LIONS, NOT DONKEYS!
As Man City close on record-breaking title win, Kompany warns they are...
MANCHESTER CITY captain Vincent Kompany has applauded his side’s ruthlessness, as they aim to take another step closer to their third Premier League title in seven seasons against Chelsea today.
Pep Guardiola’s side have lost only one league game this season and could become champions by winning four more games, in stark contrast to their other nailbiting triumphs on the final day.
In 2012, Sergio Aguero scored a stoppage-time winner against QPR, while Kompany scored in a 2-0 win against West Ham two years later to see off Liverpool’s challenge by two points.
The legendary Belgian — outstanding in the two 3-0 wins against Arsenal in the last week — is grateful that City are set to avoid any more late drama, while refusing to take their foot off the gas despite being red-hot title favourites.
He said: ‘There’s a great saying in Belgium: “A donkey doesn’t hit himself with the same stone twice.” It means you have to learn from your mistakes. I can’t emphasise it enough.
‘When we won the league on goal difference in 2012, I said “please, never like this again”. In 2016, we beat Liverpool in the League Cup final and a few days later went to Anfield and got battered (3-0) in the League.
‘I mentioned that bad experience to the team after beating Arsenal at Wembley last weekend, I knew what we had to be wary of and we didn’t make the same mistake when we played them again on Thursday.
‘We want to win in style this season. There is so much to do. I was asking in the shower at Arsenal “how many games left, lads?” and nobody knew the answer.’
Kompany, 31, knows if City can retain the title — something that has not happened in the Premier League since Manchester United did it in 2009 — they will have an argument to be considered one of English football’s greatest club sides.
‘If we do end up winning the title this season — and I really hope that does happen from the position we’re in — I will be the first one in the dressing room to put the emphasis on how we approach pre-season training,’ he said.
‘I will be talking about how people come back from their summer holidays, how they will approach training. Everything. I have seen it before when we have won the title and when you come back there is an edge missing. That’s why it is so difficult to retain titles.
‘That’s why every team that has done it in the past has been a special team — and why we have to be special this time.
‘If we do end up winning the League title — and I am still saying “if” out of respect to the other teams — then watch me in pre-season. I will be looking in people’s eyes to see if they have the same intensity.
‘In the past, when we have won the League title, the intensity has been missing the following season.’
Kompany’s personal comeback from a long line of chronic injuries is one of the most heartwarming stories of the season, but he sees his role as leader as making sure there is no let-off for City’s opponents.
‘That goes to show how much we are living in the here and now and not thinking about things like breaking records.
‘If we keep doing what we are doing then we will break records. That isn’t rocket science. Records will fall if we keep performing like this.
‘But we have got ourselves in this position by taking it step by step. We have had many special weeks. Now we think about Chelsea.’
City require 21 points from their last 10 matches to break the Premier League points record of 95 set by Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in 2004-05.
Another 22 goals would also see them become the highest scorers of the Premier League era, surpassing Chelsea’s tally of 103 in 2009-10 when they were managed by Carlo Ancelotti.