How Manchester City dominated the league last season

Manchester City won the Premier League in May, smashing a number of long standing records along the way. The title was confirmed when arch rivals Manchester United unexpectedly lost 1-0 at home to struggling West Bromwich Albion. City, who had beaten Spurs 3-1 at Wembley the day before, had won the league for the third time in seven years.

The Premier League this year has also been a hotbed for one of England’s oldest football culture – sports betting. If you haven’t tried your hand at that, you should check out some best value free bets in order to get initiated into the action. This season there has been quite full of action and betting organizers and platforms as well as the bettors themselves have been able to make quite a tidy sum. There have been some disappointments here and there but that’s just to be expected in this sort of thing.

Many believe that City’s win this season is the result of careful planning, strategy and an electrifying brand of football. The big challenge now for Pep Guardiola is to win back to back titled, something no team in England has managed in a decade. The fixtures for next season look daunting, with the Blues opening their campaign away at Arsenal, but they remain the bookies favourites to win the league once more. So what was the magic behind the Guardiola's success? Here are some of the broad reasons.

A perfect marriage

The coming together of Guardiola and City seemed to be right from the very start of their relationship. It established a fine balance between a coach famous world-over for his methodical style and a club ready to hand the reigns to someone who could engineer better results. The new coach has been successful in inspiring even the new recruits to put in their best. It’s no wonder then that the results have been so commendable.

Formations

The club played a pretty conventional 4-3-3 format as the go to strategy, but the little details and intricacies Guardiola managed to sneak into it made it work. One of the key elements of this involves the use of false full-backs. At first it started with the right side but an injury to Benjamin Mendy saw Fabian Delph perform a similar role on the left. The holding midfielder stepped in to allow City to outnumber, and outmanoevre, the opposition in midfield.

Match Planning

Guardiola's philosophy is to always attack, and try and play the same way regardless of the opposition. City almost always dominate possession, and attack with genuine pace and purpose. It is a system which served them well, and has led to some laudable record-breaking performances last season.

Now that the season is over, and City have been crowned champions, all eyes will be on the next season. Can they make it two in a row?