TITLE IN REACH AS CITY ON TOP
Sky Blues can seal spoils against Tottenham if the Gunners misfire today
WHEN you are relying on Tottenham to save your season, you know the game is up, especially if the team hoping for a favour are their local rivals Arsenal.
After a comprehensive 4-0 victory for a dominant Manchester City at Fulham yesterday, the final hurdle standing in the way of their re-coronation as Premier League champions appears to be presented by Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs on Tuesday night.
City’s surprisingly poor record at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium may fuel some Arsenal hopes ahead of Tuesday night’s game, but it was hard to escape the perception that this title race now has an air of inevitability around it.
Josko Gvardiol’s brace, Phil Foden’s 59th-minute goal and a stoppage-time Julian Alvarez penalty helped City move two points in front of title-rivals Arsenal ahead of their visit to Manchester United today.
If the Gunners drop points at Old Trafford, City can wrap up the title against Spurs on Tuesday and such is the dominance of Pep Guardiola’s champions that they appear to be unstoppable.
Some teams display nerves when a title race can turn on one mistake, but City are winning matches with an ease that removes that tension, even if Guardiola is keen to play down the prospect of more trophy glory.
PRESSURE
“The great players enjoy playing with great pressure,” declared Guardiola, on a day when his team rarely looked threatened.
“These players in the last few years have been able to do it and we are again in the latter stages.
“Our dream was to arrive in the last games with it in our hands, to play West Ham at home with the destiny belonging to us.
“We did a really good job today. In the first ten minutes, we struggled because as always they defend really well, but we calmed the game and then Josko managed to get the goal.
“Now we recover, come back to London to play the final (against Spurs) the big final we have to try and retain our title.”
The insatiable appetite for more is arguably the greatest quality driving this Manchester City side towards more success.
Great sporting icons and teams often have two or three years of dominance before they are usurped by rivals who want the glory a little more, yet City are threatening to re-write that theory.
A year after their historic treble-winning season, a penalty shoot-out defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals looks set to be the only reason why they failed to win all three of the biggest trophies up for grabs again.
The free-flowing machine that swept Fulham away yesterday won’t slip up against Tottenham or West Ham in their final two Premier League matches.
And Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag should be concerned by the level of humiliation that could be handed out to him in the FA Cup final later this month.
“It is difficult,” reflected Fulham boss Marco Silva as he summed up the challenge of repelling City.
“They control the ball, control the game and take a lot of energy from you. Take a lot of emotional energy too. That’s why they are the champions.”
The debate over whether Manchester City’s dominance is giving the Premier League a competitive problem is a debate for another day as for now, Guardiola’s dream team are about to confirm they are unstoppable all over again.