It's a fantastic achievement for City manager Guardiola, who ended his first year in England without silverware -- his only failure to win a trophy since his managerial career started back in 2007. Fast-forward 12 months and Guardiola's City side has achieved a domestic double, adding the Premier League to the League Cup they won in February. City has looked in a class of its own during the season and has only lost two league games -- to Liverpool and Manchester United -- and Guardiola's men have been scoring nearly three goals a game. They are on course to break a whole host of records including the most points, most wins, most goals scored and biggest winning margin in a season.
Guardiola and his staff celebrate after winning the Carabao Cup Final against Arsenal.
Spatial awareness
"It just seems like all the players, whether they're fighting for each other, whether they're fighting for the manager, or they're fighting for the club, the results are coming," says Mike Fairclough, a City season ticket holder since 1999. "Obviously it's very easy to enjoy football when you're winning but it just seems like there's a lot more team spirit and identity about the place and that's because of the manager in my opinion." Guardiola's football philosophy centers on the idea of "juego de posicion" or positional play. It's a philosophy that served Guardiola well during his spells at Bayern Munich and Barcelona -- he won a remarkable 21 trophies in eight seasons -- and splits the pitch into 20 zones, five vertical spaces and four horizontal spaces. No more than three players are allowed in any horizontal space and no more than two in any vertical space, meaning players must constantly be aware of where they are on the pitch. The system is designed to constantly provide space for the man on the ball, or for a player in space to receive a pass. Key for Guardiola is the "half-space" -- the areas between the opposition's central defenders and full-backs. "Ninety percent of Manchester City's goals come from this area," Brighton midfielder Steve Sidwell recently told the Training Ground Guru website after attending a two-day session with the Football Association of Wales as part of his UEFA A License course. "When they build up play on the left, [the full-back] comes into central midfield and (Leroy) Sane stays way out wide and pins the full-back there. "It causes dilemmas, it causes an overload in midfield."
Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson has been a revelation for City this season.
Squad surgery
The numbers City has posted this season haven't come by accident. Guardiola learned from his first season in English soccer, convinced he didn't have the players to implement his tactical ideas. Benfica goalkeeper Ederson Moraes was bought for $50 million. As well as being exceptional with his feet, the Brazilian is equally adept at keeping the ball out of the net. City have kept 15 clean sheets. "With Ederson in goal ... he kind of takes the ball under pressure and move it around the back four and what that's done is that it's just enabled City to play a lot more than they were doing last season," Dave Mooney, host of Blue Moon, a Manchester City fan podcast, told CNN Sport. Guardiola also shipped out aging defenders, Aleksandar Kolorov, Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta. Another $176 million was invested on defenders Danilo, Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker. All technically gifted, agile and fast, this trio was also a lot younger than their defensive predecessors.
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