Masterclass from polished Pep will alarm title rivals
IN Spain, they use the phrase
ganar sin despeinarse to describe victories as handsome as these. It translates as to win without messing your hair up, and Manchester City’s magnificence here was such that you might imagine some players were able to exit Vicarage Road without breaking into the merest sweat.
This was a masterclass, the kind of orchestral exhibition for which Pep Guardiola is famed. Last season, there were moments that implied we may witness greatness from Guardiola’s City, notably a first-half performance at Old Trafford during a splendid start to the season. Yet cracks emerged in City’s armoury.
The ability to spend £200million in a summer transfer window
helps, of course, and the acquisitions of Ederson in goal and the powerful and dynamic full-backs Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy have transformed City from contenders to favourites.
On the bench, the talent of Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane watched on, while the German Ilkay Gundogan is also back on the scene. It is probably a good thing for the competitive spirit of the Premier League that Alexis Sanchez did not swap London for Manchester on the final day of the transfer window.
At times, City made it appear so easy, so straightforward that you might believe it all to be a choreographed show; so pinpoint were the passes, so rehearsed the movement. But this is not effortless football, it is a fine-tuned blend of art and graft, beauty and industry.
On the days it all comes together, it is a bewitching experience. We have seen this from Guardiola teams at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and the evidence of the past week suggests it may now become the norm at City, too.
Three games against Liverpool at home, Feyenoord and Watford away have yielded 15 goals in favour and not one against.
The doubters will point to a similar blockbuster start last season and the manner in which it all fizzled out but this was an ominous demonstration of their qualities. For Watford, this was a grievous ordeal. Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager twice defeated by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in Champions League finals, equates the experience as akin to spinning on a carousel, his players left dizzied and disorientated. Watford supporters will know the feeling.
This was 6-0 but it might have been a dozen. City threatened at every turn and Marco Silva’s side could not lay a glove on their opponents.
This was the Premier League’s most audacious team playing without pressure, in total freedom. City’s supporters were in their element; lauding their team as the new table-toppers. They will take some stopping.