A little history lesson for Pep Guardiola. He does enjoy those, a catalogue of non-fiction stacked on the windowsill of his office overlooking Manchester City’s training pitches.
As the idea that goal difference might decide the destination of this Premier League crown was floated his way, something he agrees with, the example to illustrate that was Arsenal and Michael Thomas in 1989. The title switching hands in the season’s final seconds at Anfield and all that.
Too young, don’t remember, was the summary of Guardiola’s response. He was a teenager playing in the Spanish third division when Thomas clipped over Bruce Grobbelaar. Totally believable given aside from the FA Cup final, English football didn’t boast the same widespread continental appeal then.
But as the microphone moved on to the next question, his inquisitive nature took over. He asked for further explanation, leaning over the desk to listen properly.
‘Michael Thomas? For one goal, Arsenal won? Huh. Arsenal won then so they can relax this season! They don’t have to push.’ He laughed. He doesn’t appear ruffled.
The eve of City’s trip to east Lancashire, the 31 miles north to Burnley, felt like Guardiola delivering a sermon on how he has won six of these things already. He’s cracking wise about Arsenal’s past, he’s saying that he feels nerveless heading into the final six matches of this campaign. He’s offering why City remain level-headed, while telling his players to continue celebrating wildly despite criticism from Wayne Rooney. His performance in front of the cameras on Tuesday portrayed both a man in touch with the emotions attached to the run-in and capable of leaving doubt at the door.
There was a certainty to Pep Guardiola when he spoke ahead of Man City’s game at Burnley
The weight of history rests on Guardiola’s shoulders now. As he marches towards the finishing line of his time coaching in this country, this league marks the chance to cement a legacy trophy. For himself, obviously, but also the first notch for an inexperienced, newly assembled team that will fancy becoming the latest great City side.
‘Nervous was last season, the pressure last season,’ he said. ‘Now I’m more relaxed than ever. Now we enjoy it. The message is so clear. It’s not even a message, the players know it. They see me. My face speaks for itself perfectly. Sometimes they [don’t] need to talk when they see my eyes and my face. They know it.’
There was a certainty to Guardiola on Tuesday. Not the first rodeo and with renewed confidence having dispatched Arsenal twice, Liverpool and Chelsea over the last month. While not an exact science – draws with Nottingham Forest and West Ham looked to have taken title aspirations away from them – this has followed the general theme of City’s best years under this manager, the middling performances preceding an April where rivals are left wondering what on Earth just happened.
This absolute belief in the team and his own capabilities is a learned behaviour, dating back to a very first La Liga title in 2009. It was then when he harnessed the fundamentals of these charges, measuring success by performances and ‘being there’ – his language for being in contention – while devising how his teams can grow into seasons.
‘Always you talk about the past,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow [at Burnley], I know perfectly because I’ve been there in the past. When you make an incredible moment after going back away in the Premier League to a team, maybe not fighting for the title, it’s always so difficult.’
He’s here now and can say this freely. Yet this general progression, the speed with which they are challenging for another title as such a raft of club legends exited stage left in the post-Treble years, must come as a surprise to Guardiola given the numbers of new, younger faces. Even within the four-man captains’ group, Erling Haaland is in his first year of an official leadership role and doesn’t turn 26 until July.
The Norwegian sits alongside club captain Bernardo Silva, Rodri and Ruben Dias in the leadership committee and it is unquestionable that they have unified the squad.
‘The captains have been top and it’s not about age,’ said Guardiola. ‘A lot of [experienced] players were here last year and we were not competing good. It’s not about ‘I have experience so I will handle this situation’. I have zero belief in that.
‘We revealed a little bit [about how] good many players are with a good sense of togetherness. That I like.’
Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva are two of the four members of City’s leadership group
But what have the indomitable Silva and his companions actually done? The evidence of their fight was shown in the dying moments on Sunday when the injured Rodri – who is missing Burnley with a groin problem – was frantically directing traffic from the technical area. And Guardiola subtly suggested that the standards have gone up.
‘It is to show what is required to create a group,’ he added. ‘The players who don’t play show disappointment… it’s normal but there are boundaries, limits. How they hug each other, support in the bad moments.
‘The leaders talk a lot with the guys, to say they have experience and it never ends, that this league is so long, that whatever happens continue, continue. It’s many things.
‘The legacy for the older players is that we have to deal with these kind of situations. That’s why I’m a manager, to live these moments.’
