After Manchester City’s very comfortable 2-0 triumph over Leicester City last weekend, the topic of Pep’s chances to take Manchester City through the whole season unbeaten, and therefore as we know it ‘invincible’, has been a subject discussed more and more and a theme which will continue to be on the tips of everyone’s tongues if City’s season continues in this impressive fashion.
Pep Guardiola’s team produced another dominant display this weekend and easily brushed Leicester off by two goals to nil. City face Huddersfield, Southampton and West Ham in their next three fixtures which are all fixtures where 3 points look extremely likely.
Their test will come against Manchester United on the 10th December with a demanding fixture against Tottenham soon after this.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt will be compelling to see how City fair in the above fixtures; but in comparison to their title rivals, Pep’s team have been the only squad who have not had negativity thrown their way as of yet and the only side who are producing significant performances week in week out.
In recent weeks, there has been a couple of consistent themes and some clear points amongst Pep and Manchester City.
1) The team is full of incredible talent and experienced players not only in the Premier League but on the International circuit also.
2) Pep’s ability to rotate players is clear and with the use of many exquisite players at his disposal, this is a feature which doesn’t sit with many Premier League clubs. We have seen already this season, Pep has rotated his strike force of Aguero and Jesus, alongside his midfielders of Sterling, Sane, Silva, Toure, Gundogen many times already this season. Also evident is the availability of the experienced, Claudio Bravo, who has been on the bench for most fixtures due to the signing of Brazil’s Ederson.
3) City have the capability to score four or five goals in pretty much every fixture they play and their assurance in front of goal is alarming for any team.
4) The defence has been stabilised after some consistent summer spending and the arrival of Walker, Danilo, Mendy and Ederson has provided Pep with a stable and impressive line of defence.
One consistent theme which is specific to one of Peps incredible talent is the pure savvy and skill of the Belgium playmaker, Kevin De Bruyne. De Bruyne has been in sensational form this campaign and after a slow first few games; where the midfielder sat back and soaked up possession and played more defensively than attacking minded, the midfielder has found his form and found the ability to provide sensational goals and to provide his team with accurate assists and he is simply a huge catalyst to success in the blue half of Manchester this 2017/18 Premier League season.
Embed from Getty ImagesTwo goals which stick out already this season are his strike against Leicester last weekend, but most importantly his pin-point definite strike against Chelsea which resulted in City seeing off their title rivals, 1-0, in a tough fixture at Stamford Bridge back in September. Alongside his goals, his ability to pick a pass and his range of passing is something which not many Premier League, even European, players hold. His intelligence to unlock a team’s defence with one pass to his team mate is a skill that not many poses and it seems to all come naturally to the Manchester City talent.
After his performance at Leicester this weekend, Kevin De Bruyne has now had a hand in 50 Premier League goals. He has done this in 76 Premier League appearances, the quickest by a midfielder in the history of the competition.
De Bruyne’s form for his country has been special also and with the World Cup creeping up, there is no better time for the Belgium international to find form; for his club and for his country.
It has been mentioned in previous weeks that if De Bruyne continues his resounding form for Manchester City in the Premier League, he would be in with an extensive chance of winning the prestigious PFL Players player of the season. He will face tough competition from the best players in the Premier League, Eden Hazard and Christian Eriksen are two players who have been performing well this season too and are two similar players to De Bruyne who will be looking to scoop this honour come the end of the season.
Embed from Getty ImagesYet, if City continue their impressive form and if De Bruyne continues to play a pivotal part in this form, then he will certainly not be far off from this award and will continue to receive excellent plaudits this campaign.
Other talking points from Saturdays fixture were the injury to English central defender, John Stones, who was injured during the game and will be out for the busy Christmas festivities with a believed 6 weeks on the side-line.
Leicester struggled against Pep’s team and didn’t register one shot on target, something which Cluade Puel certainly has to address. Their luck could have been different had Jamie Vardy missed the trailing foot of Vincent Kompany who took Leicester’s number 9 out of the game after a great through ball from Fuchs. Kompany was lucky his companion, Stones, would have been there to recover as if he wasn’t then Kompany could have seen red for the challenge.
The clubs will meet again on December 19th for their quarter final Carabao Cup fixture which will again be held at the King Power.
Written by Eamon Kitching.
