Manchester City are once again on course to win the Premier League. But the team they have this year doesn’t compare with another great City team.
After title rivals Chelsea and Liverpool dropped points in their most recent fixtures, it has allowed Pep Guardiola’s City to storm eight points clear at the top of the table.
To underline how impressive this is; only four teams in Premier League history have been more points clear at the top of table at the turn of the year than Man City are right now.
Only 4?? teams have led by more points than this Man City side on New Years day in the Premier League pic.twitter.com/D6KP4KA68L
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 30, 2021
Pictures courtesy of Sky Sports.
Among these four are Chelsea’s 2005/06 team that saw Chelsea win their second title on the bounce under Jose Mourinho.
The last side to beat Man City in a title race, Liverpool. when Jurgen Klopp’s side broke the club’s three decade long title drought.
And City’s hated local rivals Manchester United. Who hold the joint record of 14 points from their efforts in the 1993/94 campaign, which was the beginning of a 20 year stretch of near total domination.
However, the most striking team of the four are the 2017/18 Man City team, which leads to the conclusion that City’s team in comparison still falls in the face of the only Premier League centurions.
That season saw undoubtedly one of the best teams to ever grace the Premier League and some of the names in it were truly greats of the modern era.
In attack, the now retired Sergio Aguero had a starring role by scoring and assisting 30 league goals in just 25 games. Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling also gave City one of the strongest wing pairings in the league as well.
Then captain Vicent Kompany was still producing week in week out alongside midfield anchor Fernandinho. While Kevin De Bruyne was at his creative best with 16 league assists alongside club legend David Silva.
While some names have moved on in the three seasons separating that season from this, the attitude, hunger, and mentality have all remained – a testament to Guardiola’s coaching.
Only time will tell whether the former Barcelona boss can somehow improve on that team, but once again it is frightening to think how well City can play despite the rising quality of the league around them.