Man City come into this season as English Premier League champions two years in a row. They’ll be looking to make it three, but can they manage it? Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side are next up on our Premier League previews list.
State of play
If you look back over the last 27 years of the English Premier League, you’ll struggle to find a team that can compete with this Man City side not only in quality, but in depth, coaching, transfer policy and just about everything else.
This summer, we haven’t seen Man City spent the couple hundred or so million we’ve become accustomed to. Instead, we’ve seen them make a few more considered moves – players who will be strong additions to an already ridiculously talented squad.
In Rodri (£62.5million), City have finally found their Fernandinho replacement. As well as him, they’ve also brought in Joao Cancelo (£26million plus Danilo), Angelino (£10million) from PSV – a player who’s spent time at the club before, and goalkeeper Zach Steffen (£7million) from Columbus Crew.
Pre-season for Man City has seen them, for the most part, continue the winning form they’ve become so used to. Three wins from four games, they showed some good form in their warm up matches – form which they carried into the Community Shield. After a 1-1 draw in the game, City came away with the shield following a 5-4 win on penalties to officially raise the curtain on the new season.
Man City Signing of the summer
This has to be the easiest selection of any preview I’ve written so far this week. In Rodri, Man City have secured not only their signing of the summer, but as far as I’m concerned, a player who could be THE signing of the summer.
As mentioned above, Rodri has been brought in as the long term replacement for the stalwart that is Fernandinho. He can tackle, he’s good in the air, he can attack, he can defend and he has a great passing range. Most importantly, he is exactly what Man City needed in the middle of the park to secure their status as Premier League top dogs.
Kieran’s verdict
Again, this is the easiest verdict I’ll write all week. Come next May, there’s not much of a doubt in my, or pretty much anyone else’s mind that Manchester City will be lifting the Premier League trophy for the third consecutive year.
Liverpool gave them a good run for their money last season, but this season I can’t see them keeping up in the way they did last year. They’ll still probably be better than everyone else in the league, but just won’t quite make the grade.
Man City are the best team in the league – perhaps the best team we’ve ever seen in the Premier League. This season, they’ll win another Premier League title just to prove it further.
*All transfer information taken from https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/manchester-city/transfers/verein/281
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