Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are in seriously frightening form. The Citizens are playing the best possible football in Europe at the moment. They are dispatching sides with absolute ease and the fluidity in their attack looks unstoppable. The Citizens have scored 34 goals in 9 matches since the market shut and with Sergio Aguero returning from a freak injury, it is safe to say that City are yet to hit top gear.
The stylish, fluid attacking football included wins over sides like defending league champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and a 5-0 drubbing of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Last time out, they thrashed Stoke City 7-2 in a match where they could have scored more goals.
The team is so heavily armed that the likes of Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva have to be content with just playing as substitutes. Although Pep is likely to rotate his squad over the next few weeks again, as he has always been known to be a manager who uses an entire squad to keep players fresh and motivated.
Their midweek clash saw them defeat Italian table-toppers Napoli who have been unbeaten in Serie A so far. Although Pep’s men won the match by a margin of goal, the 2-1 result was not a fair reflection of the match. Pep’s men dominated the first half and could have outclassed and killed off the match by end of 45 minutes itself.
Instead, his team had to hold on to their nerves to see off a late Napoli flourish to claim all three points. In this match, we saw the other aspect to the team, the ability to win matches by tightening the screws at the back to keep a free-flowing side like Napoli out.
City face Burnley this week and are expected to come away with all three points.
Defence:
Ederson is expected to play in goal, with Danilo operating as right back and Fabian Delph playing as a makeshift left-back. Nicolas Otamendi is expected alongside John Stones at centre-back for City.
Midfield:
David Silva, Fernandinho and Kevin De Bruyne are expected to be three men in the middle of the park. It will be again down to Silva and De Bruyne to do most of the attacking work as Fernandinho will sit deep trying to block off counters by the opposition.
Attack:
Bernardo Silva will probably get a chance on the left wing with Raheem Sterling on the right and Gabriel Jesus the obvious choice to start up front given the striker’s red-hot form.
Here is how the might line up:
