Manchester City cruise to their third title in seven seasons
“If Pep told me to throw myself off the second tier at the Camp Nou, I’d think: ‘There must be something good down there.’” So said Dani Alves, winner of 14 major trophies under Pep Guardiola when they were together at Barcelona. It’s certainly a different take on the many tributes spoken about Guardiola by his former and current players.
Most speak glowingly of his outstanding coaching abilities and tactical acumen, and Alves’s comment speaks volumes about the buy-in Pep is capable of instilling in his players. Forensically detailed and analytical – obsessive, some might say – Guardiola’s approach to leadership and coaching continues to deliver the prizes.
And now he has a Premier League title with Manchester City – a title won by some distance and with time to spare. City were imperious for the vast majority of the season, playing with a verve, a swagger and a confidence that must have delighted their manager.
City welded together some breathtaking technique with a flair and pace that most teams couldn’t handle. In midfield they had two players at the very top of their games in Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva – both outstanding this season. They won the league by 19 points from Manchester United, hitting 106 goals and amassing exactly 100 points. It wasn’t even close – the title was wrapped up with five games to spare.
Where Guardiola seems so effective is his ability to improve players. The outstanding former Germany world-cup winning captain Phillip Lahm, who played under Pep at Bayern Munich, certainly thinks so. “He is an incredible coach on a completely different level in terms of tactics,” he said. “He’s a brilliant coach and I’m sure he’ll do a great job [at City].
“He really helps players develop and he even helped me improve at the age of 30. With Pep it’s more than just about winning trophies. You’re always measured by the number of trophies but he developed a lot of players with the way he thinks about tactics, the way he analyses games and prepares teams for particular opponents.”
For Manchester United, although they finished runners-up, all does not seem well. Serial grump Jose Mourinho continues to bemoan…well, everything really. Struggling to find a definitive style of play and a settled side. They still look more of a (very expensive) work in progress than they ought to by now.
Paul Pogba continues to frustrate, never quite delivering the consistency and quality that Mourinho must surely crave. Creatively they have struggled, and one feels that decent investment will be needed throughout the squad before next season.
The top six was completed by Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. a nine-point gap separating these clubs from the rest. It wouldn’t have taken much of clairvoyant to predict this six, of course, and they remained a good distance ahead of the rest in 2017/18.
Fourteen points separated Tottenham in third and Arsenal in sixth. Food for thought for an Arsenal club that for the first time in 22 years will be without Arsėne Wenger in the dugout next season. The mood for change at the Emirates finally holding sway when the hierarchy decided the time was ripe for managerial change.
Wenger’s longevity in the Arsenal hot-seat has been truly incredible when one considers the multiple managerial changes going on all around him for so many years. His impact remains huge in many ways, and although he probably stayed in the role for too long, he revolutionised the club, winning three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups, playing some very stylish football along the way.
Tottenham once again flattered to deceive somewhat, playing some flowing, skilful and attractive football, but winning nothing. They seem to have all the boxes ticked from goalkeeper to centre forward, but still a trophy eludes their current team. As good as they are, it’s hard not to think that unless silverware is won soon, their leading lights on the pitch and/or their talented manager Mauricio Pochettino may well be tempted elsewhere.
Liverpool had the goalscoring sensation of the season in Mo Salah, who scored a fantastic 32 league goals, becoming the Premier League’s all-time goalscorer for a 38-game season. His impact was immense and he spent much of the season being virtually unplayable for defences. If Salah continues in anything like this vein for a few more seasons he will become an Anfield legend for sure.
The feeling grows that Liverpool will become serious challengers to Manchester City in the next couple of seasons. They are not afraid to make sizeable investment and have some excellent players already – their brilliant forward line of Salah, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino actually outscored City’s front three of Sergio Agüero, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling by 57 to 52 league goals this season.
