Manchester City have that ominous look about them.
Pep Guardiola‘s sky blue juggernaut are running over every team in front of them even when, as at Wembley, they barely need to move out of third gear.
They haven’t lost in a game that means something for four months and Guardiola has chiseled out an ingenious system that squeezes the best out of a squad brimming with talent.
Surely, then, Inter Milan, the third best team in Italy, are merely turning up to be put to the sword?
Not in the mind of Joleon Lescott, BT summariser, former City defender, aspiring coach and astute observer of the game.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion, not at all,” he tells i of the season’s climax in Istanbul.
The reason? Lescott’s theory is that it could all yet get a bit “Spursy” for City as they chase their Champions League Holy Grail.
“Over the past few years I think Spurs have caused City the most problems on a one-off basis and I see a lot of Spurs in Inter Milan and that’s the bit that scares me,” he says.
“The way Inter play is the biggest threat to City, how solid they look, how comfortable they are and how organised they are at doing it.
“As much as we think City will dominate, it’s an occasion when there’s an element of luck and that can certainly nullify City’s advantage.”
Not that Lescott buys into the theory that there may be mental scars from the 2021 final, when Chelsea upset City and Guardiola left himself open to charges of over-thinking the challenge in front of him.
“I think it’s different now. There’s a different belief. There was hope it was going to happen against Chelsea but it just feels different,” he says.
“When you’ve been in the game you can recognise the air of confidence that surrounds them now.”
Lescott left the Etihad in 2014 after playing his part in helping to establish Manchester City as the dominant domestic force they are now. Even then, though, he could sense that the real prize chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak desired was the Champions League.
He retains friends and colleagues at the club and observed the work of Guardiola recently when he worked for City as a development coach.
“He’s a genius,” Lescott says, not missing a beat.
“The way he uses his knowledge, the way he explains what he knows is just different and he has personality traits that make elite players want to play under him and want to develop under him.”
He thinks Guardiola’s tactical innovations this season are the best work of a stellar coaching CV. They have made City’s success feel almost inevitable.
“Pep is evolving all the time, that’s what makes him so good,” he says.
“No-one would have thought that Pep would have played games this season with four centre-halves in his team.
“Two or three years ago it was inverted full-backs and it was like that was the best thing anyone had ever seen. He set a trap by creating that but everyone followed him so he recognised it wasn’t working and found a solution.”
Lescott believes sacrificing Joao Cancelo, one of the world’s pre-eminent left-backs, because he was operating in the same pockets of space as Jack Grealish and blunting the England winger’s effectiveness was prime Guardiola. That is, spotting and addressing a problem before anyone else notices it.
“These are the things he sees way before anyone else. It’s easy to say them now we’ve noticed them but he saw them before anyone did.”
Nevertheless Lescott is predicting a tight game, not a City exhibition. And if Inter spring the shock of the season at the Ataturk Stadium?
“It will be disappointing if they don’t win it but what they’ve done this season and the way they’ve done it, they will go down in history anyway,” he argues.
“There’s not been many teams that have dominated to this level. We’ve seen Man United do it, we’ve seen Arsenal and Chelsea have a spell but Man City are operating at a new level.
“I don’t think they need the Champions League to solidify their place in this era.
“No-one is going to look back at it and make an argument that they’re not the best team of their era, are they?”
BT Sport is the exclusive home of the UEFA Champions League Final. Watch Manchester City vs Inter Milan exclusively live on BT Sport 1 on Saturday 10th June from 6pm. The final is also available for anyone to watch at www.btsport.com/final, on the BT Sport YouTube channel, and via the BT Sport App
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