Manchester City thrashed Bournemouth 6-1 in a Premier League match last weekend to move to the top of the league table. Tottenham Hotspur then lost 1-4 to Chelsea at home last Monday, Nov. 6 to remain on 26 points and thus dropped to the second place in the table.
With almost three months into the season, Manchester City once again look like the team to beat in England, with Arsenal also losing their last match against Newcastle United. Pep Guardiola’s team have won the league title four times in the last five seasons and one more triumph this season will virtually remove any doubts with regard to their monopoly.
New players performing well
Almost each of Manchester City’s newly signed players has been performing well this season, with Belgian winger Jeremy Doku being the pick of the lot. He has already scored three goals this season and made the left winger’s position his own.
Then there is Matheus Nunes, the defensive midfielder who has been giving John Stones some stiff competition for a place in the starting XI. Josko Gvardiol has regularly played out of his preferred position and has been quite decent as the left-back.
All of that means that Guardiola has yet again been able to extract the best out of the new players in his team. He has the reputation of bringing out the best of his new signings and this season has proved to be no exception in that regard.
bernardo silva regaining form
Amid all the discussion about Erling Haaland, Rodri and Julian Alvarez, the redoubtable Bernardo Silva has started showing glimpses of his brilliance in the last few matches. He scored a brace against Bournemouth after playing his part in the clinical dismantling of Manchester United in October.
Bernardo is into his seventh season at the club and has more than 300 matches for them under his belt already. He is thus well on his way to emulating the feats of another Silva, David, for the Cityzens. The 29-year-old Portuguese midfielder remains one of the most versatile players in world football and can play as a holding midfielder with almost as equal ease as he can as a winger or a playmaker.
In Kevin de Bruyne’s prolonged absence, the role of Bernardo becomes very critical for Manchester City. He has to lead his team’s midfield well for them to go close to emulating their treble win last season.
Very important matches coming up for Manchester city
Manchester City are going to play against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in their next three matches in the Premier League. It will not be an overstatement to say that those three matches will go a long way in shaping the fate of the current season for them.
However, Guardiola’s men will be the favourites in each of those three games and it is going to take a special effort from any of the English clubs to prevent City from winning the title. It remains to be seen whether any team is able to do that.
True. I think that Doku has been very good so far and Nunes and Kovacic have not been bad either.
It used to be that it would take about a season for a new signing to become embedded into Pep’s system, but this season and last he’s shortened that adaptation period and new players have been able to become accustomed quicker. Seems an intentional change in approach, and an underrated one at that