded market, Raheem Sterling is threatening to cut through the generic platitudes of Footballer Twitter and become genuinely funny on social media.
He has amusingly alluded to his own struggles in front of goal, but while his manager may not care for the online world, Pep Guardiola cannot fail to have been impressed by yet another batch of match-winning contributions.
It says a lot of the coach’s near-impossible standards that a question about Sterling after the Chelsea win drew some unprompted criticism.
“In the last games he didn’t score and he didn’t make a good performance but it’s normal,” he said. “Ups and downs always happen with a lot of games but today he was incredible.”
Those ‘last games’ probably take in Arsenal (two assists), Huddersfield (one goal and a stonewall penalty not given), Wolves (won a penalty), Rotherham (one goal) and Liverpool (one assist).
After a quiet December, Sterling is once again at the prolific levels of a goal or assist with every start. Sergio Aguero, Mohamed Salah (both 17), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (15) and Harry Kane (12) are the only players to have more than his 12 league goals and Eden Hazard (10) is the only Premier League star to have more than his nine assists; he needs seven and three respectively to improve on his own highs achieved last season.
Aguero, Bernardo Silva, and Aymeric Laporte have all had outstanding seasons so far but don’t rule out Sterling becoming the team’s MVP as his game continues to hit new heights. Raheem Sterling scores against Chelsea THE bookies already have a Liverpool player down as favourite to win the Player of the Year trophy.
Virgil van Dijk leads the betting, with City ace Sergio Aguero and Van Dijk’s team-mate Mo Salah in hot pursuit.
The man who should win, especially if the Blues pull off a second consecutive Premier League title win, is lagging behind a bit, a 20-1 shot.
But Fernandinho, and Aguero, face the fact that City players never seem to get a look-in, either in the PFA award, or the older sports THE weeks don’t get any smaller for City.
A run of Premier League fixtures of Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea was seen as a pivotal period for Pep Guardiola’s defending champions.
It was, and three big wins have seen momentum swing at the top of the table, but if Newport, Schalke and Chelsea look an easier writers’ Footballer of the Year.
City have won the title three times in the last seven years, and on none of those occasions has one of their players been selected by either their fellow pros or the Football Writers’ Association.
In the other four years, the individual award winners have come from the champions – Eden Hazard won both in 2015, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy won one each in 2016, and N’Golo Kante won both in 2017.
Some City fans see this as part of a wider agenda against City, but that is stretching the truth.
The fact that Aguero has not only trio the stakes are considerably higher. As Wigan proved last season, one slip can kill any chance of a trophy.
The next set of matches also task City with a challenge they have not been able to master for some time.
Their spirited comeback in 2019 has been largely forged at the Etihad.
From roof-blowing wins over won one of the individual awards but has only been selected in the PFA team of the year once in his seven seasons, is scandalous.
But in some cases, his timing has been out – he has been injured or out of form at the key stage of the season when votes are cast.
The love-in with Liverpool ensures that van Dijk is out in the lead, and favourite to become the first defender to win the writers’ award since Steve Nicol – also of Liverpool – in 1989 and the first to lift the players’ trophy since Chelsea’s John Terry in 2005.
One of City’s weaknesses when it comes to garnering individual awards is actually their greatest strength. They are a team in every sense of the word.
While Kevin De Bruyne was a powerful candidate last season, he was by no means a shoo-in to win City’s own player of the year, never mind a national one.
The same situation is developing this season. Aguero is 4-1 second favourite behind van Dijk, with Mo Liverpool and Chelsea to exhibitions against Rotherham and Burton, Guardiola’s side have rebuilt their confidence on home territory.
On the road, a victory ground out down the M62 at Goodison Park was preceded by defeat at St. James Park, a non-event in Burton and an unconvincing win at Huddersfield.
City have not travelled far in the last six weeks, and they have not Salah 6-1 followed by David Silva (12-1) and Raheem Sterling (14-1). Ask City fans who their most influential, and best, player has been this season, and you will get a myriad of answers – with Fernandinho figuring strongly, and Bernardo Silva probably getting more votes than his hugely popular namesake David. And therein lies the problem. Liverpool, like last season, have one stand-out player, while City fans would not be able to agree among themselves who their best player is. That factor is likely to see City players again be snubbed when the glitzy end-of-season awards ceremonies take place at some posh London hotel or other. The Brazilian ace has been the key reason that City have reeled in Liverpool again after they threatened to pull clear in the title race – and it is glaring that the Blues’ December wobble against Crystal Palace and Leicester came when he was out injured. travelled well for some time.
Defeated at Leicester and Chelsea, you have to go back to West Ham on November 24 for the last game they played with the authority they command at the Etihad.
It is far from unusual for home form to be better - one of the aspects of last season that amazed Guardiola was that they picked up 50 points on their travels and their