Sheffield United 0-1 Manchester City: Kyle Walker seals victory against his boyhood club
When you’ve scaled the heights, merely being good might seem like a come down. So it is for Manchester City right now. They are far from being the team that accumulated 100 points in a season whilst playing some of the most exquisite football witnessed in the Premier League. Yet, on the plus side, they are distinctly improved from the team that lost 5-2 to Leicester last month and surely better than the side that lost a staggering nine games last season.
Likewise for Pep Guardiola. When you’ve reigned in Europe, conquered Spain, Germany and England, playing second fiddle to Jurgen Klopp in the Premier League might become tiresome. And when last week Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu resigned, opening up the future to regime change at the club, it would surely be unnatural not to glance wistfully at the Nou Camp, the scene of your finest moments?
‘I’m getting old,’ said Guardiola, with the natural insecurity of a man who turns 50 in two months, when quizzed about the issue here. ‘To be manager of Barcelona you have to have a special energy that is already gone. So that is why it is for other people, young people to do it well. I have said many times that my time as a Barcelona manager is gone.’
Kyle Walker opened the scoring with a sublime drilled effort on his 100th Premier League appearance for Manchester City
The full-back watched on as his effort skimmed across the rain-slick surface and powered past Aaron Ramsdale in goal
And that maybe so. But where does it leave his Manchester City future, with his contract expiring in June? A Champions League trophy is the obvious goal left to achieve, though there is a sense that their moment was missed in those imperious seasons in 2018 and 2019; that, having ascended a mountain, they now are slowly coming back down the other side.
At Bramall Lane, there were signs to encourage Guardiola that there might be fresh peaks to conquer. Yet there were also enough shaky moments to make an adventurer wonder if it might be wiser to quit this journey and seek fresh challenges elsewhere.
The positives were evident. When you have the pleasure of coaching Kevin De Bruyne at the zenith of his career and whilst Raheem Sterling is always improving, there’s plenty in this team to commend itself. And in Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias, there is a sign that the fragile back four might be forging itself into a formidable unit again.
Walker refused to celebrate against his former club, after coming through the Blades academy and supporting them as a boy
Then there is the renaissance of Kyle Walker, playing his 100th game for the club back in the city of his birth and at the club he grew up supporting and then playing for. Walker looked a player on the way out 14 months ago.
And a summer of the wrong kind of headlines, involving lockdown breaches and relationship issues played out in public, didn’t suggest a rich vein of form was approaching. Nor did being sent off on his return to the England team last month.
Yet here he confirmed that he has rarely been in better form. Obviously his winning goal amplified his other qualities, so sweet was the strike from 25 yards, met first time from De Bryune’s cross-field pass, which in turn came after a lovely weaving run from Sterling down the left.
And those three were at the heart of everything good about City. Walker’s goal, met by a muted celebration to respect his boyhood club, came on 27 minutes and just as frustration was beginning to creep in after that initial period of utter City domination.
Sheffield United had barely ventured out of their half, other than to chase the second ball from Aaron Ramsdale’s goal kicks. In fact, for once Guardiola has to fret about his forward line.
Without a recognised centre forward and with Ferran Torres doing his best to deputise, it their potency that concerns the coach. ‘Nine goals in five games is not enough,’ was his curt summary. ‘When we arrive in the final third, we are not clinical.’
City players piled on Walker after he got their noses in front and placed the visiting side in the driving seat
Pep Guardiola now has cause to smile again after his side picked up three points and got back to winning ways
Sheffield United players were left dejected at the final whistle after looking as though they could get back into the contest
What seemed like a mini hurricane blew through Bramall Lane in those opening thirty minutes, as rain battered the stands and powerful gusts of wind swirled around the empty stadium. And it felt like Chris Wilder’s team were similarly being swept away: Laporte should have scored from De Bruyne’s corner, Rodri tested Ramsdale from long range and Mahrez shot over all before that opening goal, in a period in which City were averaging 70 per cent possession.
Yet the storm passed, the Sheffield sunshine arrived and the seasonal metaphor seemed also to work for Sheffield United’s performance. After the break and with the introduction of John Lundstram and Ollie Norwood, they perked up considerably. For the first time, Chris Basham began those marauding runs from deep which so confuse opponents and suddenly they seemed ready to go toe-to-toe with their opponents.
Their forays were beginning to bite and they were attacking with much more incision. Indeed on 70 minutes they should have been level, Sander Berge setting off on a fine run down the right which bewildered Joao Cancelo and driving in a fine cross for Lundstram, who drove his shot over when presented with a clear chance to equalise.
Raheem Sterling was a constant menace and caused Sheffield United many problems on the left flank
Sterling was denied the chance to double City’s lead by brave Blades keeper Ramsdale, who surged out to head the ball away
Aymeric Laporte soon realised he was in for a physical afternoon against Blades forward Ollie McBurnie
Still, one point from seven games meant that Wilder wasn’t in the mood to extenuate the positives. ‘I don’t want plaudits, we want points on the board,’ he said. ‘When you don’t win games, people talk about tactics and shapes, but when you can’t pass from A to B, good players keep the ball away from you.
‘My disappointment is we didn’t do enough to put them on the back foot and affect the result. Sometimes it is not enough to be an aggressive, competitive side that has a go. You have got to show more of that to stay in this division.’
And he was right. On one hand, the sight of De Bruyne running time down in the corner flag should encourage the home team. They had done enough to rattle City. Ultimately, though, they lacked the quality and precision to make their second-half rally count.
Too many promising moves broke down through lost possession and mis-controlled passes. And second-season syndrome looms large unless that can be put right.
Scroll down below to relive the action as it unfolded live, kick by kick with Sportsmail’s Danny Gallagher.
