Pep Guardiola said he didn’t want a “second of sadness” from his Manchester City side after Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Liverpool, but he also acknowledged his side had “missed an opportunity” to take a four-point lead in the title race. And that was surely as it was. xG models vary, but all had City as the victor, some by as much as 0.9 goals. And that is part of the oddity of this City: that dominance speaks of their extreme quality, but the failure to take advantage also hints at vulnerability.
All of this, of course, should be prefaced by saying that City are a great side. So too are Liverpool. These are not just exceptional teams in the context of 2021-22 but in historical terms. City will win the league if they win their final seven games of the season, something that seems entirely possible – after all, they won twice that number in a row at the end of the 2018-19 season to hold Liverpool off. If they do win those seven, they will finish on 95 points. Only four teams in league history have ever got more than that – Liverpool and City twice each in the past four years.
