Man City myths can grow Premier League fear factor in FA Cup week

Jurgen Klopp was wonderfully dramatic recently when he described the whole country as 'starting to shake' at Kevin De Bruyne warming up.

The Manchester City talisman has boldly said he wants to come back from a recurrence of his serious hamstring injury and become the best player in the world, although the reality is that not even Pep Guardiola knows how effective he can be. The 32-year-old needs games to find his rhythm so even though he should improve the Premier League champions the trembling may not reach a crescendo for some time.

Klopp, however, identified how the mood can sometimes be more important than the reality. The thought of De Bruyne returning to a side that is already in contention for another title is a major worry for everyone, another (particularly fiendish) tentacle to a monster who has proven too difficult to slay in many of the recent years.

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City are the only team in the league to have this mantle of being machine or beast and while some fans may object to the dehumanising language it is a fairly accurate description of the qualities that make the team fearsome and feared; when Erling Haaland declared it hunting season last Christmas, the gulp that went around the Emirates was understandable. Arsenal were guilty in the title run-in of playing the man while City played the ball, knowing that they could get on with business while their rivals struggled to put reputations to one side.

Despite the struggles of Guardiola's side this season, their aura has not been lost. A run of one win in six league games before Christmas was enough for them to drop to a 39.3 per cent chance of clinching another trophy in Opta's live modelling of the title race, yet even without playing they