Man City has just reached the top of the Premier League table for the first time since August 21, 2025. The minimal victory over Burnley helped them regain this position from Arsenal. They are balanced in goal difference but Man City has scored more goals.
There were many times this season when Man City winning the domestic treble was considered a far-fetched thing. However, everything is now within reach of Pep Guardiola's team.
After the 2-1 victory over Nottingham in December 2025, Pep Guardiola shared about what is considered the most important thing in Man City's journey to recover form. According to this great strategist, it is energy, not any tactical tricks.
Part of the process of restoring fitness for Man City players was bringing Pep Lijnders to be Pep Guardiola's assistant. He helped redesign the team's pressing style throughout the summer and the first weeks of the season. Initially, it was a fierce style of play that required right-backs to travel a very long distance to approach the opponent, which made center-backs more likely to reveal weaknesses than most other tactical formations.
Therefore, the team needs a not short time to get used to this playing style. After defeating Wolves with a score of 4-0 in the opening round, Man City was overwhelmed by Tottenham Hotspur of Thomas Frank and then could not resist Brighton's resurgence. They recovered by defeating Man United 3-0 and almost won a thrilling victory against Arsenal.
Such performances after signing Gianluigi Donnarumma sparked speculation about a major tactical change by Pep. Man City controlled the ball less than Man United in the first leg of the Derby. After that, they often played defensively against Arsenal.
By November 2025, Man City defeated Bournemouth, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool spectacularly, although there were times when they did not hold the ball much but counter-attacked very decisively. They controlled the ball less than the opponent in those matches. Erling Haaland scored 14/23 of Man City's goals in the Premier League up to that point. He often took advantage of the space behind the opponent's defense when Man City was pushed back to their own half.
It is easy to see that Pep Guardiola has abandoned his familiar safe ball-holding style and welcomed the new look of the Premier League, where teams play more directly and focus more on tackles.
However, everything has not been perfect since then. Everything began to decline after the victory over Nottingham Forest. Man City drew 3 consecutive matches against Sunderland, Chelsea and Brighton. After that, they were completely hopeless in the defeat against Man United at Old Trafford. Pep's team defeated Wolves once again but lost the 2-goal lead to Tottenham.
At that time, Man City was not stable at all, but Arsenal was not much better either. When the gap between the two teams was 5 points, according to The Athletic, Pep told his coaching staff that he still believed City had the ability to win the championship.
Adaptation in this reform phase is also a very positive point of Pep. At the time Haaland was injured, he switched to a 4-2-2-2 formation, but at the end of last season the Norwegian striker was absent. Still with this personnel usage, Man City won a thrilling victory at Anfield against Liverpool, creating one of the pivotal steps in the championship race.
Besides the above factors, one of the points that helps Man City play better in the final stage is Ryan Cherki. Although the French midfielder is very good, Pep does not always use him. In the match against West Ham, Cherki was eliminated from the starting lineup just because of the reason "finding balance" Pep shared later.
Then, in the League Cup final, Pep used a 4-striker formation but did not press too hard, only stretched out to limit Kepa's passes to the center-backs, hitting the opponent's weakest point. In that match, as well as the next matches against Liverpool and Chelsea, Cherki played very brightly and officially became Pep Guardiola's irreplaceable player. The goal and celebration against Arsenal last weekend were like an affirmation of this star's talent.
At the beginning of the season, Pep once said Cherki should play simply like Messi, after the situation where he assisted with a rabona for Phil Foden. The two had opposing views and in the end Pep had to accept it. The Spanish coach said, Cherki can "dance" however she wants, as long as she immediately runs after him when losing the ball to regain it.
This is an admission of Cherki's talent from Pep, but he also wants his student to be "free within the framework". In the end, the two found common ground and Man City benefited the most.
