The day we won the league . . . Some city fans expressed an, albeit very small, sense of disappointment, that we didn’t need to win against Chelsea. The title had been sealed as Arsenal had lost to Forest, making it mathematically impossible for them to catch us up. We were champions before a ball was kicked that day, and Raheem Sterling had to stand in the guard of honour and watch his former teammates enter their home arena for the last time that season, and to enter as proud Champions once again! For the fifth time in six seasons and the third season on the bounce, Manchester City are once again, THE CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND!
Pep Guardiola ensured most of the players from the regular starting 11 got a rest and many other squad members were given an opportunity to start and to impress their manager; Guardiola is a manager who rewards effort, commitment and loyalty as much as he can. In his press conference after the Brighton game the following Wednesday (25.5.23), and after a well-publicised official club celebration had occurred at which Erling Haaland turned up wearing pyjamas, “I was a little bit worried about how much we drop [from] what we had done over the last four, five, six months … 40 hours ago we drank all the alcohol in Manchester. But the team was there and that’s why I am very pleased. Because I don’t want the team to drop before the FA Cup and Champions League finals. We showed why we are the best team in England. I’m very pleased with the way we still are as a team after being champion.”
Pep's teams are often compared to ‘machines’ or ‘robots’ but he is most definitely a man of flesh and blood, a family man who tells his players he loves them and is known to be highly supportive of other mangers and players in the game at all levels. As for the machine-like labels, his teams play with a pattern only up to a point, it is that discipline of shape, that understanding of position, place and precision that allows the creativity of a player like Messi to flourish, or for John Stones to step into midfield as and when required. The versatility of the players is incredible, he really wants 11 creative midfielders out there, because let’s not forget how much of a role in the creative build up Ederson plays. The whole team is bursting with energy, talent and a willingness to play to the systems their manager likes to adopt. People are now calling this team, ‘one of the greatest, if not, the greatest Premier League team ever’.
It felt inevitable to me that we would beat Chelsea that day. They’ve been struggling all season and I knew we had enough talent to come off the bench and get the points. The game was ok, and both managers made changes to give their squad members a game and at the end the celebrations were, once again, fantastic!
Pep congratulated all the staff with a high five for everyone before the players came out to receive their medals and our captain, the outstanding, and classy midfield ‘mindstro’, Ilkay Gundogan, lifted the trophy to the roars of the fans, once again, in a stadium that is now becoming a familiar backdrop for these winning occasions. And that’s exactly what the club is fast becoming, a club, and a place for serial winners. Who’d have thought it when we were fighting for our very existence in the third tier of English football such a short time ago?
The Brighton game provided a fist half of brilliant football from both teams and the points were shared, ending City’s winning run of 12 games on the bounce, but you won’t find anyone complaining too much, well apart from the fact that Haaland had a goal disallowed for shirt-pulling late in the game, an incident of which Pep said, “If it’s disallowed, every action to Erling Haaland, [by] all central defenders, is a fault,” Guardiola said. “Every action. It’s a goal because he’s bigger, he’s stronger, he won the position and it was an incredible action from Cole Palmer [on the cross]. The goal should be given. But that proves [what] we want … what we won on the pitch belongs to us – not anyone gives us anything.”
But of course, our minds are now clearly on the two big finals we have coming up, the FA cup against you know who, and the champions League in Istanbul versus Inter! What a time to be a Blue x
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