TREBLE IS BREWING momentum on city’s side as they close in on treble
PEP GUARDIOLA never shouts the odds from the rooftops when he can whisper them with masonic secrecy.
And the Blue Moon messiah still refuses to entertain talk of a Manchester City treble.
But the phoney war is over – even Guardiola admits City’s title shoot-out with Arsenal at the Etihad on Wednesday night is like a cup final.
As a call to arms, he appealed to his disciples to turn Manchester blue. Good luck with that one, Pep – most of the country will be with the underdogs in red.
But he agreed momentum will be a decisive factor, and right now City have wind in their sails while the Gunners are suddenly struggling to break wind at the Premier League summit.
After reaching the FA Cup final without conceding a goal, taking 25 points from the last 27 in the title race and booking a Champions League date with Real Madrid in the last four, Guardiola’s men are really cooking.
Hurdle
Roy Keane, who led Manchester United to the Treble in 1999, admits City are “red-hot favourites” to win the league and FA Cup, and the only “big hurdle” will be Real next month.
Arsenal is effectively the first of three finals in the next 48 days that could set Guardiola on a pedestal with Alex Ferguson.
Just don’t mention the inquiry into more than 100 allegations of financial jiggery-pokery at City.
Guardiola said: “Of course the momentum is key – it doesn’t matter if you play every three or four days if you are winning, winning.
“But it’s really important the final we have on Wednesday – and it is a final – against the best team in England so far (because) they are five points ahead of us.
“Hopefully all Manchester that day will be blue and they can come to support us. We need incredible noise from the first minute to the last.
“Even though they draw the last three games, the way they play is difficult to stop. You have to read exactly what you have to do but it’s a massively important game.
“If we win, it’s a step to getting it completely in our hands and the Premier League is 11 months of working, working.”
Empty seats, 20,000 of them, are not a good look for a semi-final, and it’s time for the FA to revisit the mandatory creed of playing these games at Wembley when Villa Park or Cardiff’s Millennium stadium would have been a much better fit.
City fans would once have crawled on their hands and knees to Wembley, but they could barely raise a tune, and Blades fans hate the place because they have lost on every visit since 1925.
The Blades’ real party will be on Wednesday night, when victory against West Brom at Bramall Lane will seal a return to the Premier League after just two seasons in the long grass.
They were making a game of it until Daniel Jebbison’s rash challenge on Bernardo Silva gifted Mahrez his starter from the penalty spot.
The Algerian’s two goals in five minutes midway through the second period, both executed superbly, turned City’s progress to the final into a procession.
Adapted
Meanwhile, Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney believes that City talisman Erling Haaland must win the Ballon d’Or this year thanks to his impressive performances.
Haaland has adapted to the Premier League better than anyone expected him to after joining from Dortmund last summer. Since then, the Norwegian has scored 48 goals in 42 appearances.
With his goalscoring prowess currently unmatched in world football, Rooney believes that the 22-year-old should win the Ballon d’Or this year.
Rooney wrote in his Times column: “Erling Haaland is the best footballer in the world now.
“Lionel Messi is the greatest but nobody is playing better than a striker who – even though I broke records in that position myself – takes my breath away with the levels he’s reaching.
“He’s the best because of the numbers he’s posting, the performances he’s putting in and the mentality he shows.
“If you’re looking at who is going to win the Ballon d’Or then it has got to be him, providing he keeps up his form.”