Hallowe’en came a day early for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola last year. The day before the dead are supposed to walk amongst us, the Blues put on a horror show of their own to lose 2-0 at home to Crystal Palace and hand Chelsea a five-point lead at the top of the table.
But the spectre of failure which haunted the Blues ’ autumn for two years on the trot gave way to another storming run and glorious spring, with a fourth Premier League title win in five years, a feat that has promoted this team into the company of immortals. Only seven other teams in history have managed that kind of consistency in winning league titles - Aston Villa in the 1890s, Arsenal in the 1930s, Liverpool in the 1970s and 80s, and Manchester United in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
And given the fierce competition offered by Liverpool - a team that chalked up the third-highest points total in English football history when finishing second to the Blues in 2019 - it makes City's achievement even more spectacular. This day seemed a long way off on the opening day of the season, when a dismal 1-0 defeat at Tottenham condemned City to a third consecutive loss, having been felled by Leicester in the Community Shield a week earlier, just a couple of months after the desolation of losing the Champions League final to Chelsea.
