Blues must show Pep they have the fight for title race
“CITY is not the same City that it was last season,” said Nuno Espirito Santo after his Wolves team had inflicted City’s first defeat at the Etihad in 10 months.
The coach did not mean it disparagingly, simply that they were a different side from last season that caused different problems as well as having different areas of weakness. And as he added, the best way of carrying out a gameplan is to ‘run like crazy’.
But there was definitely something lack from the side that have won the last two Premier League titles without letting teams anywhere near them.
The Centurions spirit was seemingly unbreakable in the 2017/18 campaign with goals being plucked from nowhere to maintain the momentum. Last season City squeezed the hope out of their opponents and their rivals in the run-in, grinding out clean sheets and victories to doom every faint positive from Anfield.
Even before the Wolves game on Sunday, Guardiola was asked about teams being beaten before they kicked off at the Etihad such has been their domination. Watford certainly fell into that category.
City, though, do not appear as settled or as resolute as they were at their recent title-winning best. There is plenty of time left in the season for them to reach that, yet for now - and arguably for as long as Aymeric Laporte remains sidelined there remains a sense that the Blues can be got at.
Norwich were rewarded for fearlessly taking on the champions at their own game, Everton and Dinamo Zagreb have threatened to take points off them and Wolves executed their plan to perfection. Whether it is opponents taking advantage of City problems or Guardiola undermining the team’s strengths by overcompensating for the weakness, the aura of invincibility has gone.
Guardiola still believes that the players have the mentality and strength that saw them claim the two highest points totals in Premier League history.
“I know these guys. Still they are incredibly involved and can do it,” he said after the game on Sunday.
That is some defence, and what the squad must do now is to back them up - as they did last season after setbacks against Palace and Leicester.
It will need time but the effort will be noticed immediately because the result was not as bad as the performance from City against Wolves.
Starting with Crystal Palace away in a fortnight, opponents coming up will have little sympathy for any injury concerns the Blues may have.
Having been backed by Guardiola, the players must now show that they have the fight for this title race.