After a January spending spree, the soon-to-be deposed champions are expected to splash even more cash this summer to overhaul an ageing squad
Wednesday was weird. It was a pivotal night in the Premier League title race, and yet Manchester City’s game against Tottenham was an irrelevance. The only meaningful action was taking place at Anfield and the City Ground, as Liverpool stretched their lead at the top of the table to 13 points with a home win over Newcastle while second-placed Arsenal were being easily held by Nottingham Forest.
Not since Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge have City been effectively out of the Premier League title after 27 rounds. Back in the spring of 2017, though, we were already starting to see signs that the Catalan was building something special at the Etihad Stadium. Indeed, City lost just one league game from January 16 onwards – and even that was away to eventual champions Chelsea on April 5.
By the season’s end, then, it was clear that Guardiola’s footballing philosophy was already starting to take root and, that summer, he added a number of key elements – including Ederson, Bernardo Silva and Kyle Walker – to what would become his first great City side.
Despite the patchy nature of the performance at Spurs, there was enough evidence on display to suggest that Pep might well be in the process of constructing another squad capable of dominating the English game…