Pep Guardiola set to make history: How good Manchester City are as they chase fourth title in a row | Football news

However, their cruel fate is also a testament to the dizzying standards City have risen to, that they will end the season on a note of regret, slipping into the blue mist of City, arguably the most ruthless winning monster of the league ever, teasing. and taunting their opponents on another inevitable march to the title.

Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain – December 3, 2023 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola REUTERS

Should he achieve it on Sunday, in front of a backline that has scored 71 goals, Guardiola would become the first manager ever to win four in the tournament in the league’s 135-year history. When told the scale of the potential achievement, he casually said his team would “get the respect of the world”, as if they hadn’t already. But that would be his lasting legacy – like Arsenal’s unbeaten season, a rare and wonderful feat – one that had eluded Herbert Chapman, Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Ferguson. The Scot came wide, then denied by Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko in the father, mother and extended family of all comebacks. The symbolism of that moment grows with each passing year. A statue of the Argentine was worth it.

To deny Guardiola a fourth would be a brilliant achievement and Arsenal’s hearts would be warmed by the rather eccentric nature of some of City’s final day games with the title at stake. Aguero’s – until now known as the 93:20 moment – would be the most memorable example. But more recently last season, Aston Villa gave them an almighty scare, leading them 2-0 on 76 minutes, before Ilkay Gundogan inspired a stunning comeback and City grabbed the lead in the 82nd minute. All with an irresistible bleak predictability, as if City holds the powers not only over their own destiny but over the others as well, the belief that they are the central and ultimate protagonist of the narrative.

Feeling of fatalism

Maybe West Ham can put up a stiffer resistance, maybe City, unbeaten in the league this year, would slip away, bad luck would get their hands on it, or the needles on the voodoo doll’s back might work. But even when you dream of a city skid, there is a sense of fatalism, a sense of hope against the wildest hope, a cold sweat of helplessness. City would like to keep such drama heightened.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola speaks during a press conference. (File)

One man who knows this more than most could be Klopp, who would manage Liverpool for the last time in the league. No other manager has managed Guardiola so closely in his tenure in England. Only Klopp and Antonio Conte stopped him. The latter’s triumph happened when Guardiola was getting used to the ways of the English league. The German had to accumulate 99 points to hold the trophy aloft. Before that, he collected 97 points, and later, he accumulated 92. However, he did not reach Guardiola. Klopp could have sewn up his own legacy by winning the quadruple in 2021-22, but he leaves a step down from greatness, not because he wasn’t a great manager, but because Guardiola’s men have scaled the heights of greatness. The Premier League would lack the energy and belligerence, in addition to the brains that created a thrilling brand of football. He was the heavy metal of Guardiola’s classic songs, order to chaos, energy to synergy.

Theirs was an era-defining rivalry. Beneath their fierce rivalry on the field shone wicked admiration and envious respect. “The outstanding manager of my life,” Klopp said ahead of their last meeting. “The best rival I’ve ever had in my life,” Guardiola replied. He leaves a void that plenty of managers would aspire to fill. The art of course is there; Ange Postecoglou, Mauricio Pochettino and Unai Emery would all be looking to raise their level and shake Guardiola’s empire. Otherwise, it would be a one-horse race, a cause for wider concern, because it could go the way many leagues in Europe have gone, a monopoly.

But between now and then, there is one last act, maybe one last twist, an Aguero moment or once again Manchester City doing what they always do.