No explanation needed: City score seven to down sorry Stoke
Marc Fox
"Don't ask me why," smiled Pep Guardiola after being asked to pinpoint the reasons behind Manchester City's blistering start to the current Premier League season.
The Spaniard might simply be playing his cards close to his chest of course, given the striking contributions of Kevin de Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus in City's 7-2 thumping of Stoke City over the weekend.
Jesus, the fleet-footed Brazilian, scored twice after starting in attack in place of the injured Sergio Agüero, who was only on the bench following a broken rib suffered two weeks ago.
But it was De Bruyne's masterclass from a deep-lying playmaking role that really caught the eye against Stoke.
The Belgian had a hand in five of City's goals including a sublime no-look pass in the build-up to Raheem Sterling's tap-in as well as a perfectly weighted cross for Jesus that took out the entirety of Stoke's floundering defence.
"We are almost the same guys as last season but now we have the feeling we are going to score a goal," said Guardiola afterwards.
"Don't ask me why because the principles, as I have repeated many times, are the same.
"We have to increase the little details, to do things quick and simple. With that rhythm, we create more chances and goals."
The beauty of City's play is often in its simplicity.
Whispers of comparisons with Guardiola's Barcelona side are perhaps overenthusiastic, but there's little doubting the development of City this season.
It is noteworthy that in the corresponding fixture against Stoke last season, they could only draw 0-0.
In stark contrast, Saturday's win took them to 29 league goals this campaign, the most after eight matches since Everton in 1894, and they have scored 17 times in their past three home games.
They carry such a greater attacking threat this season compared with last simply because the make-up of the team is more attack-minded.
The full-backs are superior and offer greater possibilities to rampage forward without leaving their more defensive-minded colleagues open to exploitation on the counterattack.
And in De Bruyne, they have a central midfielder who can carve open defences with one pass.
City's closest challengers this season, Manchester United, also arguably have a greater pool of attacking players compared with a season ago.
Romelu Lukaku has scored seven times in eight league games since joining from Everton in the summer and England international Marcus Rashford's continued rise in prominence has added greater dynamism on the left side of the forward line.
However, United came up somewhat short in their first real test of the 2017/18 season against Liverpool over the weekend, delivering a classic Jose Mourinho backs-against-the-wall display to earn a point at Anfield that wouldn't exactly have sent shivers through their cross-town rivals.
Mourinho, rather predictably given his blueprint for success throughout his career, revealed that he was content to allow Liverpool to dominate possession and wait for an opportunity to counter during periods of transition.
But while that has been the Portuguese's big-game tactic to devastating success at times over the years, Guardiola's City just don't seem to care for such restrictions.
United have to contend with matches against Tottenham and Chelsea over consecutive weekends at the end of the month and the start of next, before looking ahead to the Manchester derby on December 9 at Old Trafford.
It will be intriguing to see the extent to which Mourinho will let his team loose against City in that encounter, especially given the high stakes with champions Chelsea already nine points off the lead.
City have blown everyone else away so far this season. Will Mourinho be prepared to let that happen in front of the Old Trafford faithful?
© Marc Fox & Soccerphile.com
Buy tickets for soccer matches around the world