Premier League winners Manchester City won’t rest on their laurels
Written by News on 16/04/2018
What a limp and ironic climax to a magnificent championship-winning campaign.
Manchester City won the Premier League on a wet Sunday afternoon without even having to venture out, because the league’s bottom team did what they themselves had failed to do a week earlier – beat Manchester United.
Then, United had rallied gloriously to wipe out their city rivals’ 2-0 lead and beat them 3-2 on their own ground, keeping the title race going a little longer.
Now, Jose Mourinho’s charges succumbed to the bottom team West Bromwich Albion who, with just one previous away win all season, had been rated 20-1 to win the match.
They will almost certainly still be relegated.
For Manchester City, whose manager Pep Guardiola had promised to play golf with his son rather than watch the game at Old Trafford, it was an odd end to the weirdest fortnight of their season.
Certainties for the Premier League title for months, they lost both legs of their Champions League semi-final against Liverpool as well as that game against United – and then resumed normal service by winning at Tottenham.
Normal service has meant astonishingly consistent excellence. The best team by a street, they entered 2018 14 points clear and never remotely looked like being caught.
Better still, they swept opponents aside with style and swagger, scoring 93 league goals so far (United have 63).
Defences up and down the land have been routinely shredded by supremely gifted attacking talents like the Belgian Kevin de Bruyne, Sergio Aguero of Argentina, Spain’s David Silva, Leroy Sane of Germany and – glory be – an Englishman, Raheem Sterling.
Well they might be, critics argue, since Abu Dhabi-funded City have multi-millions more than anyone else. True enough. A debate for another day.
The new champions have provided unrelenting entertainment for a sport that sometimes appears to forget it is in the entertainment industry.
Guardiola has deservedly taken a big share of the plaudits, moulding these talents into a team, and insisting they out-graft as well as outplay the opposition.
His goalscoring machine has already been quoted as odds-on to retain their crown next season.
Given that most judges rate City the best team the Premier League has ever seen, logic suggests the bookies are right.
But remember West Brom were also involved in the title-deciding match a year ago, Chelsea beating them to make themselves champions.
No one foresaw Chelsea dropping to a likely fifth-placed finish this time – any more than many believed West Brom would win at Old Trafford.
Guardiola, City’s oil-rich owners will trust, will respect football’s unpredictability and be far too smart to rest on his laurels.
(c) Sky News 2018: Premier League winners Manchester City won’t rest on their laurels
