Mahrez gives timely reminder of his value for City with historic hat-trick

F our years ago Riyad Mahrez may have been excused mixed feelings when, at the end of his first season with Manchester City, they won the domestic treble. He had hardly been incidental to the fact but nor had he proved pivotal: form-wise it had been a mixed introduction to the relentless demands of Pep Guardiola’s football and he would admit, in hindsight, that settling in took time. You hardly needed to scour the internet’s darkest corners to find references to a £60m flop but his only crime was not being the finished article.

Now City are on course for a more glittering triple haul and this otherwise humdrum dismissal of a willing but drab Sheffield United was a reminder of how integral Mahrez has become to what City produce now. He has plugged in to a degree most outsiders failed to foresee; at 32 the flightier edges have been curbed while the gliding, floating guile that made him such a unique proposition in the first place has remained.

If three proves the magic number for City come the campaign’s end, Mahrez entered into the spirit here. His hat-trick gave a low-key occasion something to hang on; the solo effort that settled matters offered a moment of genuine excellence by which to mark it. In 85 appearances in the past two seasons he has delivered 39 goals; Guardiola dropped Mahrez during the autumn, unimpressed by a slow start to 2022-23, but he has delivered some of his best figures this term.

There had been a subdued feel to the buildup here and it never quite lifted. Wembley was not full and nor did the air crackle with the expectation of a spectacle for the ages. Plenty about this once-feted stage of the cup has been devalued, the insistence on hauling everybody to the national stadium playing no small