Final season, Manchester Metropolis did the unthinkable. They romped to an historic treble, profitable the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League – in high quality model, too.
Some audiences are starting to call the Metropolis squad final season as one of many best membership sides of all time – at this time, we want to discover this declare.
In fact, that is an extremely weighty title to bear. As such, we are going to evaluate them to 2 different treble-winning groups – the Barcelona workforce from 2008/09 (additionally managed by Pep Guardiola) and the legendary Manchester United outfit of 1998/99.
We really feel that these two groups are essentially the most corresponding to Metropolis final season – particularly Manchester United, who received the treble in the identical division because the Sky Blues.
How do Manchester Metropolis fare when in comparison with the 2008/09 Barcelona workforce?
Arguably the most effective membership workforce of all time, Barcelona have been a drive of nature in 2008/09. Their squad was filled with legendary names, equivalent to Carles Puyol, Andres Iniesta, Thierry Henry, Yaya Toure and Lionel Messi.
They dominated La Liga that season, ending 9 factors above the workforce in second (Actual Madrid). They misplaced a little bit of steam in the direction of the tip of the marketing campaign – however the league title had already been received by then.
Maybe their most interesting second got here within the Champions League, once they crushed Bayern Munich by a rating of 4-0 within the first leg – it was a testomony to how far forward they have been of the remainder of groups on the earth that season.
Participant for participant, and in follow, we imagine that this Barcelona workforce is superior to Metropolis’s workforce final season. Nevertheless, given the Sky Blues’ dominance within the Champions League, the disparity between the 2 isn’t as broad as you could suppose.
How does the workforce match up in opposition to the Manchester United 1998/99 squad?
This may occasionally upset some audiences, however we imagine that Metropolis have been higher final season than Manchester United have been in 1998/99 – hear us out.
Manchester United might have received the treble in 1999, however they weren’t as dominant as Metropolis have been in 2022/23. They solely received each the Premier League and the Champions League by a whisker – the title was received by a margin of only a single level, whereas the Champions League was captured by a dramatic last-minute turnaround.
Whereas Manchester Metropolis spent many of the earlier season behind Arsenal within the league desk, after 38 video games have been performed, they nonetheless completed above the Gunners by a five-point hole.
Furthermore, their Champions League run was merely phenomenal. They swept apart even the sternest of opponents with ease, together with Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and reigning champions Actual Madrid. Over the course of their complete marketing campaign within the Champions League, they conceded simply 5 objectives.