It was after the third of Manchester City’s record-breaking four straight defeats under Pep Guardiola that the manager sat down to face the press in the depths of the Estadio Jose Alvalade a week ago.
City had just been swept aside 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon on a night of high emotion and high intensity in Lisbon as Ruben Amorim prepared to leave the club and become Guardiola’s neighbour and rival across the city at Manchester United.
Guardiola shrugged away a question about whether he was looking forward to facing the challenge of a new opponent when Amorim arrives at Old Trafford, and concentrated instead on the task he faced in reviving his own side.
He could scarcely have been more impassioned about the battle ahead. ‘It’s not easy to swallow,’ Guardiola said, of the beating his side had just suffered, ‘but it is an experience and I am here. I like it. I love it. I want to face it.’
Things have got worse for City since then, of course. Their loss at Brighton on Saturday made it four reverses in a row and when Liverpool beat Aston Villa later in the evening, it ensured Arne Slot’s team would take a five-point lead into the international break.
Manchester City have suffered a record-breaking fourth defeat in a row under Pep Guardiola
Brighton came from behind to claim a shock 2-1 win on Saturday as City’s poor form continued
Mohamed Salah inspired Liverpool to a dominant 2-0 victory over Aston Villa later that evening, extending the Reds’ lead at the summit of the Premier League table to five points
These are uncharted waters for City under the man commonly acknowledged as the greatest coach of his generation, even if one of the defeats was in the Carabao Cup. City are simply not used to losing with Guardiola at the helm.
Guardiola said in Lisbon that he knew this would be a difficult season. After each of the four straight Premier League titles City have won, the pressure grows and grows to win the next one. No English club had ever won four top flight titles in succession before. It will take Herculean mental strength to win five in a row.
Mail Sport’s Chief Sports Writer OLIVER HOLT
City have been a club of certainty in recent years but uncertainty is swirling around them now. The season-ending injury to Rodri is one reason for that. The doubt about whether Guardiola will sign a new contract is another. The fight against the century and more of charges laid against them by the Premier League and the impending verdicts yet another.
Even the bookmakers have dropped them down to second favourites for the title behind Liverpool.
I find it strange that they, and so many others, seem to be writing City off. If English football’s recent club history teaches you anything, it is never, ever do that. However many problems appear to be mounting up against them, winning the title is part of their muscle memory.
The biggest unknown is the outcome of the financial charges against them. If City are cleared of wrongdoing, or if they are not hit with a points deduction or worse, I still think they will win the league.
And the biggest reason for that is Guardiola. He has many gifts as a coach and the intricacies of his tactics and the philosophy of his teaching and his understanding of the game are a huge part of his success.
Losing 4-1 to Ruben Amorim and Sporting Lisbon in midweek was also a tough pill to swallow
Man City are feeling the loss of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri following his season-ending injury
But Guardiola is an elite manager and City should not be underestimated in this title pursuit
But his ability to motivate himself and his players, even in the face of such consistent success, the sheer intensity of his personality and the way he transmits it to his players, is what keeps driving City onwards and forwards.
Watch City play and the first thing that strikes you even beyond the beauty of their passing and their movement and the technique of individuals, is how hard they work. It is their hunger. It never wanes.
They may have lost Rodri for the season but they have not lost Guardiola. They still have the best squad in the league. They still have players capable of putting together the kind of long unbeaten run that will make a five-point deficit disappear.
If City lose their main case against the Premier League, it is difficult to see any outcome that allows them to add another title to their four. If they win the case, get ready for five in a row.
Tyson-Paul is a grift, not a sport
Let’s be honest about Mike Tyson’s ‘fight’ with Jake Paul in Dallas on Friday night – it has got about as much relevance to sport as an episode of the Great British Bake-Off.
It’s the Party Hole at LIV Las Vegas where the attraction is the dancing DJ, not the golf.
It’s a Demolition Derby at a state fair. It’s Jesse Owens racing a horse. It’s Kanye West throwing out the first pitch.
It’s a kid trying to score a penalty against a bloke dressed as a dinosaur at half-time at the Emirates Stadium.
Friday’s fight between Mike Tyson (left) and Jake Paul (right) is not a sport, at least in my book
Tyson and Paul will fight for eight two-minute rounds at the AT&T Stadium in Texas on Friday
All sport is entertainment but not all entertainment is sport. I would not argue that Tyson-Paul is not entertainment because I would be there if I could and I will probably pay to watch it on television.