Chelsea had one of their fairly common seasons of squabbles and discontent off the pitch, both in the corridors of power and the manager’s office. But yet again, despite this they manged to win a trophy, claiming an eighth FA Cup win. I’m tempted to say that if they ever managed to establish a sustained period of harmony, they might do even better than their very decent silverware haul of recent years, but it doesn’t seem to have held them back too much. Perhaps their “creative tensions” aren’t such a handicap at all.
A special mention for Burnley, who qualified for European football for the first time in 51 years by finishing 7th. Whilst I don’t wish to rain on their parade in any way shape or form, I wonder if the Europa League qualifying rounds, followed by the umpteen rounds they’d subsequently play if continually successful, feel more like a punishment rather than reward when you qualify?
Until UEFA sort out the marathon war of attrition this competition seems to be, it is hard to see why any club would welcome being part of it for any reasons other than financial ones. What was wrong with the old EUFA Cup, exactly?
From Everton in 8th to Brighton in 15th there was not too much to dwell on, with only nine points between these positions. I’m afraid the dreaded phrase of mid-table mediocrity does seem appropriate here – although special mention should be made of Crystal Palace’s 11th place. This was quite some achievement after starting the season disastrously with no goals, no wins and no points after seven games. Roy Hodgson steadied the ship remarkably after the sacking of Frank de Boer, who seemed to be steering it straight into the Bermuda Triangle before he was fired.
For the record, Leicester finished 9th, with Newcastle, Bournemouth, West Ham and Watford in that order below them. Can any of these Clubs improve significantly next season? Leicester seem to have better players than perhaps their position reflects, but definitely lack consistency. Newcastle’s odd couple Mike Ashley and Rafa Benítez continue to look like a partnership composed of oil and water, but they remain a club with huge potential and terrific support.
Eddie Howe at Bournemouth continues to impress, but one wonders just how far he can take a club that financially are a long way behind many others, with the smallest ground in the Premier league by some distance. Would Howe – never short of professional admirers – be able to resist the right offer from a bigger club at some point?
West Ham will surely be disappointed with their 13th place as they continue to adapt to the London Stadium, where issues about the stadium remain between fans and the club. The Hammers have no shortage of decent players, but too frequently they appear to be passing through Stratford as opposed to becoming part of a longer term future at the club. They’ll be looking for a new manager also it seems, with David Moyes’ short-term contract having now expired.
Watford, who finished 14th, had an eventful season – off the pitch at least – having an unseemly squabble with Everton about an alleged illegal approach from Goodison for their then manager Marco Silva, who eventually left in January to be replaced by Javi Gracia. Although Watford’s start to the season was impressive – they were as high as 5th after losing just two of their first nine matches – they faltered to the point of winning only one game out of eleven in the months leading up to Silva’s sacking. How Silva fares at Everton next season will be an interesting watch. He’s clearly a highly rated manager in some parts but hasn’t done too much yet to explain why to this observer. Everton will be his best chance yet to change that perception.
Huddersfield and Southampton narrowly avoided the drop in 16th & 17th places, leaving the relegated trio of Swansea City, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion falling through the trap-door and into the Championship. For Swansea, things looked fairly good – under new manager Carlos Carvalhal they initially rallied from relegation danger, and were actually four points clear of the drop zone with five games still remaining – but they simply couldn’t hold their form.
It’s probably hard to find many neutrals with much sympathy for Stoke or West Brom. Perhaps Stoke’s brand of football finally passed it’s sell-by date in Premier League terms, whilst West Brom’s appointment of Alan Pardew as manager – which generated one league win in eighteen games – was a complete disaster, compounded by some very questionable behaviour by a couple of their players on a training camp in Barcelona. Never was the phrase “Taxi for Pardew” more apt or more expected.
So, a season that was devoid of close competition as to the winners, still had plenty to admire with the brilliance of Manchester City, and plenty of attractive football from Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea to name but a few.
But is it undoubtedly City who have laid down a huge marker for next season. The combination of Guardiola, the depth and quality of City’s squad, and of course their financial resources, make them short odds already to successfully defend their Premier League title.
By Chris Tribe
14th May 2018
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