Unstoppable City
Silva’s double helps leaders record 15th straight Premier League win
Music again blasted out of the away dressing room, but Manchester City were even more tuneful out on the pitch as they danced around Swansea City to earn a recordbreaking 15th successive Premier League victory.
David Silva was again the orchestrator – captaining, controlling, mesmerising and scoring twice. He was simply brilliant; a 10-out-of-10 performance but for missing a chance. Even then, it seems almost churlish not to give him full marks.
No team has ever, in top-flight English football, started a season like this and it is increasingly difficult to see any side stopping City, who have the imposing air of champions-elect.
Afterwards the music was again played and could be heard loudly in the press room – for the record it was ‘Reggaeton’ style, apparently the choice of Sergio Aguero – as Pep Guardiola spoke. The manager’s beaming manner said it all. This record, Guardiola declared, meant “a lot” and he added: “It’s the first time in the whole history of English football that one team make 15 wins in a row. That means we are strong in the head. When you are able to do it 15 times in a row, it means you are always there.
“In history, amazing teams – Liverpool, Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson and Chelsea with Jose Mourinho, and we are the first ones to win 15 in a row. This record will be beaten but it will not be easy. We have been lucky in the tight moments. We have won games in the last minute, but it means a lot to win again and again. We are going to try to continue as much as possible.”
Guardiola now holds the record for the longest-winning league runs in England, Germany (19 with Bayern Munich) and Spain (16 with Barcelona), and explained what he demands from his players.
“They have fun playing football,” he said. “When we don’t have the ball we go to get the ball like animals. They want to play, they are hungry still and they want to win.”
Having beaten Manchester United away last Sunday, with their musical celebrations provoking an angry response from Mourinho, and with Tottenham Hotspur at home on Saturday, there was no stepping off the gas against Swansea City.
The gulf between these two teams was such that it emphatically felt like top against bottom. Against the Swans, City were serene. They could have claimed a clutch more goals, but their tally of 52 in the league is already 12 more than some sides scored in the whole of the last campaign.
But then City will break record after record. They are already on 49 points after 17 games. Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ had 39 points at this stage. Mourinho’s Chelsea of 200405, who hold the record points total of 95 for a Premier League season, had 40. City could hit a century.
Paul Clement, the Swansea manager, simply looked shell-shocked. “It was not nice to see that from my point of view,” he said. “To be on the receiving end of that was very difficult. I would say they are one of the best sides I have ever come up against.”
Given Clement’s pedigree at Chelsea, Paris Saint-germain, Real Madrid and Bayern, that is no blithe compliment.
The only surprise was it took City almost half an hour to score. Guardiola made four changes and purred about the contributions of Aguero, Danilo, Eliaquim Mangala and Bernardo Silva, and it was the latter who teed up the opening goal.
His curling cross, after receiving a miscued pass by Roque Mesa, was met by David Silva, who ghosted in to deftly flick the ball with the outside of his left boot past a stranded Lukasz Fabianski in goal.
For Swansea, there was a sense of foreboding. It was ominously quiet inside the Liberty Stadium and, when Raheem Sterling was blocked off, Kevin De Bruyne stepped up to curl in a right-footed free-kick, from the corner of the penalty area, with Aguero darting in to try to steer it home.
Maybe he distracted Fabianski, or there was too much whip on the ball, as it took one bounce and flew into the net.
Into the second half and David Silva exchanged passes and was suddenly clear on goal – only to angle his shot wide. But the Spaniard would not be denied again with Sterling dribbling into the area, from Silva’s pass, and returning the ball to the midfielder, who was in the tightest of spaces but managed to lift it over Fabianski.
After that it was simply a case of how many more City would score – and whether Aguero, who played well but spurned a host of chances, would claim one.
He eventually did as he collected possession and surged goalwards, too quick for Alfie Mawson and too accurate for Fabianski, who was beaten by a low, angled shot across him and inside the far post.
“Turn it down,” were Clement’s opening words, said jokily, as he spoke post-match and with the music still blaring.
“Games like that won’t define our season,” he added, thankful of that. City, meanwhile, are simply redefining the league.