Here we are, a couple of days before the FA Cup Final and Manchester City sit on the edge of an historic treble. What a fantastic season this has been!
Casting my mind back to the halcyon days of last August – those lovely sunny days before Football Leaks and Der Spiegel and FFP dross – I put on my usual pre -season bet with the bookmakers. It usually involves some combination of Manchester City winning a clean sweep of all available trophies and some ridiculous odds which would turn £5 into a lottery win!
However, even back in August things were looking different. The bookmakers seemed to have rumbled us and – shock/horror – the prices quoted on the betting odds seemed to be in freefall. I got only 200/1 for City to complete a clean sweep! As it turned out, as usual we did not manage that!
Yet back in August, I would have been happy to settle for a solitary trophy this season. And I am stunned to say we have been brilliant all season – from setting a blistering pace in the league to blowing away a variety of tricky looking cup competitions. The first trophy of the season (Guardiola actually counts the Community Shield as the first Trophy of the Season so still considers we are on for a Quadruple!) was actually back in February when City managed to retain the Carabao Cup after a penalty shoot out with Chelsea. That winning penalty from Raheem Sterling got us over the line and for the very first time in our 125 year history, City had managed to retain a trophy!
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After that our wonderful team carried on battling at the highest level to fight on every front. We suffered the disappointment of being knocked out of the Champions League thanks to VAR, but put in a customary excellent performance of scintillating football.
Somehow our players managed to power through any disappointment and take us to the FA Cup Final and knock out 14 League wins in a row to secure back to back Premier League Titles! Whilst last season in 2017/18 we were crowned the Centurions – this season we are the Retainers! Doesn’t sound quite as good does it?
Anyway, we are the first team to win the Premier League back to back for 10 years and our side has won a lot of plaudits for their performances on the pitch. It has been unprecedented to have notched 198 League points over 2 seasons leaving us on the verge of being anointed as the best Premier League side of all time.
Last season there was reluctance to talk of us as the best ever team because the pundits said we had not won enough trophies. Now we stand on the precipice of winning a clean sweep of domestic trophies for the first time ever but we all fully expect the pundits to now find a different reason to suggest we are not “that” good!
Sealing the FA Cup to round off this superb season would be the icing on the cake. It is the historic competition and still captures the grandeur of the past. It is also the only domestic trophy which Guardiola has not yet won! Watford will prove stubborn opponents and will be able to play without the weight of any expectation. But regardless of the result on the day – we should all be celebrating the brilliant football and results Pep Guardiola and our team have achieved this season!
So as Manchester City fans, don’t let the doubters get you down – let us enjoy the team and celebrate the success we have right now! City till we die!