Football: are Manchester City “the real deal”?
The Premier League’s title contenders had many reasons to be troubled by Manchester City’s 1-0 victory over Chelsea, said Daniel Taylor in The Observer. They would have noted the way City passed the ball so quickly at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, “comprehensively outplaying the reigning champions”; and the way they “exuded” confidence. But most alarmingly, they would have noted how City did it without their star striker, Sergio Agüero, who had broken a rib in a car crash two days earlier. City were simply “the better team in every department”: by the end, it felt like “a trick of the imagination” that they finished last season 15 points behind Chelsea. They have now won six of their first seven matches, scoring 22 goals and conceding just two. This, however, was their “most complete display” since Pep Guardiola took over as manager last year. Sitting on top of the table, City are “going to take some shifting”. We’ve been here before, said Oliver Holt in The Mail on Sunday. City started last season with six successive wins, playing Guardiola’s “champagne football” – only to fade away. This time, however, it looks as if they are “the real deal”. Guardiola hasn’t compromised his principles: the team are playing with “great elan and verve”. But their defence looks sturdier – and, in new signing Ederson, they have a much better goalkeeper. City’s most important player, however, is a Chelsea reject, said Ian Hawkey in The Sunday Times: the “masterly” Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. Against his old club, the side’s “galvaniser-in-chief” scored a “dazzling” goal. The Blues’ decision to sell De Bruyne three years ago looks more baffling by the day, said Sam Wallace in The Sunday Telegraph. That rare player who can decide the outcome of a game “with a moment of brilliance”, he seems destined to haunt Chelsea “over and again”.