New chapter, but same old City machine

HOW can you top a Treble? With great difficulty, Manchester City have confirmed this year.

- SIMONBAJKOWSKI

"Sometimes you do sit there and think how can you ever top last year?" Jack Grealish admitted in April. "Will any happiness ever come close to that?" 

Grealish has struggled more than most this season to lift himself again and has questioned how long he has left at the top level, although he has not been the only one with problems. Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and John Stones have all had various injury problems that have wiped out significant chunks of their year, while the loss of captain Ilkay Gundogan was felt all season on top of Riyad Mahrez's departure.

In many ways, it felt like a new chapter for Pep Guardiola's side with fresh blood coming into the side in young players Josko Gvardiol and Jeremy Doku while Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez took additional responsibility to pull the team through some difficult months. At the heart of it though, pushing City towards more history, was the same mentality that has driven them since the manager arrived: as captain Kyle Walker said in Jeddah ahead of the Club World Club in December, "you don't get bored of the confetti coming down."

City have been a winning machine for years and winning breeds winning. It's remarkably simple but football is a simple game - it is just difficult to achieve that.

As the Blues searched for their motivation again, they found it in the additional trophies that last season offered up for them.

The Super Cup win in Athens in August helped tired bodies to get over the line a few days later to pick up a crucial three points over Newcastle and then the Club World Cup in December gave them the time to remember what made the team tick; a team that headed to Saudi Arabia with one win from their last six league games returned and won 18 of their last 21 (drawing the remaining three) to pip Arsenal to the title again with an even higher points tally.