Confirmed: Manchester City still very, very good

Manchester City beat Tottenham 3-1 at Wembley on Saturday to move one step closer to the Premier League title.

Manchester City have had a difficult 10 days. They were thrashed 3-0 by Liverpool in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie. They threw away a two-goal lead to lose to Manchester United the following Saturday, knowing a win would have seen them clinch the title. Then they lost to the Reds again, running out of steam after a ferocious first 45 minutes, when they took the lead and were unfortunate to have a second goal ruled out for offside.

Three losses in three matches for a side many had labeled the best England has ever seen. Such claims were, perhaps, inevitable given City’s record in the league: A double-digit lead in the table since December, and on track to break the Premier League record for points, goals, wins and goal difference. Until this recent run, they’d lost only four times all season, once to Liverpool, once to Wigan, once to Shakhtar and once to Basel.

The conversation changed rapidly as that number climbed to five, then six, then seven over the past week and a half. City had a soft underbelly. Pep Guardiola didn’t know how to compete in Europe. All those billions spent on world-class players and all he could manage was a measly Premier League and League Cup double. As Tottenham mounted a brief, failed comeback at the end of the first half on Saturday, these doubts reared their head once more.

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But this time City held their nerve. Guardiola switched to a back three, moved Raheem Sterling through the middle and City dominated the second half. The final score was only 3-1, but it could have easily been four or five had Sterling been more clinical in front of goal. The win takes their record against the rest of the big six to played 10, lost two, won eight. Whatever you make of their failures in the Champions League, that’s remarkable.

History will be a better judge of City’s place in the pantheon of great Premier League teams than whatever immediate reactions we have to offer. So in the meantime we can settle for this: This City side aren’t perfect, they might even have good reason to be disappointed with a season in which they’ll win two trophies. But whatever else they are, they’re very, very good. That should be something to savor.