Off the Crossbar: Manchester City has the swagger of champions

Great teams can often have that aura of invincibility — the feeling that no matter what, they will come out in front. They give their fans a sense of inevitability. It’s the feeling you get when Steph Curry starts to hit a couple of 3-pointers in quick succession to light up the crowd in Oakland. Or when Tom Brady is driving down the field in the fourth quarter of a big game at Gillette Stadium. And, as they have started to strut their stuff in the last few weeks, it’s the feeling you get every time Manchester City kicks off at the Etihad Stadium.

When Liverpool raced ahead to a seven-point lead at the start of the year before their Jan. 3 clash with Premier League champions City, there was talk that a win could signal the end of the title race a full four months before the end of the season. Even Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola repeatedly said that he believed if his side dropped points the race would be over. Fast forward just over a month and City is back at the top of the league on goal difference ahead of Liverpool (albeit with an additional game played). More importantly, the club looks to be back playing their best soccer.

City has now won six of their past seven and has been thoroughly dominating its their opponents in these victories. They have looked like the Guardiola teams of old, swiftly moving the ball around and lulling opponents to sleep before launching their deadly attacks. With the creativity of midfielders David and Bernardo Silva, City can conjure up scoring chances out of nothing.  And it doesn’t hurt that they have Sergio Aguero, the hottest player in the Premier League right now, finishing those chances off. Aguero has been a man on a mission in 2019, notching nine goals in his past seven league games, including two consecutive hat-tricks — taking him to the top of the Premier League scoring charts.

City’s excellence was exemplified in the 6–0 trouncing of Chelsea this past weekend. They were utterly dominant, up 4–0 in the first 25 minutes. Aguero and Raheem Sterling were hot from the start and pounced early on some terrible Chelsea defending. It was an effort worthy of champions.

These performances have come despite the fact that for most of this season City has been without Kevin de Bruyne, its star player and last year’s Professional Footballers Association Player of the Year runner-up. The Belgian is the heart of City’s attack, and it is a testament to the work of the two Silvas that City’s production hasn’t suffered in his absence. De Bruyne is being eased back into the lineup by Guardiola, and while he may take some more time to fully get back into it, his return seems to be well-timed for the closing stretch of the title race.

As a Manchester United fan, the cynic in me hopes that Liverpool won’t manage to capture that elusive Premier League title its fans has been so desperately craving. But I just can’t help but think that City has enough to hold off the Reds and defend its title.