We’ve got some rousing words from skipper Vincent Kompany, Premier League analysis from a former player, plus a detailed looked at manager Pep Guardiola‘s achievements from the New York Times.
First to Kompany, who was in defiant mood after the loss at Liverpool.
“’If we need to score five so be it,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. ‘We’ve prided ourselves all season on being the team that we are. There’s not one single person at Manchester City who believes this game is over. Not one person.
“’We have to live with the consequences of this result but that’s what makes football special. We had a very short period of time in this game where everything went wrong but the same can happen in the next game for the opposition. That’s what keeps us believing we can create chances.
“’We can dominate like we dominated the second half. We didn’t concede anything in the second half but the game plan didn’t change for them. They still tried to catch us out on counter attacks and we just dealt with it.
‘If 90 minutes of this can happen we will create chances and anything is possible.’
“Nonetheless, Kompany says it will be imperative that City’s fans replicate the sort of intimidating atmosphere Liverpool supporters created at Anfield.
“’It’s everything,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen it happen. Big games, big nights, they have always shown up and this will be one of them. It’s been all nice and easy looking [this season] from the outside. It’s not been when you’re playing.’”
Great stuff from the captain!
Across the pond now to the New York Times, whose football correspondent Rory Smith has penned a thoughtful piece on Guardiola as the Blues close in on Premier League success.
“City’s uncharacteristic collapse at Liverpool on Wednesday does not disguise the fact that he has built a devastatingly beautiful team at Manchester City, and established an unrivaled superiority at the Premier League summit. He could yet reach 100 points. And on Saturday, most delicious of all, he could win the title at home against Manchester United, his club’s great rival and one coached by his most persistent foe, José Mourinho.
“None of that has happened because Guardiola is a magician. He did not arrive at Manchester City and transform it with a sprinkle of stardust. It is all the result of unstinting, unending work, a quest for perfection, a determination that everything should be just right.”
Former City defender Danny Mills has also taken the long view in an interview with Sky Sports, where he has picked out the key moments of City’s domestic campaign so far.
The Blues have put in many-a-slick performance this season but Mills has picked out a differenty sort of match to highlight the side’s abilities; the goalless draw at Selhurst Park on New Year’s Eve.
He reckons: “Ederson made a save in the last minute of that game and City kept their unbeaten run going, at that point where we know the Christmas period is very tricky - a lot of games in that short space of time.
“If they’d have lost at that point, perhaps other teams would’ve thought, ‘we can go beat them’, they might have drawn, they might have lost one or two games but they still managed to keep that invincibility and that aura about them that obviously made them so effective.”
That’s all for today - stay tuned to our channels all day for all the derby build up!
