Is Manchester City the most exciting team in Europe?

Manchester City are finally living up to their reputation of as a top team and their bosses reputation for producing good football. In recent weeks, the Citizens have blown teams away in every competition.

Full-back Kyle Walker has revealed that he does not believe many Premier League teams will cause City problems on current form and he may well be right. They have looked simply breath-taking going forward and even found a defensive solidity that has not been present for much of Pep Guardiola’s reign.

City in free-scoring mood

It was almost inevitable with the attacking players available to Guardiola that at some point the Citizens would be free-scoring this season. City have a collection of attacking players that could rival any team in Europe.

Strike pair Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus are enough of a threat on their own. However, when you throw in the likes David Silva, Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, you have a team that would struggle not to score goals.

In fact, City have scored four or more goals in four of their last five competitive games heading into tonight’s Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk. The game against the Ukrainian giants is sure to produce goals and over 2.5 goals to be scored is odds of 5/2 in the clash.

One factor in tonight’s game is that Guardiola looks set to rotate his team. The Catalan boss may rest Sergio Aguero, with Brazilian Gabriel Jesus fresh after a rest at the weekend. He may also start with the likes of Bernardo Silva, Yaya Toure and Fabian Delph.

City not the most prolific team in Europe

On sheer numbers from the top five European leagues, City are not the highest scoring team. However, only Napoli have scored more league goals (22) than City’s 21 league goals this season. French teams PSG and Monaco have also scored 21 goals in Ligue One.

Even Guardiola’s former club Barcelona, who are enjoying a good start to their campaign have registered one less goal in their league campaign.

The Champions League campaign is only in its infancy, so the numbers mean very little at the moment. City’s 4-0 win at Dutch side Feyenoord was a comprehensive one and showed the resources available to the Citizens.

Could be contenders on all fronts this season

No doubt, City have one of the best attacking units in Europe and are a great team to watch. Football is about entertainment and goals. That is what this City team produces in abundance. They have to be contenders to win every competition they are in this season.

City’s defensive displays have improved of late, which was one of their main weaknesses last season. The likes of John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi have stepped-up their games. However, it will be interesting to see how the City defence holds up against the better teams this season. They certainly face a test at the weekend when they visit reigning champions Chelsea.

It will also be interesting to see how they react to adversity. The forward players cannot keep scoring at the rate they are at the minute. If they do, then no doubt they will be difficult to stop. However, if they do stop scoring, will heads go down in the team?

Those are the big question marks about Manchester City under Guardiola. They are great to watch going forward. However, can both their defence and attack maintain their current standard for the rest of the season? It is impossible to say.

After watching the likes of Barcelona, Napoli and PSG play this season, it would be hard to say if City are more exciting to watch than any of their European counterparts.

I doubt City fans will care at the moment, though, as their team are playing fantastic football and they will hope it will yield silverware at the end of the campaign.

Is Manchester City the most exciting team in Europe?