Manchester City have retained their title through a manager persuading players to reach into areas of unexplored potential
In the aftermath of Manchester City's victory,Vincent Kompany said something that sounded like a Zen riddle:” We have such an incredible desire to overachieve. Because we are such a good side, overachieving is difficult .” But isn't overachieving the business of underdogs? Surely that's what Claudio Ranieri's Leicester had to do to win the Premier League 3 years ago , not what was required from Pep Guardiola's side, pieced together at enormous expenditure and with unparalleled technical resources, in order to reach the same goal.
What the City captain was saying was that in order to do what they did this season, it was necessary for the players to exceed their known abilities and to reach into the areas of unexplored potential. To persuade internationals from Spain, Brazil, Argentina, France and elsewhere to give you that is the mark of an exceptional manager. What Guardiola has given them in return is membership of a team worthy of being judged against the very best.
Attempts at definitive comparings with the past are inevitably doomed by the recognition of how conditions change over time. But the true greats can at least be grouped together, and, as they retained their title by a single phase from Liverpool, claims on behalf of Guardiola's City deserved the most serious consideration. Drawn from living memory, rather than simply the 27 years of the Premier League era, the list would start with Stan Cullis's Wolves , not just three times league champs in the 1950 s but, as conquerors of Racing Club of Buenos Aires, Dinamo and Spartak of Moscow and Honved of Budapest, the last confident flowering of the classical English style. It would continue with Bill Nicholson's Double-winning Spurs of 1960 -6 1, Matt Busby's European Cup-winning Manchester United of 1968, Bob Paisley's seamless Liverpool dynasty of 1975 -8 3, Alex Ferguson's treble-winning United of 1999, Arsene Wenger's Invincible Arsenal of 2003 -0 4, and Jose Mourinho's finest Chelsea team, the fearsome champions of 2005-06.
For a combination of glorious style and absolute dedication to the business of winning, Guardiola's team stand comparison with any of those great predecessors. Few challenger supporters would withhold applause for the way they ran about the job this season, patiently adhering to the evolving principles of possession-based football Guardiola absorbed during his years as a player and coach-and-four at Barcelona, trusting in one another as they emerged from the run of mid-season defeats that dedicated their chief rivals the glimpse of glory that turned out to be a mirage.
In the end, there was no last-minute denouement of the kind that attained legends of George Graham's Arsenal in 1989 or City themselves under Roberto Mancini in 2012; the suspense of the day had been slightly undermined by the knowledge City's fate was in their own hands. But as Guardiola's players, after running behind, set four past Brighton, they were providing the climax to the run of 14 consecutive victories that saw them overhaul their challengers: a sequence of such relentless magnificence it would be hard to find a parallel.
Yet this was not relentlessness without a human heartbeat. Guardiola may be a technologist of football, a administrator who specialises in put theory into practice, but his personality allows space for the emotions that came to the surface as his players approached their moment of fate. Against Leicester in their penultimate fixture, with the seeking Liverpool in full cry, the excruciating tension was ultimately relieved by Kompany's astonishing strike: one among many candidates for the goals and targets of the season, but surely the one that stimulated day stop as its effect on the world was assessed.
And although championship festivities like the one that took place on the pitch at Brighton can cover a thousand festering grievances, the warmth between Guardiola and his players seemed to express his approach. This is a man who can leave top players on the sidelines without creating resentment, at least in the short term. Perhaps they trust him to know when, how and why to bring them back.
Externally, for example, there was surprise on Sunday when Riyad Mahrez, last summer's trophy purchase, was included for his only his fourth league start since the beginning of the year. But it was Mahrez who dummied an fight defender with elegant calmnes before striking the sumptuous goal that, by devote City a two-goal cushion, effectively settled the destination of the title. A Leroy Sane or a John Stones might reasonably expect to benefit from the same strategic consideration.
The football City play is not entirely focused on beauty, of course. Under Guardiola, they also specialise in a type of low-key tactical midfield polluting that avoids violence and comes with an instant apology, interrupting the opposition's flow and deflating their confidence while taking advantage of the reluctance of English referees to issue yellow cards early in a match. It may be that officials from other countries take a different opinion, which would at least partly explain City's inability to make it beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
If there is another source of satisfaction to be derived from this enthralling title race, it is in the memory of how the teams from the middle and lower objective of the table kept the two final contestants honest in the closing stages. The Premier League may be a highly stratified entity, with a top six and a middle eight and a bottom six, but nowhere in his travels would Guardiola have found such challenges as those mounted by Burnley, Leicester and even Brighton in his last three matches: three squads with nothing much to gain but still willing to show their pride in the fight.
Read more: www.theguardian.com
