Pep Guardiola generally keeps reports short and concise. On Sunday night, in the Manchester City dressing room, he told them not to worry. Freshen up and get ready for Aston Villa in three days.
They are coming thick and fast now. Guardiola is uneasy about the programming, lamenting that the broadcasters are not doing much to help them in the European matches, but he knows this is a consequence of being so consistently strong.
City have been here before, with niggling injuries disrupting their flow at key moments, and it will no doubt happen again, even once the manager has vacated after a brilliant period, which will be effectively impossible for the next player to match. .
But for now Guardiola’s message is the same. He is not upset with his players, not even with a sermon delivered to Jack Grealish on the pitch after Sunday’s drab goalless draw against Arsenal.
He says he can “recognize” them, which in his language is a team following the plan. They are not playing badly.
Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City will know the situation they are in
City will have to overcome a difficult schedule to win the league, after drawing with Arsenal
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However, it is difficult to escape comparisons. Last year, the teams (Arsenal one of them) were impressed at the Etihad Stadium.
Hostile, unpleasant, home to an already exceptional team that smells of history. And although City are performing quite well, with a 23-game unbeaten run in all competitions since the beginning of December, there is a feeling of wanting more.
There is a feeling that there is more within them and, if that happens, City still have a great chance of doing something special again. They are still waiting for the absolute maximum, the certainty of Erling Haaland’s goals or the divine intervention of Kevin De Bruyne.
The expectation has been that at some point it will click correctly, and the last seven years have provided evidence. Maybe at any other club, not losing in the long term would be best. Not this one, whose peaks are considerably higher than anyone else’s.
There will be frustration in that locker room, they will wonder why half-chances don’t come, why early charges aren’t as frequent.
It is something curious to analyze. Three points is the difference with Liverpool with nine games remaining. The quarterfinals of the Champions League against Real Madrid are approaching. Chelsea in the FA Cup quarterfinals. Normally, this might seem like everything is set up for a late payment fee.
So why isn’t it like that? It’s about expectations and the weight of their recent past and the memories created while fleeing to Istanbul.
“As we won five (titles) in six (years), (we believe) we have to win while being 10 points ahead,” Guardiola said. “You can’t because the other teams are really good.”
Manchester City are arguably still waiting for the absolute maximum, the certainty of Erling Haaland’s goals or the divine intervention of Kevin De Bruyne.
At times it seemed that Man City had missed the quality of Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez in their mini-transition era.
City will face Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals
And it’s about who they miss in what has constituted a mini-transition in a post-Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez era.
This week last year, they both started the 4-1 win over Liverpool. Gundogan got the important third goal. Mahrez assisted the second for De Bruyne. These are huge characters straight out of a Treble team, characters who stepped up and won games on their own when Haaland and De Bruyne didn’t.
Think of the FA Cup final, when Gundogan got both, or the semi-final, when Mahrez walked away with a hat-trick, albeit against Championship opposition. Or when Gundogan inspired that dramatic last-day comeback against Villa, or Mahrez’s only goal at Chelsea in January last year, when Arsenal threatened to clinch the league in what for him was a modest season.
They are not easy people to replace. They’re not the reason City didn’t beat an Arsenal side prepared to stifle, but equally, losing both has inevitably placed an extra burden on everyone else. It is one facet of a larger picture surrounding the city. But they’re still there, still screaming.