Pep Guardiola has insisted that Manchester Metropolis don’t really feel invincible regardless of their report successful run, though Jose Mourinho is aware of it should doubtless take one thing particular from a shaky Tottenham group to derail them this weekend.
What a distinction three months makes. Again on November 21, when Jose Mourinho masterminded a classically medical 2-Zero win for Spurs in opposition to Man Metropolis in London, a lot of the speak was about Pep Guardiola’s ailing group looking at an extended, exhausting slog this season.
Metropolis had been down in 12th within the desk and had suffered a 5-2 mauling at Leicester earlier within the marketing campaign. It was even murmured – considerably sacrilegiously – that the contract extension Guardiola had penned to maintain him on the membership till 2023 may not be the welcome growth it appeared.
Because it turned out, that loss in North London was to be a turning level. Since then, Guardiola’s group have launched into a 22-game unbeaten run in all competitions. Their present successful streak of 15 in a row – prolonged with a Three-1 FA Cup win at Swansea in midweek – is an all-time report for a top-flight English membership.
15 – Manchester Metropolis's present run of 15 consecutive wins in all competitions is the longest in English soccer historical past by a top-flight aspect. Ruthless. pic.twitter.com/hx7TiE4Ksg
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 10, 2021
It’s a outstanding succession of victories which has included notably swashbuckling wins in opposition to Premier League champions Liverpool at Anfield earlier this month and a first-half demolition of Chelsea initially of January which was so concussive it left Frank Lampard staggering additional in the direction of the Stamford Bridge exit.
Metropolis host Tottenham on Saturday as a revived, reinvigorated drive which stands in such stark distinction to the group who had been bruised so badly by Spurs’ sucker-punch soccer again in November.
So, what has modified for the boys in sky blue?
Inarguably, one standout characteristic for Metropolis has been their newfound defensive resolve. Throughout their 15-game scorching streak, Metropolis have shipped simply 5 objectives – and a kind of got here in opposition to lowly Cheltenham within the fright they gave Guardiola’s group within the FA Cup. Within the Premier League, Metropolis have conceded simply 14 objectives in 22 video games – eight fewer than Spurs, the group with the next-best defensive report.
In 23-year-old Portuguese center-back Ruben Dias – an old-school defender with a contemporary hue – Metropolis maybe have the signing of the season. Alongside him, John Stones has been again to his finest, whereas Joao Cancelo has thrived as a defender-come-midfielder, typically serving because the font from which Metropolis’s fluid soccer begins flowing.
In midfield, Metropolis have coped with the absence of the injured Kevin De Bruyne. Phil Foden is having fun with a breakout season and was imperious in opposition to Liverpool. Ilkay Gundogan has helped Metropolis make gentle of Sergio Aguero’s prolonged spell on the sidelines, contributing a outstanding 9 objectives in his previous 11 Premier League video games.
Just about all over the place you look, Metropolis are again to one thing approaching the buzzing finest that characterised their Premier League title wins in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Guardiola, after all, takes immense credit score for the reversal in fortunes. Even throughout Metropolis’s stuttering begin to the marketing campaign, he rightly identified that this was shaping as much as be a “bizarre” season, as soccer is performed behind closed doorways and head-scratching outcomes (see Liverpool’s 7-2 hammering at Aston Villa) or freak league positions abruptly appear far much less anomalous.
Certainly, heading into Saturday’s recreation on the Etihad, Guardiola couldn’t put his finger on one explicit side which has helped Metropolis click on into gear fairly so spectacularly since they final confronted Mourinho and his males.
“We began to win video games and the second and third wins gave us confidence,” the Spaniard stated.
“We noticed that we weren’t far-off from the highest, however there was not a particular situation. Everybody made an unimaginable contribution, the backroom employees and gamers, to comprehend we needed to do higher and will do higher to struggle for the positions within the Premier League.”
That was characteristically gracious of the 50-year-old Spaniard, however Pep certainly deserves the lion’s share of the credit score for pepping up his group to the extent that they’re now 5 factors clear on the prime of the Premier League desk (with a recreation in hand on their rivals) and odds-on favorites to reclaim the title.
Their resurgent kind is undoubtedly primarily based on people returning to their peak, however can be right down to Guardiola’s tactical prowess.
Defensive solidity has been accompanied with attacking fluidity; gamers swapping positions increased up the pitch, making a transferring puzzle that opponents wrestle to resolve. Foden embodies that as a lot as anybody, and by some accounts performed 4 completely different positions in his efficiency of liquid gold in opposition to Liverpool.
Metropolis have rediscovered their zip, with their passing trying extra attribute of a Guardiola group and their transitions quicker and fewer predictable.
10 – Phil Foden has now scored 10 objectives throughout all competitions this season; amongst these in double figures throughout Europe's prime 5 leagues, solely Erling Haaland (20y 201d) is youthful than Foden (20y 255d). Generational. pic.twitter.com/ur98MZoSEb
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 7, 2021
The one side Guardiola has, maybe, been in a position to reveal is one he famous in January, when he stated he had instructed his group to “run much less.”
“We had been working an excessive amount of. While you play soccer you must stroll – or run a lot, a lot much less,” defined the Spaniard. “With out the ball you must run. However with the ball you keep extra within the place and let the ball run, not you. And we improved in these video games, in these phrases.”
These appears notably clever phrases given the depth of this most congested of seasons.
On Saturday, Guardiola comes up in opposition to his outdated enemy Mourinho, the person so typically held up because the antithesis of all that the Spaniard stands for in soccer phrases, however who received the higher of him with that surgical Spurs’ win in November.
Coming off the again of their 5-Four FA Cup defeat to Everton in midweek, and having misplaced three league video games on the bounce earlier than stopping the rot in opposition to West Brom final weekend, Spurs are actually those trying distinctly ropey. Eighth within the desk and 4 factors adrift of the highest 4, they are going to be determined to return with one thing this weekend.
Mourinho is aware of, nevertheless, that with Metropolis in this type of formidable kind, a outcome is not going to be straightforward.
“While you play in opposition to a group with this clear pragmatic numbers, you realize it is extremely tough to cease them to attain as a result of they rating on a regular basis. You additionally know that it is extremely tough to attain objectives as a result of they do not concede, so you must play the right match,” the Spurs boss stated on Friday.
When Guardiola was requested whether or not his group felt invincible given their present run, he dismissed that concept, saying: “We aren’t [unbeatable]. 15 video games in a row successful does not assist us to begin 2-Zero up earlier than the beginning of the sport.”
🗣"We aren’t unbeatable"
Pep Guardiola says his Manchester Metropolis aspect should not unbeatable even when they’re on a 15 recreation successful streak pic.twitter.com/qdg6QgxZkU
— Soccer Every day (@footballdaily) February 12, 2021
It may not put them 2-Zero up on paper, but it surely certainly offers them a psychological edge in opposition to a fragile Spurs group whose defensive confidence may have been additional dented by the horror present on the again in opposition to Everton.
November’s win in London was an instance of a “excellent” Mourinho recreation plan coming off in opposition to Metropolis – however this time they may face an altogether completely different prospect in opposition to a Guardiola group brimming with confidence and vigor.
It would take one thing much more particular from Spurs this time to maintain Metropolis at bay, and to halt the momentum of a juggernaut which appears to be like ominously like rolling on in the direction of the Premier League title.
By Liam Tyler
