With Pep Guardiola’s side seemingly in confident cruise mode extending their lead at the top of the Premier League to 13 points after beating Chelsea 1-0 thanks to a magnificent Kevin De Bruyne goal, Joleon Lescott and Rio Ferdinand believe the Premier League title race is already a foregone conclusion.
City opened up a further 13-point gap on their nearest rivals after beating Chelsea 1-0 at the Etihad, with De Bruyne’s superb second half goal widening the gulf between the sides.
The result is clearly a decisive blow in the title race for both the Blues and Liverpool, with Guardiola’s superior squad having pulled away from their nearest rivals in recent weeks as both the latter have dropped points.
Despite Liverpool having two games in hand, even wins in those fixtures would only potentially take them to within eight points of the leaders and with City clearly being in the sort of imperious form that has seen them dominate the league in recent years, former City defender Lescott believes there’s no way back for the Blues’ rivals, with their path to another crown now clear.
“I know Pep will come out and say, ‘no, there’s still games to go and they could still lose it,’ and I don’t want to tempt fate from a City point of view but looking at that I don’t see the team below them being able to put together a twelve wins in a row needed to win this league,” Lescott told BT Sport.
“Ninety points now is the new standard set by City, so that means Chelsea having to win every game between now and the end of the season.”
Former Manchester United defender Ferdinand echoed his agreement, claiming City are already showing the signs of being champions.
The players knew, this is a nail in the coffin for Chelsea, definitely,” Ferdinand added.
“Liverpool may have other ideas and feel there’s a sniff still, but this City team just seem to be able to go through the gears, they just do enough to get over the line.
“Six of the games in this 12-game winning streak have been by one goal, and that tells you they’re not exerting themselves too much, they’re getting there, playing like complete champions.”