Manchester City have hit top gear at exactly the right time of the season, which was proven by the emphatic nature of their impressive demolition of Liverpool at the weekend

My only slight concerns were the effectiveness of the simplistic counter attacking by Klopp’s men, that earned them their early lead. There was also the Salah breakaway which was snuffed out by a combination of Jack Grealish’s lung busting chase back and Salah’s lack of imagination.

Hopefully that won’t prove to be City’s achilles heel in crucial games.

Once City got a grip of the game, the visitors were chasing shadows and really appeared to have no answer to the imagination, speed and quality of Pep’s team. All this was done without the prolific Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva, who would be the first two on my team sheet, for any game.

This feels like proof that in City’s case it’s not the individual’s that make City great, it’s the system and the team.

City have had some great individuals in recent years and there are three statues outside the stadium that pay tribute to Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva for their part at the beginning of this recent run of amazing success.

I could add several other names to that trio, with Yaya Toure at the top of my list. These days it’s Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Ruben Diaz, John Stones etc who are leading the way to be immortalised in on a plinth in the future, but you don’t need me to tell you that it’s Pep Guardiola who needs that type of idolisation the most.

City’s players have an amazing ability to be alert to every opportunity during the game. As former City captain Andy Morrison, a hero from a different, less successful generation, so eloquently explained in my recent Forever Blue podcast, it’s all about taking risks only when the team is set to anticipate whatever the opposition can throw at it.

It sounds simple, but then football is a simple game. The real trick is to have eleven players totally switched on to the system, completely away of where their team mates are and knowing that they are also immediately ready to perform at their very best.

I’m amazed, as I sit and watch this team, how every player is always ready to race forward and move into space. That’s the difference between City and most of their opponents. There’s no standing and admiring a great pass, once it’s played the perfect attitude means there’s no resting on laurels.

I watched United’s game at Newcastle on Sunday. These are two other likely Champions League qualifiers, but their teams were unrecognisably different to what I witnessed in person at the Etihad Stadium the previous day.

They have individuals with talent, but there was very little of the selfless team play that I saw from Pep’s team.

I am in awe of how Guardiola achieves what he does. City have been on this amazing run of success for years now, winning four Premier League titles in the last five years.

Pep’s objective is to win as many trophies as possible, but actually even more importantly, it’s about competing for every trophy every year. He knows, like we all do, that in cup competitions, a game between two teams who are relatively evenly matched, can be won and lost by VAR, an individual mistake or just luck.

That’s why City have been so consistent in fighting for league titles but don’t always win every Cup competition they enter.

This month, City face Bayern Munich in the Champions League and Sheffield United in the FA Cup.

The way they are playing makes me believe that City could well close the gap on Arsenal, who they face at the Etihad Stadium late in April, and progress in both Cups, but even the Blues will need some good luck too, in one off games.

It’s going to be an exciting month and more than ever, It’s great to be a Blue! 

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