FOR the neutral — and of course the Manchester City fans — what a joy their last two games have been to watch.
It’s certainly going to be fun seeing them for the rest of the season if they keep this up.
Pep Guardiola’s Man City can still catch Liverpool in the title raceCredit: PA:Press Association
Liverpool have been relentless and fully deserve to be 11 points ahead of City, with that game in hand, too.
Pep Guardiola’s champions are probably going to have to go and win every game from now until the end of the season to stand a chance.
And they are capable of doing that, of course. But even then, it is unlikely that it will be good enough to overcome Liverpool.
Their last two performances have been incredible and give a glimmer of hope, bouncing back from the defeat to rivals United when they were really poor.
Against Arsenal they were simply magnificent and had they not taken their foot off the gas, it could have been a lot more than three goals.
And then yesterday, they go behind to that excellent Jamie Vardy goal and watching it, you think, here we go again, just like against Manchester United.
It was a similar goal to the one United scored, on the break, space in behind and at pace, a brilliant finish from Vardy.
However, City were not having a repeat of their last home game. They stepped on the gas and the performances of Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez in particular were breathtaking.
The way Pep overloaded that right-hand side of the pitch to exploit Leicester, in terms of positioning and tactics — it was so intelligent, just brilliant.
You could say that Leicester should have done something to combat it, but they have their own way of playing and paid the price.
Brendan Rodgers sets up with a very positive gameplan with Vardy, Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes on the attack.
They have their sitting player in Wilfred Ndidi — but the Foxes couldn’t cope with that overload from City.
Man City came from behind to beat second-placed Leicester 3-1 on SaturdayCredit: Reuters
If I’m being picky, the small negative for City was that they left themselves open again at the back.
It was a high line, albeit with a brilliant finish, that saw Vardy score and Barnes had a decent chance to level from another breakaway.
United ripped City apart on the break playing that way and Leicester were well aware of that going into the game.
Pep’s not going to change and you can’t blame him for that with the success he’s had.
It’s because of the injury to Aymeric Laporte, and needing to play Fernandinho in there, that they are suffering a bit.
Fernandinho is an able replacement but you also lose his protection in midfield and with all respect to him at centre-back, he’s not Laporte.
Leicester have had a superb first half of the season and it is they, not Manchester City, who are closest to Liverpool.
They now meet on Boxing Day when City — Leicester and Manchester — will be hoping that Liverpool lose.
Perhaps Leicester can catch Liverpool cold after their exploits in Qatar, winning the World Club Cup.
But with the exception of the Carabao Cup, which was understandable with a weakened team, Liverpool have been unstoppable.
Again in Qatar, they left it late in the semi-final — but won. In the final they needed extra-time — but won.
That mentality is amazing and despite people saying ‘they can’t keep doing it’, that suggests they aren’t going to slip up.
They’ve already made a good signing in Takumi Minamino from RB Salzburg and that will only strengthen them.
PLAYER OF THE SEASON (… SO FAR!)
THE PFA Player of the Year trophy becomes a hot topic again in the coming weeks.
It was Virgil van Dijk who took it last year, despite Liverpool not lifting the title, and this year’s winner could do the same.
Mo Salah and Reds team-mate Sadio Mane have good shouts for the award — perhaps Mane more than his pal this year as he’s been incredible.
But looking at form, alongside Kevin De Bruyne, it’s hard to ignore Jamie Vardy.
He’s been unbelievable, he’s six clear in the Premier League scoring charts and is pivotal to what Leicester have managed to do. Oh, by the way, he smashed in 18 goals last season, too.
Leicester striker Jamie Vardy is my Player of the Year so farCredit: Reuters
He’s already on 17 in the league this time. In the season Leicester won the title, he scored 24. He’s now on course to beat that easily.
With the goal he scored on Saturday against Manchester City, he still had a hell of a lot to do running from the halfway line.
And to execute that finish, with his left foot, dinking it over such a brilliant keeper as Ederson — it was trademark Vardy.
He’s pulled out of England action and I don’t think the debate will go away over him coming back in.
I don’t think he’ll relent as it’s doing him the world of good, physically, getting those breaks.
When he looks back at the reasons he is playing so well, it’s because he’s getting the rest he needs at the age of 32. And he’s got a manager that understands what he has to do in training at this stage of his career.
The result is that he’s playing perhaps his best football ever.
RIP TRUE GENT MARTIN
I CAN’T say I knew Martin Peters. I’d met him a few times at events and was obviously very aware of him.
But talking to lots of people inside and outside of the game, I didn’t know anyone who said anything other than positive things about Martin as a player or as a person. He was a true gentleman.
Martin Peters was a true gentleman and will be missedCredit: AP:Associated Press
You have only to look at his career — hundreds of games for West Ham, Tottenham and Norwich — to realise how special he was.
It is really unfortunate we have lost another of our 1966 heroes, this time to Alzheimer’s disease.
However, we can thank Martin and all his team-mates for giving English football its greatest moment.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
