Premier League Team of the Week IV feat. Liverpool and Manchester City stars

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Coach: Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)

Formation: 3-4-3

The build-up to the weekend was dominated by the Manchester Derby and the first meeting in English football between Guardiola and his old adversary José Mourinho, the two having clashed in the dugout on numerous occasions during their time in La Liga with Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. The fact that Guardiola had agreed to the truce of a post-match glass of wine with his rival did little to dissipate the passion and significance surrounding the fixture and it was billed as being not necessarily a title decider but rather a judge of where both teams are in their progression at the present time. It was the Catalan boss however who had the upper hand over the Special One going into the lunchtime clash at Old Trafford, and he swooped to take the three points again, getting his tactics spot on down to a tee and watching his team completely dominate the best part of the first-half even without suspended star striker Sergio Aguero.

His first-half deployment of Kevin de Bruyne as an elusive centre-attacking midfield lynch-pin caused chaos for the United defence as he constantly exploited pockets of space between the defence and midfield, producing a moment of brilliance before racing away to score City’s opener and seeing his shot off the woodwork fall kindly for Kalechi Iheanacho to notch a second in the opening 45 minutes. Guardiola set up his City team in almost a 4-1-2-3 formation, giving De Bruyne and David Silva the freedom to roam and wreak havoc in midfield whilst Fernandinho operated as a sweeping defensive midfielder in front of the back four to combat the forward thrust of United’s wide players Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and neutralise the engine of Paul Pogba, to isolate Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front.

This not only saw City dominate possession, but when United looked to break, the visitors were able to get back quickly and break-up play, preventing United from gaining the space in behind which is so critical to Mourinho’s contain and counter system. Guardiola’s tactical set-up was superb, and he watched his team execute it to perfection in the first-half, before his team dug in for the second period with the withdrawal of Iheanacho for the more defensive Fernando, which saw De Bruyne take up the role of a false-nine, which almost paid off after the Belgian was fed on the break by substitute Leroy Sané before he fired against the foot of David De Gea’s near post and saw the ball roll across the face of goal and out. A tactical masterclass, and the Spaniard deservedly takes his place in the dugout for the Matchday IV pick.