“I know we are not going to win at some point … I know what’s going to happen to me when we don’t.” Manchester City were unbeaten and still freewheeling through the light traffic of early season when Pep Guardiola was asked in September about his chances of winning the quadruple. His reply was most memorable for its exasperated, commendably fluent grasp of English swearing. More significant was his realism about the traps already laid, the sense of semi-crisis, real or imagined, that has always been waiting to break.
And so it came to pass. Fifteen league games and a relativity small helping of tactical free jazz into Guardiola’s first season as City manager, the dawning of the age of Pep has already begun to chug through its first spell of heavy weather. City play Arsenal at the Etihad on Sunday at the end of a week of diffuse but genuinely fascinating pressure, alleviated a little by victory at home to Watford on Wednesday.
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Pep was right. He does not coach tackles. His Barcelona of 2010‑11 finished 19th out of 20 in La Liga’s tackle league
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