City closer to their best as Torres sets the tone

THERE were only a few minutes of normal time remaining, his team coasting 3-0, but still Pep Guardiola was imploring his Manchester City players to hunt down Marseille. There was, he demanded, to be no let up.

“Press, press, press,” the City manager bellowed. He has not always looked like a particularly happy man this season, Guardiola, but he was in his element here. Perhaps it was the sight of his City side finally starting to awaken and resemble something of their old selves after a sluggish start to the campaign but the Catalan was determined his side would squeeze everything they could out of a thoroughly one-sided match.

By the end, he was laughing and joking with the officials, a wide smile on his face. Was this the moment City’s season really got started? Saturday’s visit to Sheffield United will tell us more but City made light of the absence of Sergio Aguero to brush Marseille aside courtesy of goals from Ferran Torres, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling.

This felt more like the old City. With no pre-season and a catalogue of injuries to contend with, it was always optimistic to think Guardiola’s side would hit the ground running but they looked more like the side that won back-to-back Premier League titles: bloody thirsty, focused, fitter and slicker. Not at their very best – it is hard to believe Marseille would have got to the interval trailing by a solitary goal if that had been the case – but what was striking was the intensity and co-ordination of City’s press.

Some of Marseille’s problems were self-inflicted but they found themselves hurried into mistakes by a team that pinned them back and were much sharper closing down the space.

The Stade Velodrome is usually a forbidding venue but, with no fans, there was little for City to be daunted by on the pitch and if there was a frustration for Guardiola it will have been that his team did not have more to show for their dominance as the game headed towards the hour mark.

Indeed, few would have been surprised if City had added a second and third soon after taking an 18th minute lead such was their superiority. The goal came about after Valentin Rongier played a blind pass into the path of Kevin De Bruyne on the inside right of Marseille’s penalty area. That is always asking for trouble and De Bruyne simply rolled his pass into the path of Torres to coolly side-foot home.

City were in cruise control for the most part but struggled to carve out clear-cut chances until adding a second. A lovely drop of the shoulder allowed Ben Foden to wheel away and clip over a cross. Sterling’s header was deflected into the path of Gundogan who prodded home.

Two soon became three with the best move of the game. Mahrez held on to possession well, waited for De Bruyne to make his run and threaded a lovely pass on his inside into the path of the Belgian to square for Sterling to pass home. It was vintage City and, for Guardiola, hopefully signs of more to come. (© Daily Telegraph, London)