Manchester City have had their best start to a season in the Premier League in their history, winning 14 games and remaining unbeaten in the first half. It’s a feat that can’t be matched elsewhere, and their closest competitors are their closest rivals, Manchester United, who have already lost a couple of times. In fact, Manchester City already look like they’ve won the title this season, and if you looked at the BetVictor betting odds, you’d see that the odds favour them greatly to continue their good form. Will Pep be able to keep his players complacent or will they hit a blip during the cold months of winter? Here are a few of the reasons why Pep will continue to have it under control at the Etihad Stadium.

Pep Has Found the Winning Formula

Everybody expected Pep to do a job in his first season in charge of City, but he didn’t live up to his managerial superstar name. It’s taken him more than a year, but City are flying at the moment and it’s looking evidently clear he’s found the winning formula. He spent the first season tinkering with his world class players in the hope that one day they’ll eventually click. It took a lot longer than expected, but that time has come and gone with nearly half of the season already played. Pep knows how to win with world class players and that has already been proven with stints at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and it doesn’t look like things are going to change for him at City.

City Have a Confident Attacking Mentality

Granted, City haven’t been at their best in recent weeks as they’ve only just come away with wins over West Ham and Huddersfield. However, Sir Alex Ferguson once said, “win your home games and draw your away games and you’ll win the league” – and City have done that and much more. Guardiola still might not have his preferred line-up in terms of a big defence, but what he does have is an attacking outfit that wants to score whenever they have the ball. Pep has implemented that attacking mentality and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. If he can prevent City from getting complacent in the leadup to Christmas, there’s no reason why they won’t finish the second half of the season with a flourish, and take away the crown from their closest competitors in flying colours.

City Depth

One big advantage Manchester City has over other teams in the league is that they have good depth in squad. We’re not just talking about a player that can come on and do a job for a team mate that’s injured, we’re talking about a world class sub bench that could easily get in the starting line-up every game if there was space. It’s certainly a headache for Pep when it comes to trying to please all his players, but it’s one of those headaches he wouldn’t want to be without, regardless of how painful it is. Even going back a few months ago Pep was leaving Aguero on the bench because he fancied Jesus to go on and do the much-needed job – and Aguero is a player that can get in any starting line-up on this planet. This goes to show Pep has a squad full of quality that he can utilize as and when he wants to. If he feels a player is getting sluggish, he can make a quick change to ensure he’s fit and healthy for the games ahead – it’s a huge advantage, especially now as the Premier League is getting even more physical on a weekly basis.

Opposition Will Falter

It’s getting to that time of the year now where teams have an injury list bigger than a child’s Christmas list. All managers hate this time of the year because the weather and game backlog doesn’t help matters in physical terms. Players usually end up getting side-lined for a few weeks and managers never have their full squad at their disposal to help them see out their ever-expanding fixture list. If Manchester City don’t falter and can continue to keep their players fit, other teams will almost definitely fall behind and will make them firm favourites to take the title in sooner rather than later. Again, City have the advantage of having a good squad in depth, so even if they lose a few players from the cold, they still have multiple players who can come on and do exactly the same job as and when required.

City Are Getting Stronger Every Game

In recent weeks, especially in games against Huddersfield and West Ham, you could easily say that Manchester City have been struggling to win. However, it’s getting to that time of the year where many other teams falter, and City haven’t quite got to that position yet and are still scraping results. City might have had an excellent start to the season and have already scored nearly 50 goals, but there will always come a time when that slows down. That time has already come and, while they’re a bit sluggish in front of the sticks at both ends currently, they’re still winning games and that means they’re getting stronger each and every game they play. There’s even talk about how Pep has instilled a replica Barcelona team during his time on the blue half of Manchester, a team that was once brushing teams aside like they were playing a bunch of kids.

Club Officials Are Tying Players Down Quickly

A big part of winning as a team is having the right mentality and confidence. Manchester City club officials are helping greatly with that by offering players better contracts quickly. In recent weeks, Manchester City fans have been getting excited about having the prospect of having David Silva in a blue shirt for another year. He has since signed a one-year contract extension at the club and that not only increases the atmosphere within the stadium, but it’s also helped players individually knowing they’re going to be playing with the same world class crew next year. David Silva has been one of City’s best players in recent years, and although he hit a bit of a quiet season last year, he’s hit the ground running this year and has been one of the stand out players by a country mile. If club officials can carry on tying players like Kevin De Bryne, Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus down, they’ll only boost confidence and City will continue to brush teams aside.

City might be far from the finished product, as Pep Guardiola is never happy with what he has and he’s always thinking about what he can do to improve the squad overall, especially in terms of defensive shows, but they’re still getting in front of teams by a country mile. If Manchester City can carry on this form for the next couple of months, they’ll already have the title in the bag so they can concentrate on their Champions League adventures and the other domestic cups should they still be in with a chance of winning them.