FootyChatter.com

EPL Nunes controls the ball against Crystal Palace Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images Manchester City had a bad few months, found £380million ($508m) down the back of the couch and, lo and behold, are back to the type of machine who win away at the Bernabeu and the FA Cup holders in the same week. They even do it without needing to play that well. All hail the genius of Pep Guardiola. Advertisement It is a narrative often used to undermine the Spaniard, particularly after an impressive week like we have just seen. That the stark transformation since this time last year when they drew at Selhurst Park and lost to Juventus, during a run of one win in 13 matches, is nothing deeper than capitalism in action. Pure numbers. A strong-man club flexing their muscles to reassert power. The other narrative, one that at times seems almost unfashionable to suggest, is that Guardiola is actually pretty darn good at this coaching malarkey — and this turnaround may have something to do with that. There is an argument that overseeing such a radical change in personnel and style — bringing 10 players in this summer and also losing 1, 506 games of Premier League experience — while staying in touch with an Arsenal team that has gelled for four seasons, has required Guardiola’s art of team-building more than ever. City’s opening goal against Crystal Palace on Sunday was perhaps the strongest testament to Guardiola’s penchant for renewal and reinvention. A 25-pass move that lasted nearly 90 seconds and saw nine players involved. Luring the press, playing through it, tiring the opposition out with those wide triangles before the killer pass. Hallmarks which have expounded City’s dominance, carried out by actors who tell a different story. Possession won back in the air by Rayan Cherki, a luxury playmaker previously allergic to the hard yards, putting in a shift on the right wing. Gianluigi Donnarumma, a goalkeeper apparently in possession of two left feet, passing a ball across his own line under high pressure. Nico Gonzalez, a midfielder written off as a poor imitation of Rodri, finding a line-splitting pass through midfield. And Matheus Nunes, who had previously been a dribbling central midfielder for Wolverhampton Wanderers, whipping in a superb cross to find Erling Haaland’s head in the 41st minute. The Portuguese full-back — I guess we can call him that now — has started the last nine league games. Delivering from wide right was not something he had done many times in his career before first being deployed there in emergency circumstances in January, aged 26, after the departure of Kyle Walker. But against Liverpool last month, Nunes also delivered a pinpoint ball to the Norwegian. Advertisement That day it was Nico O’Reilly who started the move. An academy player who had spent his entire adolescence preparing to be a No 10 or box-to-box midfielder, but has been fully converted to a marauding left-back in the last nine months. Now Thomas Tuchel is considering making him his starting left-back at the World Cup. Circumstances may have forced the experiment but Guardiola saw that the raw ingredients could produce a different recipe. He had done the same with Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko, two central midfielders converted into inverted full-backs, elevated into league winners by a niche role that only Guardiola could have carved. Even the thriving relationship between Phil Foden and Cherki — who combined for a third goal in four Premier League games — is a dynamic that has defied conventions. To have found a system that can hold both, along with Jeremy Doku and Haaland, is another facet of the team that has required convincing and cajoling. The process of preparing a 16-year-old Foden to become the 25-year-old man who assumes central midfield power from Kevin de Bruyne, has taken a decade of tactical drip feed. It has helped him rediscover his form of two years ago. Meanwhile Cherki had not convinced many top clubs of his ability to operate as part of a team, but Guardiola is managing to extract enough work-rate from him that the team functions; while platforming him enough to register the joint most assists in the Premier League so far this season. All of that has required a recalibration of his overall style of play with the addition of former Liverpool assistant coach Pep Lijnders driving a more direct possession approach. Yet, there are some who attempt to dumb down Guardiola by reeling off the chequebook receipts. They will point to the very presence of Haaland and the ability to afford his 10-year contract. The luxury of spending £25. 9m on last season's Champions League-winning goalkeeper, even though it instantly ousted James Trafford, the former academy player signed back for £27m, is another. Or City's ability to spend £53m on Nunes in August and for him to be originally used as a bench-warmer.

Clearly, City have far from shopped in the bargain factory. However, Nunes is another of those players in the £30-60m bracket acquired not because they will arrive as already world class but because Guardiola believes he can mould them and take them there. Advertisement The very logic behind repackaging Nunes came from Guardiola's lack of belief that the perfect solution to the right-back issue was available on the market. Tino Livramento of Newcastle United was the player identified but with a deal not likely to materialise, Guardiola chose not to settle for an imperfect second option. Instead backing his ability to grow his existing options himself. "Matheus is growing every time, " said Guardiola. "He's becoming an incredible full-back. He's a top player and his cross (to Haaland) was fantastic. At the end, Matheus is a midfield player. And when you are a midfield player, you have quality to deliver these kind of situations. And he's adapting his pace in the line, helping Ruben (Dias). He has a special physicality. That's why we hired him from Wolves. He has a different pace that we didn't have in that moment. " Gross indulgence is impossible to opt out of in the modern day Premier League. Remember Jurgen Klopp's great moral claim that he would never spend £100m on a single player because he wanted to do it differently, to build a "real" team? "The day that this is football, I'm not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together, " he said. Naturally, he then spent the measly sums of £75m and £66m on Virgil van Dijk and Allison within the next three windows. Liverpool, now under Arne Slot, broke that £100m barrier twice last summer to sign Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, with Hugo Ekitike not too far behind them in terms of pricetag. There is of course a correlation between having the largest wage bills and spending powers and finishing position, but Liverpool's difficulty in maintaining dominance after their two most recent titles wins and Slot's struggle to forge a new identify after a summer of change proves that money alone guarantees nothing. The human element of Guardiola is what helped take Man City to four consecutive titles and he will hope it is enough to take them back to the summit after his most disastrous season as a coach in 2024-25. After the early defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur it looked like a title challenge may again be out of reach, but within three months Guardiola has found his best XI and is cooking the alchemy once more. He will have the secret sauce called Rodri to throw into the mix soon too. Jordan Campbell is a football writer for The Athletic, who regularly covers Manchester City. In 2024, he was named in the 30 to Watch journalism awards. He previously covered Glasgow Rangers and was twice nominated for Young Journalist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. Follow Jordan on Twitter @Jordan C1107