It’s the query we’ve all been asking on and off for a decade now – can anybody cease Manchester Metropolis’s dominance?
They’ve received essentially the most cash, the most effective gamers, the highest coach within the sport, and the most effective fits upstairs operating issues. It’s been a effectively oiled profitable machine – however there’s lastly a way that issues might be coming aside a little bit.
First up, there are the fees from the Premier League hanging over them. It appears unlikely that they are going to be punished by way of shedding factors or having titles stripped from them, but it surely might spell the top of a cycle.
Pep Guardiola has signed a brand new contract, however that doesn’t cease him strolling away if he needs to; there’s a brand new sporting director coming in; key gamers like Kevin de Bruyne are out of contract and loads of others are entering into their 30s.
Successful takes it’s toll on you mentally too, and what’s been unbelievable about this crew to this point is how Guardiola has been in a position to hold them motivated regardless of their countless success. Some suspect there now a way that he’s run out of the way to get this group to play at 100% after so a few years and so many trophies.
Regardless of all that, and regardless of how good and methodical Liverpool look underneath Arne Slot, you’d be a idiot to jot down off Man Metropolis at any stage. You may learn extra right here, however the lengthy and in need of it’s that they’ll nonetheless be favourites for the title subsequent yr. That’s the form of respect constantly profitable a lot earns you.
Would anybody be shocked in the event that they clamber again into the highest 4 this yr regardless of a shocking run of unhealthy kind? No. Would anybody be shocked in the event that they restore themselves in the summertime and are available again refreshed and motivated subsequent season? Completely not.
So the place does that go away Chelsea? This new crew are nonetheless fairly undercooked, and want a yr underneath Enzo Maresca to get into form. However given we had been within the title race till Christmas this yr, we count on a problem proper till the top of the season subsequent yr, if we will proceed to tweak and enhance the squad in the summertime.
The place will Man Metropolis be at that stage? It’s unattainable to know for positive. However on the proof of the final decade, we must be nearly good to catch them or beat them to the highest.
