Derby clash is where title will be won – Redknapp
JAMIE REDKNAPP has pinpointed the date he believes City can wrap up their fourth Premier League title.
City are two points behind top-flight leaders Liverpool after the Merseyside club’s win over Fulham on Sunday but have a game in hand – the Manchester derby.
United were meant to host City this weekend just gone but the fixture had to be postponed owing to both teams’ participation in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
The derby will now take place on April 24 and Redknapp believes City will as good as win the title with a victory at Old Trafford.
“April 24, Man United vs Man City is where the title will be won and lost,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.
“No matter what happens from here on in, Liverpool have made such a leap in terms of their performances.
“They are going toe to toe with the best Premier League team ever.
“Man City are so good and so strong and they have given them a problem.”
City are in contention to win four trophies this season, having already wrapped up the Carabao Cup in February.
They are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the semi-finals of the FA Cup, and after City’s win over Swansea on Saturday Pep Guardiola admitted to being tired ahead of the run-in.
“Yeah, I’m tired,” the City boss said. “It is what it is.
“I prefer to be I that position, honestly. But tomorrow you will not find me in Manchester, I assure you.” THE brilliance of Barcelona’s Quadruple under Pep Guardiola in 2009 cannot be underestimated.
The Catalan aces won the Spanish league and cup double after picking up the Spanish Super Cup, and rounded it off by beating United in the Champions League final.
But Guardiola – always willing to talk down notions of his own genius – would admit that Barca had a slice of luck along the way.
City are seeking to surpass even that achievement by winning five trophies this season.
If they are to do so, they need Lady Luck to smile on them a little more than she has done so far in this campaign, certainly in terms of injuries.
No doubt the Blues have been lucky in some regards – they have bucked the trend of recent years by getting some very favourable draws in the cup competitions, and they got a couple of dubious refereeing decisions on Saturday.
But that skin-of-the-teeth win at Sky Bet Championship side Swansea City proved what City fans have thought all along – that this squad is not as big, nor as strong in depth, as a cursory glance might suggest.
The fact that Guardiola had to haul off under-performing Fabian Delph and Riyad Mahrez, and send on Sergio Aguero to pep up an attack in which Gabriel Jesus had been anonymous, underlines the point.
Barcelona played 59 games when they won those four trophies. The list of players who played in roughly three-quarters of those games is telling - Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Xavi, Lionel Messi and Dani Alves, plus goalkeeper Victor Valdes. In other words, the very heart of the team.
They also had Andres Iniesta, Yaya Toure, Sergio Busquets, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pedro and Seydou Keita playing in at last half.
By contrast, City have struggled this season, and will have to play 63 games if they are to emulate Barcelona’s feat.
They have managed to field some key players for around three-quarters of the games – Ederson, Fernandinho, Aymeric Laporte, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker.
But they have missed Sergio Aguero, John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany and Benjamin Mendy for long stretches. In some areas of the team, they have riches galore. They have rode the long-term absence of De Bruyne because Bernardo has been exceptional in his place. Even the recent absence of Fernandinho – the man they can least afford to lose – has been patched up by some excellent displays from Ilkay Gundogan. But after this international break, City will head into a hectic last phase of the season with 13 games in the space of six weeks, potentially followed by an FA Cup final and a Champions League final. They will need a fully fit squad to cope with that. For the second successive season they have operated without a real left back, although Fabian Delph last season and Aleks Zinchenko this, have risen to the manager’s challenge superbly. That could be a problem area in the closing stages of the season, against top opposition in tight, tense, close matches. Aguero is also being asked to shoulder the burden of leading the Stuart Brennan