For 20 years, Manchester United was an empire under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson. Now, they are still looking to add to their latest title won in 2013. Are we currently watching the Manchester City empire crumble right before our very eyes?
“Well, it’s now one win in 11, losing eight out of them which certainly is a surprise,” says BBC pundit and former Premier League winner Chris Sutton, when we put the question to him.
“I suppose at the start of that poor run everybody - myself included - was thinking, well, this is just a blip. Pep (Guardiola) is a genius and he'll find a way of bouncing back. But you have to scratch beneath the surface. I always look at the ageing players within the team and City have (Ilkay) Gündogan, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker. Great, great players and when they end up retiring, they'll go down in Premier League history. But they are getting on a bit, and I just wonder whether physically it's taking a toll on Manchester City.
“Everybody talks about the loss of Rodri, and rightly so, but it seems to be more than that. If you look at Man City, the level of performances this season, not one player hasn't been below average. With every passing week, you're looking at Pep's comments and he's taking responsibility for the defeats, but you can't see them winning the Premier League. I thought they'd win it again this season but it looks like the City players are actually human.”
While obviously stuck in a rut, Pep still has a job which is more than Russell Martin and Gary O’Neill now have. The sacking of the latter is the least surprising, according to Sutton.
“I'm not saying Southampton are doing great, but I think going into the season, there's a strong argument to say that they're the weakest squad in the Premier League. He has his way of playing and it splits opinion. Should he be more adaptable? I get that but you have to have your principles of play, and who's to say that this Southampton team would stay in the Premier League anyway with another manager and a different brand of football?
“With regards to Wolves, I think Gary O'Neill has really underachieved with the players he has at his disposal. You can't concede 40 goals like they have done so far this season and expect to stay in a job. In recent times, he has had a habit of launching the players under the bus and blaming it all on them. But they should still be doing much better than they are,” states the former Chelsea striker who is looking on in amazement at what Enzo Maresca is doing at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea FC seem insistent they are not in the title-race, but of course they are, says Sutton.
“Do they have the squad strength and depth? Absolutely. They're able to play two different teams, one in the Conference League and one in the Premier League. That's a bit of a luxury. I suppose people will look at their team and think, do they have the necessary experience? Maybe not, but they have the quality, they have young, hungry, talented players who are on a roll,” says Sutton, pulling out an old famous quote from one of his predecessors as a BBC pundit.
“Someone once famously said, you don't win things with kids. Well, they are a really talented group. And when you look at the likes of Man City falling away, you look at Arsenal and I always think there's more to come from them. Liverpool and Arne Slot have surprised everybody and I think they have because of the change of manager and they've been excellent.
“But Chelsea are in there. They changed their manager too and they've been excellent. The consistency was coming under (Mauricio) Pochettino at the end of last season but Maresca's come in and he's shown that he's got an iron fist. He made that decision over Raheem Sterling early on for which he took a fair bit of flack, but he’s been proven right. They have a brand of football, a style of play with the likes of Cole Palmer and (Noni) Madueke. They're on absolute fire and they've got a lovely balance to the team so I'm not going to rule Chelsea out as non-challengers,” Sutton states firmly, leaving us with one final question; were Todd Boehly and Eghbali right all along?
“I think that's a really interesting point. They were taking all sorts of flak, but maybe, just maybe, there was a method in the madness and they're laughing their heads off at us all. The whole plan did seem excessive, you know? There was nothing particularly new about buying young players and develop them, a lot of clubs have been doing that. In fact, most clubs try and do it that way. It was just the nature of the spending. We've never seen anything like it, but yeah, they're probably laughing their heads off right.”
- Chris Sutton was talking to Tribalfootball on behalf of NewBettingOffers.co.uk