Wild celebrations and 'King Carson' show harmony in Pep Guardiola's Man City band of brothers

The improbability of Pep Guardiola managing a happy camp in his sixth successive season at the same football club certainly was not on the Manchester City boss ahead of Tuesday’s trip to face Sporting Lisbon.

“Maybe it is because I am such an easy-going man, it is so easy to work with me. That’s why they create a good environment,” Guardiola chuckled in response to a follow-up question to his claims that this is the most harmonious City camp he has known since moving to Manchester in 2016.

At that time, you’d have got very long odds on the prospects of Guardiola leading the Blues into the 2022 Champions League knockout stages. After four era-defining years at Barcelona, the famously intense tactician took a 12-month sabbatical.

Within three years, he’d had his fill of Bayern Munich and was on his way to the Etihad Stadium. A footballing operation built to his specifications under Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain has certainly played a huge part in Guardiola sticking around, while he has mellowed to an extent despite his self-deprecation.

Nevertheless, he insisted most of the credit should go to his players.

“Everyone, between them they fight for every single minute, have a good relationship, respect each other and fight for the position,” he said. “The most difficult thing is that every day they are enemies. They have to fight for one position in the team. They are enemies in a nice sense.

“And after they have to be brothers at the weekend. That mix is not easy.”

That sense of brotherhood and general fun has not been hard to spot at City this season, as the examples below demonstrate.

Resurgent Raheem

Raheem Sterling being back in the goals after a prolonged slump is one of the feel-good factors of the