Forever Blue With Ian Cheeseman: We Expect Constant Excellence From City - But Is It Realistic?

After all the drama of Manchester City’s trip to Anfield a week earlier, it was back to normality for the Blues at the weekend with a comfortable home win against improving Brighton.

The truth is that City didn’t really get out of second gear and certainly didn’t perform at the heights we’re used to seeing from the Champions.

I’ve been mulling this over and trying figure out why the win, as vital as it was, felt underwhelming. If you’ve only seen the highlights on Match of the Day, you might be wondering what I’m going on about. Afterall, the goal machine Erling Haaland bagged two more and we saw a picture perfect strike from outside the box into the top corner from the best midfielder in the Premier League, Kevin de Bruyne, so what’s not to like?

It’s true to say that even the best can’t be at the top of their game every three days and that’s where City are, as we count down to the World cup next month, so it would seem to be a bit churlish to criticise when the Blues took another three points without injuries or suffering any other consequences. 

The game had been a perfect opportunity for Jack Grealish though. He’d been left out of the starting eleven at Anfield but was on from the start against Brighton. If we’re to believe what we read, he’d been disappointed to have been left out of the team at Liverpool. It would be easy to conclude that Pep Guardiola still doesn’t feel he’s completely fitted into the way City play and so hadn’t trusted him to start in the biggest test of the season so far.

Here was Grealish’s opportunity to show those who doubt him wrong. Right from the off he seemed up for it, with one dribbling run suggesting that he’d been allowed more freedom to express himself, in a more central role, but as the game went on and Brighton equalled City’s control of possession, so the former Aston Villa man drifted back to the left. It feels like that’s his comfort zone. What I can’t be sure of is whether that was his decision or whether Guardiola, who insists his players stick to their allocated positions and wait for the ball to come to them, rather than the other way around, had reigned him in. 

Riyad Mahrez wasn’t sparkling on the other side either. I can’t deny that I’m missing Gabriel Jesus at City. He’d always been described as a central striker and he appears to be revelling in that role at Arsenal, but I’d have loved to see him playing either left or right, with the attack spearheaded by Haaland, but that ship has sailed.

On the subject of Haaland, his strike rate continues to be phenomenal, though his overall play is good rather than great. Maybe that doesn’t matter. Almost every week he looks unstoppable and continues to rip the goalscoring record books up. I guess as long as he’s doing that, his overly heavy touches, when controlling the ball in build up play, might not really matter.

In his two games against Liverpool, so far, he’s failed to score. Is that significant? City haven’t played Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea yet, and won’t until after the World Cup so it’ll be exciting to see his impact on those games, in the knockout stages of the Champions League and possibly the latter stages of the FA Cup, when all the trophies are up for grabs. 

For now City are doing what they need to do in the Premier League title race and of course the Champions League has already been put to bed until February. With just three more league games to go until we take a long midseason break, I expect City to win against Leicester, Fulham and Brentford and in all likelihood be top at Christmas.