Don’t blame Man City for killing title race: Chelsea and Liverpool lack champions cruelty

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Everyone wants a three-horse race for the Premier League title, but don’t blame Manchester City if that doesn’t happen.

Football fans around the world have been excited at the prospect of Pep Guardiola’s side being challenged for their English crown this season by Chelsea and Liverpool.

However, just days before the start of the New Year, there is a growing sense of anti-climax, as it appears City is in a class of its own.

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Wednesday night’s 1-0 win over Brentford makes it 10 straight Premier League wins for the defending champions, who are now perfectly placed to claim a fourth title in five seasons.

Indeed, City are eight points clear at the top of the table after both Liverpool and Chelsea slipped surprisingly in the space of 24 hours.

The Reds have a game in hand, but their 1-0 loss to an exhausted Leicester on Tuesday, coupled with Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at home against Brighton the following night, transformed Sunday’s encounter between the two sides at Stamford Bridge in a must. victory case for Thomas Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp.

The losing team in West London will most likely be out of the race. Pep Guardiola disagrees, of course, and neither do his players. City still have 18 games left of the season, including visits to Chelsea and Liverpool.

“Thanks for the nice words because we won but I won’t believe you if you say it’s already done,” Guardiola said of the title race on Wednesday.

“Chelsea and Liverpool are more than exceptional. One is the European champion and Liverpool have been our big rival in recent years.

“There are 54 points left to go and every game we just think about the next game we have.

“Unfortunately we have to come back to London soon [to face Arsenal] and play at 12:30 p.m. and go with good intention. “

And there has been enough defensive uncertainty in their last two games to suggest that City are vulnerable, even if their results suggest otherwise.

On Sunday they sort of conceded three times in 10 minutes at home to a makeshift Leicester side before finally sealing a 6-3 victory.

And a Brentford side hit by injuries and the Covid-19 spike hitting English football have still managed to cause City plenty of trouble.

But neither Liverpool nor Chelsea have been able to match the remarkable consistency of the title holders, making them an incredibly intimidating favorite, as even Klopp has attested.

Brentford showed the passion and energy to give them a tough night and it was telling that City were happy to take the ball deep into the corners to run the clock in the dying minutes to secure what was undeniably an ugly victory.

But, for the most part, the visitors still exercised the control they wanted and without a tight VAR offside against Aymeric Laporte in the finals the score would have been more comfortable.

As Chelsea failed to see their game against Brighton, Fernandinho, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne strangled Brentford’s creativity in midfield with 76% possession as they easily passed it to home.

Admittedly, City didn’t create too many clear chances after Phil Foden’s neat and close end in the middle of the first half – although the England ace ruled out another strike, while De Bruyne hit the post.

However, one goal has proven to be enough for a team that has only conceded 12 times this season.

Brentford had threatened in a lively 15-minute open and believed they were in the lead when Yoane Wissa’s volley passed Ederson only for Joao Cancelo to clear his effort from the line.

Less than three minutes later, however, City were in the lead and it’s that cruelty that sets them apart from their title rivals.

The winner was straightforward in his execution, Cancelo removing the ball for De Bruyne to shoot at an inviting cross that Foden clinically taped from close range.

It was easy to predict what was going to happen but almost impossible to stop. And there is now a similar sense of inevitability about the title race.

As Liverpool and Chelsea dominated and failed to win against Leicester and Everton, respectively, in recent weeks Guardiola has once again turned his side into a winning machine.

It is now up to their rivals to react, starting with Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Otherwise, City could end up winning this supposed three-horse race.

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