Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Across all competitions Pep Guardiola has had eight games in charge of Manchester City and he has masterminded his side to victory in each one. Arguably not since the opening day of the season when a late Paddy McNair own goal cost Sunderland a point has anyone come even close to beating them, the next team to try their luck is Swansea as City travel to the Liberty Stadium.
The main story coming out of City this week has been the Yaya Toure saga, Guardiola has said that Toure cannot play for the club until his agent apologises for comments made about the former Barcelona and Bayern boss. With Toure seemingly not willing to back down, it looks as if the Ivory Coast international’s days as a featuring member of the City squad are numbered.
But even with that going on it shouldn’t be too much if any disruption to City’s preparations for their trip to Swansea. They rolled over Bournemouth with ease last Saturday and you would be hard pressed to see a different outcome against Francesco Guidolin’s men.
Last weekend they strolled past Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth side with a routine 4-0 at The Etihad, Kevin De Bruyne getting all the plaudits that afternoon with Guardiola going on to say that the Belgian was only second best to Lionel Messi right now. High praise indeed and not a million miles away from the truth.
The Belgian isn’t quite in the bracket of a World Player of The Year just yet but if he can help lead his side to Champions League victory come May then he could very well be the men to break the duopoly that Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have on the award.
What Swansea would do to have a player of De Bruyne’s calibre in their side. None of their attackers have managed to find the net yet and Leroy Fer is the clubs top goalscorer with three goals to his name. That in itself paints a pretty gloomy picture.
Sunday saw them travel to Southampton and lose 1-0 thanks to a Charlie Austin winner. Record signing Borja Baston came on as a substitute and he will hope to start today but he’s going to have a difficult afternoon ahead of him especially if he is looking to open his Swansea account.
With Arsenal playing Chelsea later in the evening and at least one team dropping points then a win against Swans will strengthen City’s position at the top and continue to leave their rivals hanging behind. Can City go all through the season without losing? Well I don’t think that first defeat is going to take place on Saturday. An away win for me.
