Ian Cheeseman: Forever Blue

And all of a sudden, Manchester City are favourites to complete another treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

A week ago, the Blues faced a daunting trip to Real Madrid, who were back up to full capacity for the first time since their Santiago Bernabeu’s redevelopment and they’d convinced UEFA to allow them to close their roof to add to the intensity of the home support. Despite that, Pep Guardiola’s team more than earned a 3-3 draw, making them favourites to progress to the semi-finals.

Last weekend seemed a fairly straightforward one in the Premier League with all three challengers at home and expected to win. On Saturday, City dispatched lowly Luton and added four to their goal difference by winning 5-1. As I sat on my sofa for Super Sunday, on TV, I was fully expecting Liverpool and then Arsenal to respond with convincing wins of their own. I’d planned to only be watching the games casually, but right from the beginning of the first game, once TV’s uninterrupted reverence of You’ll Never Walk Alone was over, I was glued to the screen.

Klopp’s Liverpool had been beaten 3-0 by Atalanta, the previous midweek, so the atmosphere was noticeably nervous and subdued. I didn’t think that Liverpool could drop points, or even lose, but I could sense that things weren’t right for the home team. When Crystal Palace took the lead, I didn’t react. Maybe they’d scored too early?

They had no convincing response though and as the game went along, it felt more and more like the unthinkable could happen. Were Liverpool nervous, had their confidence been damaged by that defeat to Atalanta or maybe the tiring Jurgen Klopp was transmitting his downward spiral to his players? When the final whistle went, I was, of course delighted. I’d thought Liverpool would be the most likely to take the crown this season. They still could, of course, but this was a major psychological blow.

I then fully expected Arsenal to be on fire in their home game against Aston Villa, buoyed by the result from Anfield, but the players and the crowd both again seemed subdued quite quickly. They lacked confidence and belief and as their game went on, I turned to my son and suggested that Villa could win this game, just as Palace had done at Anfield; and so it proved to be.

Manchester City had eased past Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, in successive games at the beginning of April, scoring four goals in both games. There were no nerves on show but plenty of changes to give players valuable rest. Homegrown youngsters like Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb, Phil Foden played their parts and the Blues machine continued on it’s way, without too much strain.

City had also had the challenge of facing the mighty Real Madrid, in Spain, while Liverpool faced Atalanta in the Europa League and Arsenal took on Bayern Munich. Both City’s rivals had home games while City had been on the road. Since the weekend I’ve read articles from journalists and fans suddenly claiming that this apparent turn around in the title race is all down to the money City have spent and once again using the 115 Premier League charges against the club, as the stick to hit them with.

Time will tell how that story ends but let’s get it right, City’s players are disciplined and motivated like no other team in football history. Pep Guardiola has built a great squad. He’s needed to spend to achieve that, almost every great team has had to do that, but it still takes the right mix or skill, team work, tactics and determination to reproduce their best week after week.

The Premier League title race, FA Cup and Champions League are far from over and there may be more twists to come but as I write this, City are favourites for them all. It’s Great to be a Blue!

This column was written before Wednesday’s Champions League return game with Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium.