City not at the races as punter Pep’s big gamble goes awry
IT would still take a collapse of Devon Loch proportions but if Manchester City somehow blow the Premier League title race, Grand National Day will be when it started. Grand National Day and a Pep Guardiola gamble that backfired.
Pep took a punt on Leeds United not being as highly motivated as they might be and took a punt on the ability of City’s B-listers.
And those punts failed spectacularly.
Having said that, Guardiola might feel his plan succeeded if a team that will have the likes of Kevin De Bruyne back finishes the job at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
After all, the Premier League title is still nothing more than a formality, isn’t it?
Of course it is. It only won’t be if City are this slapdash and this complacent in all their remaining six Premier League fixtures.
And if the manager fields this line-up a few more times. With his squad, Guardiola would insist there is no such entity as a first-choice XI at The Etihad. He would be fibbing. Guardiola would also tell you that a failure to win the Champions League with anyone other than Barcelona does not bother him. Again he’d be fibbing. This was as close to a City shadow side as you could get, the inclusion of BOTH Benjamin Mendy and Oleksandr Zinchenko telling you that.
If you needed further proof, step forward Nathan Ake for a first outing since Boxing
Day. With Joao Cancelo badly at fault during the build-up to the first of Stuart Dallas’ brace, this was a vulnerable City backline.
But after exploiting that weakness once, the chances of Leeds doing so again were reduced by Liam Cooper’s dismissal for a reckless challenge on Gabriel Jesus.
His team somehow held on until the 76th minute before conceding an equaliser to Ferran Torres and then, remarkably, won it in added time.
If there is a player whose excellence is not only testament to his own endeavour but also to the influence of Leeds coach Marcelo Bielsa, it is Dallas.
In keeping with Kalvin Phillips, in keeping with Luke Ayling, in keeping with all of his teammates, Dallas was simply magnificent.
This was a player whose career once looked booked for the journeyman category.
Instead, he is a wonderful Premier League performer with the drive, the energy, the ability and the composure to sprint clear in the 91st minute and guide his finish through Ederson’s legs.
Unsurprisingly, his winner prompted Pep to angrily bounce his water off the deck a couple of times.
He has not lost his bottle but this was a rare misstep.
Manchester United could reduce the gap to eight points before City’s next league game.
It would still take one of the most surprising failures in modern sport for the title not to end up here … but never forget what happened to Devon Loch.