Beat PSG and the focus can be fully on title challenge
PEP Guardiola invited scorn when he gave his reasoning for why Club Bruges at home was a more important fixture than United away, but there were further signs of him prioritising the Champions League this weekend.
Ruben Dias sat out the Premier League win over Everton while Cole Palmer was given his first Premier League start as the City manager shuffled his pack ahead of tonight’s visit of the Ligue 1 leaders.
Nobody at the Etihad is very keen to talk up a winning run, wary of the expectations on the squad after their record-breaking sequence of results between December and March last season that guided them through to the business end of four competitions.
As Guardiola has said a few times now, it is silly to think too far ahead when there are so many things that can trip a team up.
Win against PSG, though, and City will at least have an unobstructed view of the busy period running into the New Year.
Three points - no easy task but extremely possible given the form of Guardiola’s side and their victory over two legs against the same opposition last year - will clinch top spot in their Champions League group with a game to spare, leaving them four points clear of the French heavyweights ahead of a potentially tricky away tie in Leipzig.
As much respect as the manager has for the competition and the teams in it, there is no excuse for not prioritising the Premier League if they get a positive result tonight.
A competitive team can still be put out in Germany, but it should not be the first choice XI.
Instead, the most in-form players can focus their minds on the Premier League. After tonight, if Leipzig is taken as a secondary game, then the next eight fixtures
are all in the league: West Ham (h), Villa (a), Watford (a), Wolves (h), Leeds (h), Newcastle (a), Leicester (h), Brentford (a), Arsenal (a) is the schedule before the third round of the FA Cup in early January.
As good as City have been at managing multiple competitions under Guardiola, the domestic cups and Champions League are all different from the league and the European challenge is significantly so from the styles of teams to the refereeing standards.
In what is looking like a tight (and exciting) race for the Premier League this season, being able to focus on it for an extended stretch could be just the advantage the Blues need to hit that rhythm and go on a run that will take them a lot closer to where they want to be.
City can do it, but they must beat PSG to get the golden opportunity.