Jeremy Doku can help Pep Guardiola defy expectations at Man City

Pep Guardiola has spent large chunks of his career defying expectations.

An untested rookie manager was not supposed to do what he did at Barcelona, and then of course the idea of him taking his style of football and making a success of it in a country with its own proud footballing heritage in Germany was challenged. After breaking records in the Bundesliga, the infamous cold, rainy night in Stoke was seen by some as a trial too far for the Catalan.

As a pundit in a national newspaper wrote during Guardiola's first year at Manchester City: "If he thinks he’s going to turn up and outplay everybody in the Premier League, and that teams like Watford, Leicester, Bournemouth, Southampton and Crystal Palace are going to let his Manchester City side have the ball for 90 per cent of the time and pass pretty patterns around them so they can get a result, then he is absolutely deluded. In fact, he is beyond deluded."

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The following year, City became the first team ever to hit 100 Premier League points in a season - despite the fact that Crystal Palace did take a point from their two meetings. By not standing still, the Blues have added another four Premier League titles and few would rule out a fourth consecutive trophy being delivered to the Etihad next May.

Asked how he had enjoyed so much success for so long, Guardiola joked that the busy schedule meant he never saw his players enough for them to tire of him. Recently, he has again lamented the lack of time he gets on the training pitch to coach improvements.

City are still evolving though. A staple of the Treble win was four big centre-backs and