City's gold could bring glory to Guardiola

Fraudiola has been found out.

Never mind Pep Guardiola's three La Liga titles with Barcelona and three Bundesliga crowns with Bayern Munich.

Forget the four domestic cup successes, three World Club Cups, three European Super Cups, two Champions League trophies and the Fifa World Coach of the year award ...

Whatever he says in public, Guardiola will have been more disappointed than anyone to have finished his first season at Manchester City trophyless, but some of the negativity to the third-place finish was way over the top.

Guardiola has already warned the league he will improve this season and that infatuation with developing all aspects of the club means City are deserving of title favouritism.

The fact they have spent an absolute fortune over the summer is just another tick on the long list of positive signs for City.

They looked several notches above their rivals early last term as they flew out of the traps with ten straight victories and 30 goals scored, while it is often overlooked that Guardiola's team finished with one defeat in their last 17 Premier League matches.

Many aspects of City's play will have thrilled Guardiola and it was no surprise to see them top the possession table with just shy of 61 per cent, while despite the general perception the Etihad outfit also conceded the fewest shots in the league.

Unfortunately for City and particularly Guardiola seeing as he was so keen on the signing, goalkeeper Claudio Bravo had a nightmare from the moment he arrived with a blooper on his debut in the Manchester derby.

Ederson, a cocky more aggressive stopper, has been signed to replace Bravo at great expense and there are upgrades to the starting 11 where the transfer record for defenders was broken twice, first by right-back Kyle Walker and then left-back Benjamin Mendy.

Bernardo Silva adds further midfield creativity to a team that should score plenty with Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus in attack.

Aguero was dogged by suspension woes last term but scored 20 times in 2,407 minutes and January arrival Jesus notched seven goals in only 651 minutes, which was a stunning return considering it was presumed the young Brazilian would need time to settle.

Jesus should be even better this term and so should City.

Key stat
Manchester City scored the most away goals (43) in last season's Premier League.