City 'alive and fighting' to defend their treble trophies

PEP Guardiola banged his hand on the table to emphasise his point for him.

- SIMON BAJKOWSKI

The Manchester City manager said that he could not fully articulate what made him think it, but in his opinion his team is alive and fighting. He is seeing more of them than anyone else, and more and more of what he is seeing he is liking.

So high are the standards and expectations around City that a few poor results can appear like a huge drop-off, and there was plenty of concern around one win in six Premier League games before they went off to the Club World Cup. However, dropped points from teams around them have kept them in the race and three straight wins after Christmas see them five points off leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.