The blue double decker bus carrying Manchester City’s treble winners pushed slowly through the streets of Manchester city centre on Monday evening to give the crowd a chance to celebrate a team that didn’t just complete the most successful season their club has seen, but one of the greatest seasons ever. The mood wasn’t dampened too much by the change in weather from sun to rain as City fans turned out to welcome their team home, after most players made a brief stop in Ibiza on Sunday night.
Pep Guardiola’s men, after winning the Premier League title, FA Cup and Champions League during the 2022-23 campaign, have taken their place among some of history’s most iconic teams including Ajax in 1972, Manchester United in 1999 and Barcelona in 2009. But as the afternoon sun turned into a typical Manchester rain shower, the trophies glinted and the beer flowed, it was easy to forget that this season has not been without its difficulties for Guardiola and his players.
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As far back as July, Guardiola assessed his squad and told staff that he was concerned about their hunger for more success. He sensed the motivation had slipped, only slightly, having won back-to-back Premier League titles, but ever the perfectionist, he considered it a major problem. Worse though, according to some of those around the City manager, was that he didn’t know how to fix it.
Never staying for more than four years at either Barcelona or Bayern Munich in his previous coaching jobs, Guardiola was firmly in uncharted territory as he prepared for a seventh season at the Etihad Stadium. Despite spending part of the summer with his family in Barbados, he too felt a little jaded. There were points during the summer when he admitted he wasn’t looking forward to the new season, particularly with the prospect of a winter World Cup on the horizon.
However, Monday’s celebrations in the streets of Manchester proved Guardiola’s concerns to be ill-founded as Man City completed a remarkable campaign. Here’s how they got to football’s summit in 2022-23.
Guardiola insists the Premier League charges were not the turning point of the season, but after Feb. 6, City played 28 games in all competitions and lost just one, against Brentford in May when the title was already won.
At one point in early April, City were eight points behind Arsenal in the title race, but Guardiola’s message was consistent: stay in touch and get them to the Etihad. Arteta brought his team to Manchester on April 26 and were thrashed 4-1. Four league wins later, and City were crowned champions for the fifth time in six years.
How they finally won in Europe
City’s charge towards the title only really started in February, but the seeds of Champions League success were sown long before.
In the aftermath of last season’s semifinal defeat to Real Madrid in May 2022 — a tie City were leading until stoppage time in the second leg — Guardiola told his players to remember that their collapse in the Bernabeu had been put down to a lack of character and mental strength. He reminded them again before the second leg this season, telling them that as he watched the draw in his office at the City Football Academy, he had wished to get Real Madrid again because he “wanted it,” seeing the rematch as a chance to end the debate about the mentality of his group.
