Sunday 1 October 2017 17:01, UK
Kevin De Bruyne was the hero as Manchester City won 1-0 at Chelsea to go back to the top of the table. Adam Bate was at Stamford Bridge to see Pep Guardiola remind everyone that he has won the argument about whether his ways work in the Premier League…
As post-match press conferences go, this was one of the longer ones. Over the course of 17 minutes, Guardiola not only praised Kevin De Bruyne and Fabian Delph, he even dispensed his thoughts on Catalonia's historic referendum, which takes place in his homeland on Sunday. Most of all, though, he bore the satisfaction of a man whose plan is finally coming together.
The Manchester City head coach had just seen his side beat the defending Premier League champions Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. As he pointed out, not even his great Barcelona team managed that. City were dominant and deserved the win. They had the better chances and - perhaps most pleasingly for their coach - did it by playing the game his way.
He spoke of his pride at seeing his team "play with courage to keep the ball" and praised their "high-pressing" right from the first minute of the match. On the touchline he had urged David Silva forwards, creating four-on-four situations when Chelsea tried to pass the ball out in their defensive third in order to "provoke long balls to Marcos Alonso" and win it back.
There was a mention too for the "amazing" John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi who held a high defensive line up against the pace of Alvaro Morata, Eden Hazard and Willian. And an acknowledgement too that such a tactic would be undermined if attempted without pressure on the ball - and, in particular, Cesc Fabregas - from their team-mates further up the field.
There have been times during Guardiola's Manchester City reign when it felt far from obvious that this approach was the right way to go. There were the much-discussed low points - the 4-0 loss at Everton and the Champions League elimination in Monaco. But there was also the fact that they were beaten home and away by Antonio Conte's Chelsea last season.
As he had always insisted, Guardiola never compromised. He has not changed, the results have. "Even last season when we came here and we were not able to win, we tried to do that," he explained. "Of course, if you do not win, the message that I am talking is not important. But I am so satisfied because we win in the way that I tried from the beginning."
The statistics now tell a tale of dominance. Despite Manchester United notching up no fewer than four 4-0 wins already, it is City who have scored the more goals. It is City who have had the most shots and it is City who have created the most clear-cut chances. This season, as last season, they top the charts for passes and possession.
Perhaps the greater indicator of progress is the fact that, for the first time under Guardiola, they have now kept four consecutive Premier League clean sheets. It took until after Christmas to register their fourth in the competition last season. With only two goals conceded, they boast the joint-best defensive record - matching Jose Mourinho's Manchester United.
This is the Guardiola way. While his teams have been outscored before - notably by Mourinho's Real Madrid - he finished all seven of his seasons at Barcelona and Bayern Munich with the league's best defensive record. Finally, English audiences are appreciating what his admirers had advocated from the outset. Guardiola's way works.
"In the end, playing like this, we show that we concede few," he said. "This is four, five or six games in a row with a clean sheet playing in that way, not defending like that [with a low block]. That is what I like to see from my team and today, on the biggest stage again, in a nice stadium against a nice team, we did it."
The belief this generates is significant. Until now, the feeling had persisted that Mourinho's methods could yet prove more robust in the bigger games because a counter-attacking style is easily transferable to such matches. City's attempts to impose their style on the Premier League's big beasts was seen as more problematic. This result challenges that theory.
"We try to convince the club we are able to go wherever and do our game," he added. "It is important in the process to show we can do that. We can go to Old Trafford, White Hart Lane [sic] or Emirates Stadium, it doesn't matter. We're going to try. After that, the opponents are good too. But we are going to try." The signs are that it could be more than enough.
