Organised, creative and self-confident, when Pep Guardiola looks in the mirror this morning, the image staring back at him will be Chelsea.
On a run of seven consecutive Premier League victories, during which they have racked up a scoreline of 19-1, Chelsea should arrive in Manchester fearless. They have their own form to assure them, while City, rather amazingly, have not won at home in the league since mid-September.
Both teams have scored the same number of Premier League goals – 29 – and just a point separates them in the table. It makes for genuine sporting intrigue amid the manager-centric hype.
As it stands, City are clear favourites to win the game and the league title, though if Antonio Conte can orchestrate an away win, the latter will change. After last week's comeback victory over Tottenham, Chelsea would again have shown serious substance, as well as skill and pace.
This has the feel of a major game and the outsider odds seem an unkind reflection on Chelsea’s progress. Perhaps it is thought that Chelsea simply cannot go from 10th place and 50 points – last season – to the sort of 80-point tally that might be required to be first next May.
But then remarkable things can happen, as Chelsea have proved. In May of last year – last year – many of these same players racked up 87 points. Short-term shifts occur.
City know all about this. As recently as February 2nd they were three points behind Leicester. There were 14 games left and next up was City-Leicester. You could feel the momentum moving towards the sky blues.
But this turned out to be the day Claudio Ranieri’s team won 3-1 in Manchester. It was a win that not only gave Leicester belief that they could indeed win the Premier League, it dented City so much that of those last 14 games, only five were won. City finished fourth, on goal difference from Manchester United.
Yet beneath the sound of Man City scraping into the Champions League, the club had already addressed the future.
Successor
City had been prepared to expose manager
Manuel Pellegrini
by announcing Guardiola as his successor immediately before that bad run began. As the club got the summer signings of
John Stones
,
Ilkay Gundogan
and Nolito under way, City slumped. They took the hit. The hierarchy had faith in the underlying trajectory. They knew they could and would spend again.
That money talks in professional football is hardly a revelation, and Manchester City have more to call upon than anyone else in the room. But as the Pellegrini era showed, it still does not guarantee medals or thrills. The money must be spent wisely, creatively, there must be a strategy.
Guardiola's capture was an example of long-term thinking (for football). This coming January's signing, Gabriel Jesus, is not quite of the same duration of planning, but it is of a theme. The 19-year-old boy with the most religious name in Christendom was signed before August's announcement and was allowed to remain in Brazil until next month. Given Gabriel – €31 million – is rated the best young player in South America, he is expected to make quite an impact post-Christmas.
It is a reason to look beyond this Chelsea 90 minutes when considering City for the title, and there are others when looking beyond this season.
Gabriel Jesus is an old teenager, but at a younger level, Man City are being just as strategic and free-spending.
There is another big match going on this lunchtime in Manchester. It is at United’s Carrington training ground and it is United v City at under-18 level. United are second in the table, one point behind City.
But the blues have played two games less and they have already beaten United this season, as have the first-team. Just over a fortnight ago, at under-15 level, City hammered United 9-0. In that age group, they have also beaten Chelsea 5-1.
City have professionalised their youth system to the extent that other clubs speak earnestly about it, or complain.
Gerrard’s Cousin
Recruitment is expanding – as Steven Gerrard's cousin, Liverpudlian Bobby Duncan might have been expected to join Liverpool, but the 15-year-old who scored a hat-trick for England against Brazil last week is a Manchester City player. When England under-17s – remarkably – beat Germany 8-1 in a tournament in October, four of the starting XI were from City.
As part of the club’s infrastructure revolution, there has been an investment in full-time coaching, whereas elsewhere it often remains part-time. There has been investment in child education – City’s boys go to a private school and remain there even if let go by the club.
As Chelsea have shown, if there is no route to the first team, then having all the youth talent in the world merely becomes stock-piling. But with Guardiola in charge, City have a youth facilitator. If it clicks, City could become formidable in a way they’ve not been despite their recent riches.
The Chelsea game should be a fascinating 90 minutes. It will tell us something about Conte’s team; but as a club, Manchester City’s are also organised, creative and self-confident.
N'Golo Kante on course to join elite group From the English National Football Archive comes the statistic that should Chelsea win the Premier League, N'Golo Kante will become only the sixth player ever in English football to win consecutive league titles with different clubs. As this goes back to Ralph Gaudie at Sheffield United and Aston Villa in the late 1890s, it is quite a compliment to Kante's possibilities.
And yet it undersells the Mali-born Frenchman. Gaudie made six and five appearances respectively and three of the others in the list made minimal contributions in either one or both of their club titles.
The other player was Eric Cantona. Cantona won the league with Leeds United in 1991-92 and then Manchester United in 1992-93. He was a factor in both championships, making 37 appearances in total.
That, however, is how many Kante made for Leicester last season. Now he has played all 13 Chelsea 90 minutes in the league this season. Kante has become a central figure in more ways than one.
Fifa/Fifpro's team of the year On Thursday morning N'Golo Kante was named among the 15 midfielders in contention to make FIFA/Fifpro's team of the year. Fifpro is the players' union and they collected 25,000 votes. No Irish players made the list.
The O'Neills, Martin and Michael, are all too aware of that. But it will have been sobering for Gareth Southgate that on the morning of his official unveiling as England manger, only one English player, Jamie Vardy, was on it.
