Manchester City eye new heights of fourth successive league title

LONDON – As the Premier League also-rans empty their pockets in a bid to close the gap on Manchester City, manager Pep Guardiola looks to be backing the bulk of his treble-winning squad to be strong enough for an unprecedented fourth successive title.

Last season’s runners-up

Arsenal have spent close to £200 million (S$343 million)

and third-placed Manchester United more than £160 million, with Chelsea also splashing the cash.

City have been in no rush to bolster their squad, signing only Croatian duo Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol so far, with midfielder

Kovacic a mere £25 million transfer

from Chelsea as a replacement for Ilkay Gundogan, who has left for Barcelona.

Although he is unlikely to match the German’s knack for popping up with important goals, Kovacic looks after the ball the way Guardiola demands and impressed in an unaccustomed attacking midfield role in a pre-season game with Bayern Munich.

Classy centre-back Gvardiol, Croatia’s masked man at the 2022 World Cup,

joined from RB Leipzig

for a reported £78 million, but essentially City will look pretty much the same as last season’s model.

Their measured business is in stark contrast to 2022 when they made the blockbuster signing of Erling Haaland for £51 million – a fee that now looks like the bargain of the century after the Norwegian striker contributed a whopping 52 goals to the treble-winning campaign.

But having won the treble while leaving the likes of Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez and Kalvin Phillips largely on the bench, it is understandable that Guardiola does not feel the need to bring in many big-name signings this transfer window.

He has also been impressed by creative midfielder Rico Lewis and is likely to give the 18-year-old, who has been at the club since he was eight, plenty of chances to stake a claim.

The City boss, having matched Manchester United’s treble while lifting City’s fifth league crown in six years, now has the chance to win a record fourth title in a row.

Maintaining his side’s hunger is the task awaiting the Spaniard, but he is confident City will rise to the challenge, even with not many additions.

“We have done it in the past, why should we not do it now? Every time we arrive in the last two or three months in good shape,” said Guardiola.

“What we did belongs in our hearts and minds, but while we are here we cannot stop.

“The players know what they have to do. The other teams are going to be more aggressive and play better. This is the level we need to be at.”

Besides City, four other clubs have won three top-flight league titles in a row – Huddersfield Town (1924-1926), Arsenal (1933-1935), Liverpool (1982-1984) and United twice (1999-2001 and 2007-2009). Guardiola and United boss Alex Ferguson (twice) are the only managers to have gone three-for-three.

Although there have been few changes on the playing front for City, Guardiola has had to shuffle his coaching pack after losing trusted assistants Enzo Maresca and Rodolfo Borrell, who had been with him at the Etihad for seven years.

Losing the Community Shield to Arsenal

on penalties aside, he will also want to avoid a repeat of last season when a stuttering first few months allowed the Gunners to forge clear.

That could perhaps have been blamed on adjustments needed to accommodate Haaland in a centre-forward role that the team under Guardiola had largely avoided in the past.

But now that the Norwegian is fully bedded in, and those around the striker have learnt how to best feed him, it is very hard to see Arsenal, or anyone else, reaching mid-January eight points clear as the Gunners were last season.

City will be fighting on all fronts again, which brings its own challenges, but with the Champions League monkey off his back, Guardiola must be quietly viewing that four-in-a-row “better than Sir Alex” idea with particular relish. REUTERS