In the lead-up to Manchester City’s fifth-round FA Cup match with Newport County, Pep Guardiola said his team of superstars would “suffer” against a team in 15th place in EFL League Two.

Just before the match, Newport coach Michael Flynn told Guardiola he is a “genius.” 

"It's a pleasure to see you, you're an absolute genius."

Manchester City went top of the Premier League table on goal difference today, and what a sensational difference to the goals they made. And they did it against David Luiz’s Chelsea, no less. 

6-0. +54 GD. That’s City.

I read something interesting from Quartz (I have no idea) about the differences between the words fuck-up, SNAFU, FUBAR, shitshow and clusterfuck. I figured it was clickbait, but it really was a sensational read.

Serie A doesn’t get the same attention that it used to anymore, especially when big clubs like Inter, AC Milan and Roma have been losing the Serie A title to Juventus year after year. On top of that Juventus is the only Italian club regularly advancing to the later stages of the Champions League every year. 

As a result, TV coverage of Serie A has shifted to other countries. Because of the TV deals with the Premier League, LaLiga and Bundesliga, a lot of interesting information can slip through the cracks.

Just like David Silva’s hair transplant, Manchester City is growing and on top and oh god this metaphor. But City returned to the summit of the Premier League with the sort of balls to the wall 2-0 win that Liverpool is suddenly incapable of.

Liverpool fans — taking a break from crucifying Naby Keita for the 970 minutes of PL football he’s played — immediately turned their attention to crucifying Everton fans for potentially wanting to lose to City today to thwart their rival’s title aspirations.  

I recently read that humanity is getting dumber. Whether that’s because of unhealthy diets, garbage media, substandard schooling or the general inclination to never read anything, our habitation of a “stupidity-inducing environment” is causing the IQ of modern generations to plummet. But there’s hope, because here you are reading and here I am trying to not be garbage media man.

Pep Guardiola will not have enjoyed this. 

Last season, the Manchester City boss escaped his first-ever trip to St James’ Park with the narrowest of 1-0 victories. “We did absolutely everything but it is difficult to play when the other team doesn’t want to play,” said Guardiola after that one. 

Newcastle put 10 men behind the ball at all times, and City could’ve easily been up 4-0 inside 30 minutes, but a draw was almost snatched by Rafa Benitez’s men in the final five minutes. That particular footballing lesson stayed with Guardiola until today’s encounter.

The loan system in soccer can be a useful tool for bigs clubs to get playing time for their younger players. When the loan system works, it usually produces the goods — more experienced young players.

According to the Deloitte Football Money League 2019 study, Real Madrid is now the richest club in the world after generating a record revenue of $867.7 million over the course of the 2017-18 season. Last year’s number one, Manchester United, has fallen to number three in the rankings and been overtaken by Barcelona as well.