■ Manchester City v Stoke City: Thursday morning at midnight in UAE
Eight weeks after Pep Guardiola ruled Manchester City out of the Premier League title race, others have ruled them back in. It is not because Chelsea have floundered — quite the opposite — but City’s renaissance in a run of seven wins in eight games has prompted thoughts of a dramatic end to the season.
Not from the manager himself, aware there are plenty of variables in the equation and concentrating his attention on the visit of Stoke City.
“We are focused on the next game,” he said. “The gap is so big and it depends what happens.”
Win and it is down to eight points, a deficit City overturned to pip Manchester United to the crown in 2012.
“We have to play all the [top] teams,” Guardiola said. A meeting with the side at the foot of the table has convinced him Stoke will be difficult opponents. “Sunderland was so complicated,” he said, though City won 2-0.
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While he is abiding by the mantra of taking each game at a time, Guardiola is looking further ahead in one respect. He has admitted City’s summer transfer activity is occupying some of his time.
“I am planning, [director of football] Txiki [Begiristain] is planning, the staff is planning. We have to have one eye on the short, the medium and the long term.”
He has accepted he may not be able to get everyone he wants.
“I would like to have English players but they are so expensive,” he said. “They feel something special but sometimes it’s not possible.”
City were forced to pay premium prices for their last two major English arrivals, Raheem Sterling and John Stones, but the winger, in particular, is excelling now.
So is the youngster on the other flank. As Guardiola himself has noted, there are fewer mentions of Leroy Sane’s cost now the German has scored in three successive games. The ominous element for opponents is that his manager believes he can get better.
“Sane is playing good but also we show him a lot of clips, of many not-good things he is doing and he can improve,” he said.
Sane fits into Guardiola’s philosophy of recruitment.
“We are buying for the long term,” he said. “That’s why Leroy is here, why Raz [Sterling] is here and why Gabriel [Jesus] is here. As young as possible is much better.”
In the short term, Kevin de Bruyne should return to the starting XI tonight after he was a substitute at Sunderland. With three more games before the international break, including a last-16, second-leg Uefa Champions League clash with Monaco and a potentially pivotal clash with Liverpool, Guardiola may be tempted to rotate, especially as tiredness is an issue.
It could be a fine time to face Stoke. Mark Hughes’s side are yet to record a win against anyone in the top half of the table and their task is rendered tougher because Bruno Martins Indi, Glen Johnson and Marko Arnautovic are all injury doubts.
Critics of Guardiola’s Barcelona used to wonder if they could prosper on a wintry night in Stoke. The Catalan’s City side proved they could do it on an August afternoon in the Potteries. City surged to a 4-1 win, Sergio Aguero and Nolito each scoring twice in Guardiola’s first away Premier League game.
A repeat might bring title talk, though not from the manager himself.
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