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December 26, 2017

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Home » Sports » Soccer

Pep’s City canters towards EPL title

Source: AP | 00:01 UTC+8 December 26, 2017 | Print Edition

English soccer has never seen a team so utterly dominant as Manchester City entering the packed Christmas program.

There seems little doubt Pep Guardiola will be raising the English Premier League trophy for the first time in May. It is just a question of when City will wrap up its third title since 2014, and how many records will tumble on the way.

City has already reeled off the most consecutive English top-flight wins — a record extended at the weekend to 17 games.

Manchester United’s record EPL title-winning margin of 18 points from 2000 could also be under threat. And England could be looking at its third unbeaten “Invincibles” team after Preston in 1888-89 and Arsenal in 2003-04.

So it doesn’t bode well for a compelling second half of the EPL season? Think again.

The chase for the other three UEFA Champions League spots should be fierce with eight points separating second-place United and Arsenal in sixth. Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are in the mix among them. Two leading sides will fall by the wayside and be denied a place among the European elite.

The battle to stay in the world’s richest soccer league is also intense. No team is stranded at the bottom, with Swansea in 20th place only six points behind Southampton in 13th.

City leads by 13 points at the halfway stage after winning 18 of its 19 games and drawing one in the best ever start to an EPL season. The only dropped points came at home to Everton in the second game on August 21, when City played more than a half with 10 men following Kyle Walker’s sending off.

Guardiola won the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich in late March in 2014 — aided by a winning streak of 19 games never before seen in a major European league.

It will be tough for Guardiola to win the title that early in England as he chases a quadruple after finishing his first season at the club without a trophy. City is already through to the League Cup semifinals, into the UCL last 16 and begins its FA Cup campaign in two weeks.

United is in second place, with defending champion Chelsea three points further back in third. United manager Jose Mourinho says the title race is still on, but the rest of his peers among the chasing pack don’t see City faltering now.

It will be intriguing how Mourinho reacts to seeing his title ambitions further fade in his second season at United, having already opted to publicly call out his “childish” players after the 2-2 draw at Leicester City on Saturday.

Kevin De Bruyne is playing in a deeper role for City this season, virtually as a center midfielder, and it is bringing the best of out the Belgium midfielder.

He has provided many of this season’s wow moments, from scoring the winning goal at former club Chelsea in September with a fierce left-footed strike from outside the area to the assists for goals by Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling in the 7-2 win over Stoke City in October

Dovetailing perfectly with fellow playmaker David Silva, De Bruyne has six goals and eight assists but it’s more than just his statistics. His prodigious work rate, range of passing and crossing ability that make him a strong contender for the player of the season awards.

No wonder City is determined to nail down the 26-year-old to an improved, longer contract.

In the dugout, these are testing times for two British managers: Alan Pardew and Mark Hughes.

Pardew succeeded Tony Pulis a month ago with a mission to keep West Bromwich Albion in the EPL. Then the Baggies were two points above the bottom three. Now they are next-from-bottom after collecting only two points from Pardew’s first five games.

Hughes’ future appears on a knife-edge at Stoke despite a pressure-relieving victory over West Brom on Saturday that hauled the team three points from the danger zone.

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