There are four metrics that should be used when determining the greatest teams. Manchester City score very highly across all of them.
The first, and most obvious measurement is silverware, a full trophy cabinet being definitive proof of superiority and dominance over a period of time.
Since they first won the Premier League title in Hollywood fashion back in 2012, City have claimed a league crown seven times in 11 years. Indeed, there has not been a pre-season since Rico Lewis was in infants when the Blues weren’t favourites in the football betting to better their peers.
Nowadays, you can almost certainly guarantee Erling Haaland will top Premier League top goalscorer odds before a ball has even been kicked.
Furthermore, it’s a hegemony that is only intensifying, as Pep Guardiola’s blueprint for success has seen them top the table come May for five of the last six seasons.
With last term’s title making them only the sixth team to win a title for three years running it is all told a ratio that compares favourably with the very best that English football has ever had to offer.
Over 18 seasons of sustained brilliance Liverpool won 11 titles, becoming a feared and admired winning machine in the process. Picking up their mantle of dominance, Manchester United then bossed the first couple of decades of the Premier League, claiming 13 titles along the way.
Beyond these two dynasties – and City’s present prolonged spell of dominance – we have of course witnessed other fabulous sides burning bright, not least Aston Villa in the 1890s, Huddersfield in the 1920s and Arsenal soon after that.
None of them however can hold a candle to the long stretches of supremacy enjoyed by these trio of remarkable, ever-evolving creations.
Truly, they are in a league of their own.
Speaking of longevity incidentally, does it matter that the great Liverpool and United sides enacted a stranglehold on the domestic game for two decades, compared to City’s one? We will come to this, but yes it does.
Elsewhere, in the modern era, City have lifted the FA Cup three times and from 2014 onwards have achieved an unprecedented level of success in the League Cup, winning it on six occasions.
Then we come to Istanbul last May, and the last caveat that stood in the way of City gaining an elevated historic status.
In beating Inter Milan, Guardiola’s men didn’t only put an end to a perceived Champions League hoodoo but it also secured them a famous treble. Only Manchester United can match them in that regard.
You may have noticed that to this point only Premier League teams have been mentioned, and for good reason.
It’s because, while it’s incontestable that Bayern Munich have produced some astounding sides in their past, not to mention Juventus, or the twin behemoths of Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, what must be factored in is the varying levels of competition from league to league.
Bayern have won the Bundesliga for 11 years running. Does that make them a great team, on a par with their marvellous incarnation from the Seventies, who won the European Cup for three seasons in a row?
Or does it signify that the Bundesliga is currently considerably weaker than the Premier League, making them in effect a German Celtic?
It is entirely possible to compare leagues. Teams separated by seas and borders, however, is a much more difficult proposition.
Regardless, there is one criteria where we can broaden our scope, an abstract, less statistically-driven metric that focuses on how influential this Manchester City model has been. Moreover, how stylish is the manner in which they have gone about their business.
When concentrating on this aspect, Ajax immediately spring to mind, their totaalvoetbal in the Seventies bewitching and bemusing a watching world as they cleaned up domestically and in continental competition.
Then we naturally think of Barcelona and their tiki-taka artistry that prompted a thousand different imitators to ditch their former ways and take up possession-based fare.
And unquestionably, Manchester City deserve to be a part of this particular conversation, given the extent in which they have transformed the landscape of English football.
From Brighton to Barrow, teams now play out from the back and adhere to a mandate City have perfected. One club, one team, can take credit for making an entire footballing pyramid more aesthetically pleasing and certainly Liverpool or United could never make such a claim.
It blows the mind by the way, that three of the most innovative, influential creations in the game’s history all stem from a direct lineage of three geniuses. From Rinus Michels to Johan Cruyff to Josep Guardiola.
So now we get to the third metric, that covers longevity, and conversely let’s make it short and sweet.
City have thus far achieved absolute dominance of the top-flight for half of the amount of time that Liverpool or United managed. By any sensible reckoning therefore they should be estimated the third greatest team to date, until title wins reach double figures at least.
Even at this juncture though, they share space in the same pantheon.
And that is not just because on a week-by-week, year-by-year basis City are odds on favourites in Premier League betting markets to beat whatever is put before them. Records broken – the fourth and last metric – plays a part also.
In recent times, this sublime outfit have recorded the most home wins in a row by a Premier League team. The most away wins too. They have smashed the longest unbeaten run across all competitions by an English side and won a league title by the widest margin.
Frankly, if we were to list all of their incredible feats we’d be here all day.
This is an undeniably great team before us, one that pales to no legendary predecessor, it merely needs more time to match what they did, an outcome that feels inevitable.
Which means that every single weekend we are privileged enough to see history being made.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
