PA Images
The moment the final whistle goes at White Hart Lane on Sunday afternoon, it is over. Somewhere, in one of the nation's biggest newsrooms, a sports editor's dream has died. He can only stand there, clutching the scrunched-up remains of his 'INVINCIBLES?' back-page spread, mocked up in preparation for Manchester City's storming unbeaten run into late November. The paper is wet with tears, tears of frustration at the prospect of another year in waiting. There, in amongst the crumpled pages, is Pep Guardiola's bald pate, each crease a fresh furrow of anxiety on his dome-like brow.How many more games would it have taken before someone actually said it? How many more unbeaten matches before someone couldn't hold it in any longer, and found themselves inadvertently blurting out that Manchester City might go the whole season without a loss? Oh, wait a moment, some pundits have already gone there. Having won his first six games on the bounce, it looked as if all would be swept away in the face of Guardiola's Premier League revolution, and football's commentariat were desperate to be a part of that new world order. So desperate, in fact, that we were surely mere weeks away from a speculative Invincibles feature, a premature paean to Guardiola's unvanquished campaign.
Advertisement
For the past few weeks, respected sports editors have been quietly repressing themselves. They have been murmuring 'Invincibles' to themselves on their walk to work; whispering it to themselves at their desks; getting home, locking themselves in the living room and screaming 'INVINCIBLES' into a pillow, leaving their sofas flecked with spittle and sweat. The temptation to mock up that back-page spread was too great, and one of them had almost certainly broken before this weekend. Now, that editor's plans have been dashed to pieces, and several hours of painstaking work are being fed into the office shredder post haste.Instead of finding himself reassured of his invincibility this weekend, Guardiola was given a reminder of his footballing mortality by Tottenham. While City's hopes of the title are still alive and well, their boss has received a timely lesson in just how difficult it is to maintain a winning run in the Premier League. Meanwhile, it looks as if the Invincibles of 2003/04 will go unrivalled for yet another season, with the team drawing the closest comparisons beaten after only seven games. That said, there is one side that could, technically, still manage it. Surely Tottenham couldn't go undefeated this season. Or could they? **No, definitely not.