We’re all talking about it, too. And a lot of us are writing about it. But it’s not sport. Not to me, anyway.
Tyson-Paul is a grift. It’s a barrel load of dollar bills dressed up in sport’s clothes to inveigle you. Its only worth is in its cultural significance because it is, sadly, a signpost to the direction sport is heading.
It is another signal of sport’s submission to money and the triumph of image over competition. And even if it is hard to admit it sometimes, perhaps it is also a pointer to what a new Netflix generation of sports fans want.
It is a fight of eight two-minute rounds tailored to the age of the shrinking attention span. It’s a highlight package. It’s bitesize, although Evander Holyfield might not appreciate that inference.
The ‘fight’, at the AT&T Stadium, is a sister to the idea that Cristiano Ronaldo is still one of the greatest players in the world because he is scoring goals and striking poses in the Saudi Pro League.
It is a brother to the notion that Inter Miami are one of the best 32 teams in the world because Lionel Messi plays for them and should qualify for next summer’s Club World Cup, even though they just got knocked out in the first round of the MLS play-offs.
It’s a cousin to WWE, to Tiger and Rory’s TGL golf league, and to those horrendous celebrity soccer matches where someone who calls himself iShowSpeed actually seems to think he’s a player. It’s sport gone wrong. It’s sport’s dystopia.
Boxing icon Tyson, once labelled the Baddest Man of the Planet, will fight Paul at the age of 58
The Tyson-Paul fight is a sister to the idea that Cristiano Ronaldo is still one of the greatest players in the world because he is scoring goals and striking poses in the Saudi Pro League
Tyson-Paul carries poignant elements of pathos and nostalgia and, in many observers, it provokes a feeling of disgust but that is not enough to make it sport, either.
Friendly football matches aren’t sport because the result doesn’t matter. It’s the same with those pre-season tours that Premier League clubs embark on every summer. They’re not sport. They’re commercial exercises to be endured for cash.
That’s why American television executives are so keen to drag regular season Premier League games to the States: because they’re real.
Look, I’m not saying that it does not take courage to get in the ring with Mike Tyson. It takes courage to get in a ring with anyone, let alone the fighter who was once known as the Baddest Man on the Planet. I got scared just asking him a question at a press conference.
But I’m not sure that Tyson-Paul is real. It’s weird. It’s sad. It’s a circus. It’ll make a lot of people a lot of money and it will generate an awful lot of hits on social media. But that doesn’t make it sport. It makes it a betrayal of sport.
It’s a show and it’s an extravaganza. It’s a red carpet. It’s a photo opportunity. it’s a marketing exercise. It’s an earner. It’s a shouting match and a chance to posture and to promote.
And even if the rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano is the highest quality contest on offer on Friday night in Texas, the evening will be a giant celebration of America’s new Donald Trump-Elon Musk-Joe Rogan manosphere.
It’s an offshoot of sport. It’s something grafted on to sport. It’s a leech latching on to a host and sucking for all it is worth. I hope neither man is injured but, apart from that, I’m not sure I care about the result because the result doesn’t matter.
Instinctively, I’d like Tyson to win, I suppose, because he was once a great sportsman. And if, at the age of 58, with a whole of host of serious medical episodes behind him, he beats Paul, it will at least expose once and for all the emptiness of so-called sporting careers built on the shifting sands of modern celebrity.
The fight, which is being shown live on Netflix, is a weird and sad betrayal of what sport is
I also refuse to criticise James McClean for sticking by his principles and not wearing a poppy
Jake Paul first found fame by performing stunts and pranks. On Friday night, the joke will be on us.
I won’t criticise McClean for his poppy principles
The Wrexham player, James McClean, did not wear a poppy on his shirt at the weekend, just as he did not wear a poppy on his shirt last year or the year before that. I don’t despise him for that. It’s a matter of personal choice.
And anyway, like many others, I have grown rather disillusioned with football’s performative morality. Most of all, I find it hard to shake the memory of how the FA’s commitment to the fight against homophobia crumbled as soon as it became apparent there might actually be a price to pay for it at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
I’m proud to wear a poppy but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect McClean for sticking to his principles.
