Perfecting perfection is the near-impossible challenge Pep Guardiola now faces at Manchester City
With Liverpool hot on City's heels, Guardiola knows his side need to be even better this season
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Your support makes all the difference.How do you perfect perfection? How do you push on after reaching the pinnacle? Improving this near-flawless Manchester City side is now the challenge Pep Guardiola faces. Such a mission comes hot on the heels of a historic season in which City set numerous records in England’s top flight, including the most points amassed by a title-winning side.
Guardiola is no stranger to maintaining and improving on his impeccably high standards. He retained the Spanish title twice in some of the league’s most competitive seasons and won three consecutive Bundesliga titles, each time making Bayern Munich more and more dominant.
One look at the blue side of Manchester shows you that this process of self-improvement is already well under way. Eleven wins from 13 matches is a breath-taking start – their latest result a dominant 4-0 win against West Ham – with City on course to equal or better their points total from last year if they keep up their relentless early form. However, even this may not be enough. Spurring on the defending champions is a determined Liverpool side that sit two points behind the league leaders, poised to pounce on any mistakes.
The standard of the two leading sides could conceivably see City amass 100 points with Jurgen Klopp’s side finishing second on 99, a similar situation to the one that Guardiola found himself in when he was bidding to retain La Liga title for the first time. On that occasion, he had to secure 99 points to beat Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Madrid who had pressed Barcelona to the final day of the season and finished on 96 points.
“I remember perfectly that season, how tough it was. Because [we got] more than 96 points and Madrid were playing incredibly good,” said Guardiola. “We knew if we dropped points Madrid would win the title. That’s why it helped us.”
The former Barcelona manager is in an identical position and will be drawing on his experience of that season – as well as looking to the stars from the world of tennis. The historically high standard of the current crop of top tennis players has driven each of them on to improve their game and continually raise the quality of what gets you to the top.
“[Rafael] Nadal, [Rodger] Federer, [Novak] Djokovic, they put one better than the other one because they know they need to,” he added. “They know Liverpool, I didn’t tell them, they know how strong Liverpool are. And they know that 100 points because if not, Liverpool is going to win the league. It’s the same with Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal as well. To compete we need good opponents close and of course this season we have it here and in Europe.”
At this stage last season City had an eight-point buffer between them and Manchester United. That gap now stands at just two points with Liverpool’s draw at Arsenal costing them in one of the most enthralling title races to date. A draw at the Emirates would usually be seen as a decent result for a side chasing glory come the end of the season, but it’s made to look like a blip such is City’s flawless and relentless brilliance.
To be able to consign Liverpool to runners-up will be as significant an achievement as lifting the Premier League trophy in May. It will signify that Guardiola’s team have set the bar so high that even what should be regarded as one of the best teams in a club’s recent history cannot secure glory on the biggest of stages.
The wealth of talent available to the City manager this season has helped him to take those steps to make this historic squad even better. Leroy Sane, who dazzled against West Ham, is emerging as the bright young talent he was billed to be and, combined with the continued development of Raheem Sterling and usual class of David Silva, it was easy to forget this side strolled to victory without key starts such as Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne or Benjamin Mendy.
As well as picking up from where they left off last season in terms of the scoring, the number of goals they have conceded has decreased. The improved defence rarely concedes chances, let alone goals, so much so that West Ham manager Pellegrini was delighted with his team’s performance at the weekend simply because they were able to test the City goalkeeper.
“If you review the game we create as many chances as they create but they scored and we didn’t,” he said, “and one of the things that I’m very disappointed about the result and the team but one of the things I am happy with is the way we played from the first minute until 90 minutes.”
Fast forward to spring 2019 – and Manchester City’s likely coronation after pipping Liverpool to the title – will Guardiola call time on his tenure having reached a ‘pinnacle’, just as he did at Barcelona? The answer is, it seems, unlikely, which makes you wonder just how high this unprecedented standard can be raised.
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