Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City team changed the football landscape. Photo: Getty Images/Jacques Feeney
A win for Manchester City on Sunday will remove any doubt about their place and Pep Guardiola's place in English football history.
City are the best Premier League team ever or this country has seen. Guardiola is the greatest coach of our time.
The statistics don't lie if, as we expect, City win four league titles in a row. Manchester United's best teams have failed to do so, despite three wins in a row and dominating our league.
City have gone further by redefining what it takes to become champions.< /p>
If they beat West Ham, their six titles under Guardiola will bring a stunning 175 wins from 228 Premier League games. Their points from these winning campaigns would average just under 93 points per season.
United completed a hat-trick with an impressive average of 88 points. Going back four decades, Liverpool won three matches in a row by an average of 83, although four European Cups in seven years took them to another level.
During the Premier League years the bar was raised to unprecedented heights , and only tribalism prevents rivals from recognizing what Guardiola has done.
Sir Alex Ferguson will always have one aspect of his career that separates him from Pep: his years at Aberdeen.
Achieving what he did at Pittodrie is the most convincing argument that he, not Guardiola, is the greatest. Others will compare Guardiola to the 13 Premier League titles Ferguson won during his Old Trafford career.
Alternatively, Guardiola would win six titles in his eight years in England. Only Jurgen Klopp stopped City from winning seven league titles in a row. It took Ferguson seven seasons to win his first victory.
It's absurd to call Guardiola a checkbook manager.
There are other crude arguments made about City and Guardiola that don't stand up to scrutiny, as if their success is solely a consequence of the money spent during his reign. It is absurd to call Guardiola a manager with a checkbook.
No one can deny that their level of investment played a huge role in creating such a great team. But, as I have argued repeatedly in this column, spending big is no guarantee of success and does not guarantee that a team will be as brilliantly prepared as City's.
As Guardiola rightly noted, if everything were It's that simple, Manchester United and Chelsea wouldn't be where they are now. United's wages are higher than City's, and Chelsea are fourth in the Premier League, according to the latest published wage bill. Their transfer costs are the same, and often even more, than Guardiola's.
Unfortunately for Guardiola, the scale of his talent may never be fully appreciated until he leaves the Premier League. Following his departure, City will continue to invest heavily in their squad, but they will never be able to consistently reach the same heights. It's impossible to be better than them in every title race.
Manchester City will struggle to replicate their peerless consistency since Pep Guardiola's departure. Photo: AP/Frank Augstein
On the day Arsenal lost to Aston Villa and Liverpool lost to Crystal Palace on April 14, there was gloom at the Emirates and Anfield as it was expected that » City will win the remaining six games. It seemed that the title race ended here and now. We are on the verge of this being confirmed.
What team in the history of football has such a profound psychological effect on its opponents? With a great United team — no matter how good they have been — you can never rule out mistakes in recent weeks.
Arsenal and Mikel Arteta have been excellent. They are one game away from winning 16 of their last 18 Premier League games, just like Klopp's Liverpool in 2022. By all normal definitions, this form deserves the title.
As with Liverpool, Arsenal's wage bill is significantly smaller than City's. They have defied the most powerful force and look as if they are lacking in strength, not because of any flaws in their setup, but because of the flawlessness of the enemy.
Anyone who evaluates this period of history and judges the title fight through the prism of Arteta and Klopp's underachievement, lack of understanding of football and the elite level required to continue winning under the most intense physical and emotional pressure.
Arsenal, like Liverpool, also had to overcome another disadvantage in the battle for top spot that cannot be ignored, no matter how much Guardiola, City and the Premier League wanted to sweep it under the rug. it has created a legal minefield
The foundations of Emirates and Anfield were laid after a slow and steady recovery, with the clubs diligently complying with profit and sustainability rules designed to keep the race fair.
City, as we know, he is still under investigation for fast-tracking the summit and faces 115 charges related to the years 2009-2018.
The club takes great displeasure at the mention of these things, especially when they are the precursor to greater success. They know that the time spent on this issue is a disgrace to them and the Premier League. The list of charges is so extensive that it has created a legal minefield in which the club disputes each charge.
I'd like to know what City's owners, or those advising them, think about the problem dragging on as they prepare to win their fourth Premier League title in a row on the heels of last year's Treble. They must realize this is a public relations disaster.
Guardiola should be celebrated for his genius among both neutrals and City fans. But whether he and his club like it or not, City will never escape the shadow of these allegations until they are addressed, with years of legal battles still preventing the club from clearing its name.
That's what baffles me about this whole sordid story. When charges are brought against persons or institutions who are absolutely certain of their innocence, it can usually be expected that those involved will request a hearing at the earliest opportunity. Where is City's statement expressing disappointment or fury that this process is taking so long?
Failing to address the issue means that too much abuse is being directed at a brilliant manager and his outstanding team — none of them them. will have an idea of how the club operated during those years under suspicion.
Guardiola deserves better than to lift his sixth Premier League under such a cloud.
As a manager, coach technical staff and a fantastic team, Manchester City should be recognized as one of the best football teams that has ever existed.
How is the club? I would like to say that the jury is out. Unfortunately, we have waited too long for the jury or the Premier League commission to even begin to consider this verdict.
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