Manchester City became the first team to ever clinch an English domestic treble with a 6-0 thrashing of Watford at Wembley on Saturday.
When Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City are at their best, they are a well-oiled, relentless attacking machine. After beating out Liverpool in a historic Premier League title race, City had just one more step to become the first team to ever win the League Cup, Premier League, and FA Cup in the same season.
On one of the season’s biggest stages, the Blues showed the world their unequivocally ruthless best in their final match of the season to absolutely hammer Watford and complete a clean sweep of English domestic honors.
Having backed up their record-breaking Centurion Premier League season a year ago with a similarly impressive 98 point campaign in 2018-19, Guardiola’s City have already put themselves in the history books. They’ve won every piece of silverware available to them over the last two seasons with the exception of the Champions League while playing some of the most aesthetically pleasing football of recent memory, putting them in a category above their contemporaries.
While Liverpool pushed City to the limit this year, the Blues are a better and more decorated side when on form, and have established themselves in the pantheon of all time great Premier League teams such as Arsenal’s “Invincibles” and Manchester United’s treble winners from 1998-99.
While the achievement of not losing a single league game is impressive, Wenger’s Invincible Arsenal side would have finished 10 and eight points behind City across the last two campaigns while scoring 33 and 22 less goals, respectively. Moreover, Arsenal was not able to maintain that standard of excellence in all competitions in 2003-04, bowing out in the semi-finals of both domestic cups, losing the Community Shield, and going out in the Champions League quarterfinals. City won or equalled Arsenal’s result in all of those competitions in addition to a far superior Premier League season, and therefore stand above them in terms of consistent excellence when comparing across eras.
The main challengers to City are crosstown rivals United’s treble-winning side of 1998-99, who claimed the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League trophies while becoming the only Premier League team to ever complete the traditional treble. When deciding which team is superior, several factors come into play, but the most important is each individual’s value of the Champions League trophy, the Red Devils only real edge over this City team.
While to some the Champions League is the only real measure of success against the world’s absolute best competition at club level, in reality its inconsistent and fluky nature makes it a rare occasion for Europe’s best team to win it. The draw is arguably just as important as the matches themselves, as all roads to the final are not created equally, and while controversial refereeing decisions and bad luck typically equal themselves out across a league season, in a strict knockout competition, these can heavily swing the balance of play.
While City’s consecutive quarterfinal eliminations to fellow English sides remains the only stain of Guardiola’s tenure, it’s worth noting that both losses to Liverpool and Tottenham did not come without controversy.
Trailing 3-0 heading into the second leg at the Etihad Stadium, the home side had a near-perfect start with an early goal from Gabriel Jesus. While the game settled down from that point on, the Citizens’ comeback appeared to be well and truly on when Leroy Sané scored just before the break. However, the goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside and Guardiola was sent to the stands for arguing the decision, halting City’s momentum and effectively ending the tie.
This season against Spurs, City led 4-3 on aggregate before Fernando Llorente’s eventual winning goal appeared to strike his forearm on the way in, but VAR did not change the decision. In additional time, City scored what appeared to be a late dramatic winner before VAR immediately ruled the goal out for a deflected offside earlier in the buildup, this time without referee Cüneyt Çakir consulting the pitch side video monitor.
In United’s Champions League Final victory over Bayern Munich, on the other hand, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were extremely fortunate. Trailing heading into the 90th minute, two goals in added time from substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer helped the Red Devils lift the trophy.
The purpose is not to devalue United’s achievement or claim that City were unjustly eliminated, but rather, to display that in a competition of such fine margins, luck inevitably is a factor and that Champions League merits do not necessarily represent overall quality.
Therefore, given their clear level of consistent excellence over the past two seasons, I firmly believe that Guardiola’s Man City are the best team in Premier League history, and although the next step in cementing that status is to lift the Champions League, their inability to do so thus far does not necessarily disqualify them when compared to Ferguson’s United of old. For a club that is often criticized for its lack of history, Manchester City and Guardiola have made a lot of it over these past two seasons, and they’ve given no indication that this era’s Premier League dynasty will be slowing down any time soon.