da bwin： Manchester City appear to be this season’s team to beat, with Manuel Pellegrini’s men coming out of the blocks quickest this term and winning all three of their first Premier League games.
da poker： The Etihad Stadium outfit have blown away all comers this season to date so far, with Chelsea swatted aside amid the sheer attacking intent of the Manchester-based club.
Although the likes of David Silva and Sergio Aguero have been dominating the headlines, the fact that City are yet to concede a goal this season should also be commended.
Vincent Kompany, who has been the rock of the City side over recent seasons but looked out of sorts at times last term, has started 2015-16 in an uncompromising mood.
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Finding a partner for the club captain has been an issue for a number of seasons, but Pellegrini all of a sudden has a couple of excellent options.
The signing of Valencia centre-half Nicolas Otamendi has added a defender of real distinction to the City squad, with the no-nonsense Argentine coming off the back of a mightily impressive campaign in Spain.
The former Porto enforcer is an ultimate defender; committed, good in the air and excellent positionally.
The only potential criticism of the South American’s game is that he can be too rash on occasions and dives into challenges with gusto – when it gets it wrong the results can be costly.
Despite this, Otamendi is an exciting signing and someone who adds experience and top-class calibre to the City squad.
So slotting the Argentine in alongside Kompany makes sense, right?
A couple of weeks ago most of the Etihad Stadium faithful would have been calling for Otamendi’s immediate incorporation into the team, but Eliaquim Mangala may well have other ideas.
Another former Porto centre-half, the giant Frenchman had a difficult first season in English football in 2014-15 and was culpable of making silly errors and being caught out of position.
Although a physical presence, Mangala’s reading of the game and decision making were being questioned after a number of less than convincing performances.
However, this season it has been a different story, with the France international putting in more assured performances and looking like a much more confident and able defender.
Against Chelsea, it was Mangala that did most of the dirty work in nullifying the prickly Diego Costa while the man mountain also handled Romelu Lukaku at Goodison Park in his stride.
His partnership with Kompany has been one of the most positive but perhaps understated successes of the season so far for City and as such Pellegrini has a real selection dilemma on his hands.
The old adage of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ applies here and as such the Chilean would be advised to resist the temptation to change a winning formula.
With Otamendi an excellent player but needing time to fit into a new team, league and culture, it could well be something of a waiting game for the Etihad Stadium crowd before they are accustomed to seeing the Argentine in their starting XI on a consistent basis.
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