Manchester City have arguably been the best team in European football over the past five years. There have been peaks and troughs - times when Liverpool and Bayern Munich were able to convincingly argue otherwise, points when Real Madrid and Chelsea have been continent’s reigning champions - but perhaps unsurprisingly, the most consistently excellent side over the past half-decade has been the one coached by Pep Guardiola.
Building City’s case for being the best begins with a statement of the obvious: they have won four Premier League titles in the past five seasons, dominating the most competitive of Europe’s major leagues to raise questions about whether it is really that competitive at all. Two of those titles were won by a single point from Liverpool, but the other two were secured by much wider margins.
