3 Primary reasons behind Manchester City's Premier League triumph
Manchester City won the Premier League title after beating Brighton 4-1 last weekend. They finished just one point ahead of second-placed Liverpool in one of the most absorbing title races of all time. It was their second consecutive league win under Pep Guardiola, who has now won eight domestic league titles in his managerial career.
City had won the league title quite comfortably last season as they finished 19 points ahead of second-placed Manchester United. However, they faced stiff competition from Liverpool, who led the league table during Christmas, this season. However, City came back strongly to beat Liverpool in their league match, and subsequently left them behind in the league table.
We would now take a look at the 3 primary reasons behind City’s title triumph:
#1 Tactical flexibility and squad depth
City have enviable depth in their squad, and are very flexible tactically. They made some improvisations in some of the league matches to showcase their flexibility. They also have arguably, the strongest bench in the world, and could afford to fall back to their reserve players as per the demands of the situations.
City have mostly played with a 4-3-3 formation this season, but Guardiola tinkered with their shape at times. For example, they adopted a 3-5-2 formation against Liverpool at Anfield. They could not afford to lose that game and played Riyad Mazhrez as the right full-back in order to stick to their preferred shape.
They again played a 4-5-1 formation against Arsenal at the Etihad as Fernandinho featured as a de-facto centre-back at times. Aymeric Laporte moved to the left-back position to accommodate Fernandinho in central defence.
Their bench-strength can be gauged from the fact that players like Mahrez, Vincent Kompany, Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sane have spent a considerable part of the season warming the bench. Still, they have delivered whenever they have been given a chance to play. Mahrez scored against Brighton and Kompany struck a stunning winner against Leicester City to help their team win the title.