Manchester is all pepped up ahead of derby
ECSTACY: Riyad Mahrez, second right, of Leicester City, celebrates scoring his team’s first goal with his teammates during the English Premier League match against Crystal Palace in London yesterday. PEP Guardiola’s move to Manchester City may have been football’s worst-kept secret, but the confirmation of his move to the Etihad Stadium still sent reverberations around the red half of Manchester.
As City were tying up a three-year contract for the most successful coach on the planet and a man famed for his thrilling attacking football, their rivals, Manchester United, were in the midst of a haphazard plod through the season which has left their under-pressure manager Louis van Gaal looking increasingly forlorn. It was an alarming contrast.
Fast forward six weeks and the Guardiola announcement appears to have done little to aid City’s title challenge under the outgoing Manuel Pellegrini, but at the Etihad today they have the opportunity to open up a sevenpoint gap on their neighbours, and after United’s Europa League exit against Liverpool, the spotlight is firmly fixed on Old Trafford again.
Just 24 hours prior to United and Liverpool going headto-head on Thursday, City’s next manager had emerged from Bayern Munich’s Champions League last-16 tie against Juventus with his reputation in tact thanks to a great salvage job in Bavaria.
Regardless of who is in charge of United next season, however, they are already playing a daunting game of catch-up with City. The Citizens finished 22 points clear of them in 2013/14, and they were nine clear in 2014/15.
The gap is down to four points ahead of today’s derby, but that is hardly due to progress at Old Trafford. And while City’s title challenge has faltered, they are still in Champions League con- tention and have already lifted the Capital One Cup. United’s only hope of silverware, meanwhile, hinges on an awkward FA Cup quarterfinal replay away to West Ham.
With Guardiola in charge and the promise of unlimited backing in the transfer market, it is difficult to envisage anything other than great improvement at City next year.
United can take heart from the emergence of teenagers such as Marcus Rashford and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, and the superb form of keeper David de Gea, but repeated mistakes in the transfer market have taken a heavy toll over the last 18 months. BOURNEMOUTH manager Eddie Howe is looking forward to assessing how far his charges have come when they lock horns with Mauricio Pochettino’s high-flying Spurs at White Hart Lane today.
He believes the trip to titlechasing Tottenham will be a good measure of his side’s Premier League progress.
Howe’s men have eased away from relegation danger thanks to three successive league wins and they are now two points off the top half.
Bournemouth were heavily beaten by Tottenham earlier in the season, going down 5-1 at home, but Howe is looking forward to see how his team matches up against Pochettino’s side this time around.
Having rested star players like Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembele for Thursday night’s Europa League defeat against Germans Borussia Dortmund, it remains to be seen if Pochettino’s tactical move will work in Spurs’ favour. — skysports.com and goal.com