A summer of transfer market misjudgements may have sent Manchester City spiralling into decline but there are signs it will nevertheless yield one benefit. While City have suffered because of sales and because they neglected to buy where they needed players, while one summer recruit, Ilkay Gundogan, has been benched, the other has proved the catalyst who has spurred them out of the worst run of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career. They had a lone win in 13 games. Now they have two in two, each inspired by Savinho.
After a goal and an assist at Leicester came pivotal contributions to City’s first three strikes as West Ham were routed; somehow both unconvincingly and yet emphatically. “You cannot ask me if the old Manchester City is back,” Guardiola said. “If you saw the game, we are not. If you ask me the team is playing like it has played years ago, no, absolutely not. Our performance was not good.”
