The Brazilian’s strength and movement up front are enabling City to play the sort of football that made their manager famous in the first placeManchester City have already beaten Swansea twice this season and at the Etihad they normally manage to score a few goals against Sunday’s opponents, though Pep Guardiola is aware things have changed under Paul Clement and recognises that a team capable of winning at Anfield might offer more resistance than West Ham’s impression of a doormat in midweek.Just when it appeared the final placings within the top six would be settled by the results of games between top six sides, up popped Watford and Hull at the Emirates and Old Trafford respectively to suggest otherwise. Related:...
How did the team who eased to the league title return to the relegation quicksands so soon?It can be strange for those of us who remember Manchester City in the pre-money years to think that their new generation of followers might never fully understand why Joe Royle used to talk about a debilitating condition, unique to the club, called “Cityitis”. Suffice to say, though, that it could be particularly virulent at times and Royle, in keeping with many managers, never did go through with his promise to find the antidote.“Poor old Joe,” Colin Shindler reflected in his book Manchester City Ruined My Life. “He never understood that Cityitis is not a bacterial infection that can be cured by the antibiotics...
Will Daniel Sturridge get a chance to regain his verve? Will Ranieri fine-tune for a relegation battle? Will Ravel Morrison return to Old Trafford?A clutch of (fool)hardy Lincoln City fans queued through Wednesday night in sub-zero temperatures in order to get their gloved hands on the last tickets for their club’s biggest and indeed only fourth-round FA Cup tie since 1976. Those fans were evidently not discouraged by the fact that the National League leaders had suffered their heaviest defeat of the season the previous night, when they were beaten 3-0 by Barrow, whose rugged approach on a treacherous pitch fairly knocked Danny Cowley’s men out of their impish stride. The Championship leaders, Brighton, will probably not resort to such...
José Mourinho is well placed to see off Manchester City and Liverpool but Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs are set to go for the biggest prizeAlarm bells have started to ring in the north-west of England. The EFL and FA Cups may be providing a temporary distraction but the inescapable fact is that London clubs occupy the top three positions in the Premier League.This was not widely anticipated at the start of the season, when it was thought coaches of the calibre of José Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp would be slugging it out for the league leadership, not squabbling between themselves for the one remaining Champions League place. Related: Football transfer rumours: Leverkusen winger Julian Brandt to Liverpool? Continue...
In a game between two sides using high defensive lines, runs in behind the opposition were always likely to be crucial … and controversialThere are many similarities between the footballing philosophies of Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino, and for the second time this season, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur contested a fast-paced, exciting game based around pressing and high defensive lines. Whereas Tottenham ran out 2-0 winners in October, however, City failed to translate their superiority here into three points.Guardiola has often played a 4-2-3-1 in recent weeks but on Saturday used a 4-3-3 – and an extremely attack-minded 4-3-3 at that. Leroy Sané, Sergio Agüero and Raheem Sterling played high up the pitch, pressing Tottenham’s centre-backs, while David Silva...