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Records Could Tumble For Pep’s City

It is an intriguing thought. If Manchester City can rack up 50 points in the first half of the season, what might they be capable of in the next five months?

Pep Guardiola’s side appear an increasingly decent bet to retain their title after an outstanding run of form which has left them tasting the rarefied air at the Premier League summit.

City have an amazing knack under Guardiola of embarking on long winning sequences and their current run of 10 straight league victories has coincided with closest rivals Liverpool and Chelsea dropping points.

Guardiola’s men are now priced at 14/1 with Ladbrokes to break their own record, shared with Liverpool, of 18 consecutive league victories in a row.

Ladbrokes are also offering a price of 1/9 for City to win the title, which now feels almost inevitable after the results in midweek.

The champions won at Brentford, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds lost at Leicester City and Thomas Tuchel’s Blues were held at home by Brighton.

Phil Foden’s goal against Thomas Frank’s Bees secured a 1-0 victory and left City a whopping eight points ahead of second-placed Liverpool.

It Doesn’t Show Signs Of Stopping…

Could Guardiola’s men slip up in the second half of the season? You would have your doubts. Big doubts, in fact.

It would take a major turnaround to deny City a sixth Premier League this season, which would take them past Chelsea, who have also been crowned champions five times.

Perhaps the question should be whether City might even be fancy their chances of smashing their own incredible points tally, set in 2017/18 when they reached 100 points.

That marked City out as arguably – and some would say undeniably – the best team in Premier League history.

In May 2018, Gabriel Jesus hit a dramatic later winner in the fourth minute of added time to become the first side to reach a century of points.

City dropped only 14 points all season and Guardiola said afterwards: “Premier League, 100 points, I still cannot believe it, it is a massive achievement.

“One hundred points is a lot, [that is] 50 points at home, 50 points away, it means how stable, how good we were all the season.

“The numbers are always consequences of what we have done in terms of the way we play, our mentality.

“You cannot achieve what we achieve in terms of many, many records if you are not a humble team, professional, [that] has that desire to take the ball and win and win and win.”

Unstoppable?

City have grown accustomed to recording huge points tallies under Guardiola.

Twelve months after hitting a century in 2017-18, they retained the Premier League title by notching 98 points.

The odds are perhaps against them emulating the historic feats of 2017-18, but only a fool would turn his back on City now.

There is too much energy, and too much drive, coursing through the club from top to bottom.

Winning 17 of their last 18 Premier League games would take Guardiola’s team to 101 points and see the history books rewritten.

A tall order yes, but you wouldn’t rule it out would you?