When the Premier League 2021/2022 started, many punters didn’t see Man City as the favorites to win the competition. The odds for Man City to win the league, as provided by the best bookmakers on liontips.com, were attractive. But most punters were eyeing Chelsea and Liverpool to win the trophy.
Why? Two prominent reasons come to mind.
Tuchel’s Chelsea had remarkably beat Man City in the Champions League final. Not many bettors tapped into the exciting odds provided by bookmakers on liontips.ke for Chelsea to win that match. This was because Chelsea were seen as underdogs.
Winning the Champions League against an eminent Man City side cemented Chelsea as a force to reckon with in England (and Europe at large) despite Thomas Tuchel – the new coach – being in the Chelsea hot seat for just months.
For the second reason, Sergio Aguero departed Man City for Barcelona. This infamously reduced Man City to a team without a stand-out goal scorer. The mantle the relentless Aguero left was definitely too big for Gabriel Jesus to assume.
Of course, Man City’s wooing of Tottenham Harry Kane didn’t escape the tabloids. However, Kane would abandon the rebellious son plot and commit his future to his beloved White Hart faithfuls.
“No striker, no problem”, Guardiola’s Man City has said this season.
Despite lacking a traditional number 9, Man City has been heaping goals on their opponents. Man City thumped Newcastle four goals unanswered on Newcastle’s grounds. This demolition marks the eighth consecutive match Man City has won.
Undoubtedly, it would be disrespectful to Man City’s current brilliance, not to mention that their previous match before Newcastle resulted in a 7-0 bombardment of Leeds.
Guardiola must know a thing or two about abracadabra as he is surely pulling off magic at the Etihad. The goals have been pouring from even the most unlikely sources.
Yes, we can’t help citing that even Cancelo has turned into an “Alan Shearer” banging in goals for Man City. Cancelo’s rejuvenation at Man City arguably is an applaudable demonstration of all hands being on deck to deliver the goals.
It is hard to keep Bernado Silva off Man City’s epic story this season. When a coach as reputable as Guardiola calls a player the best player in the Premier League (as he called Bernado Silva), then that player must be doing something right.
Well, beauty is in the eyes of the beholders, and there are pretty many eyes beholding the football beauty of Bernado Silva at the moment.
Yes, he won the best player in the Premier League for December, shrugging off competition from a relentless Mohammed Salah.
Even Steven Spielberg – one of the greatest movie directors of all time – would struggle to write a plot where Bernado Silva, a Man City outcast last season and was on the verge of leaving in the summer window, dramatically turns around to run the show this season.
Could it be the Guardiola magic?
When Bernado Silva scored his second goal in the 3-1 defeat of Watford, Fernandinho and John Stones — who were warming up by the corner flag — jumped into the pitch to celebrate with him.
This shows how happy his teammates are with his heroics this season. Such emotional fusion is a core recipe for cooking (forming) a team that wins top trophies.
But for all Man City’s attacking genius, we also have to look far back to the silent heroes pulling the strings at the heart of the Man City defence.
Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte are two human bricks that merged into an impenetrable wall for attackers hoping to score against Man City.
Yes, both players have been rock solid with several impressive clean sheets adorning their portfolio for this season.
Aymeric Laporte has sufficiently mentally recovered from his red card in the embarrassing defeat Man City suffered at the hands of Crystal Palace earlier on in the season.
Ruben Dias has been in the news for even more delicious reasons. Against Newcastle, he popped one goal in. A lucky goal, yes. But a goal is a goal, isn’t it?
In all, Man City don’t seem as though they are missing Sergio Aguero or any elite striker. The goals have been a deluge when everyone was predicting a drought.
Guardiola has managed to pull the team together so brilliantly that everyone has delivered a fair slice of goals and brilliance to propel Man City to the top of the table.
