Manchester City are two games from making history. Beat Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup final and Inter Milan in the Champions League final a week later, and they will go down as one of the greatest teams of all time. Those two wins will see them join an elite list of treble- winning clubs. It would probably be the peak of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career – an even greater achievement than the treble he won with Barcelona in 2008-09.
There are plenty of neutrals who will want to see this sensational City side get the recognition they deserve, and go down in history as the 10th team of all time to win the treble. Fair enough.
But then there will also be a good number who will want to see something other than a Manchester City procession in both games. Given how easily they ended Arsenal’s Premier League title chase with a ruthless run of 12 straight wins, before battering Real Madrid in their Champions League semi- final, you’d be a brave person to bet against them sweeping their next two opponents aside.
Is there any chance for United or Inter? Is there any hope of a couple of good games for the neutral? In all honesty, quite possibly not. However, City have shown on a few occasions this season that they aren’t completely infallible.
Here, we’ve taken a look at the lessons that can be learned from other teams who have recently got a result against City to give United and Inter fans – as well as those neutrals hoping for some entertainment – something to cling onto.
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Tottenham have had a great deal of success against City in recent seasons, and although former manager Antonio Conte balked at the suggestion that his team used “counterattacks?!?” to beat them at the Etihad in February 2022, it wasn’t exactly as if his team took the game to City. Even the video evidence he provided didn’t entirely disprove Guardiola’s implication that Spurs weren’t interested in playing much football.
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