Neil Humphreys: Man City are the team to beat in Champions League
Pep's boys are Champions League favourites because they're fearless
Pep Guardiola's showboaters are turning their title procession into the Ali Shuffle.
Muhammad Ali shuffled his feet because he could, because he was dancing to his own beat.
Manchester City are pretty much doing the same. They're showing off because they can, because they're so much superior to everyone else.
Their one-sided contests are becoming guilty pleasures, like watching the Harlem Globetrotters humiliate flat-footed stooges.
City take the circus to Basel for their Champions League last-16 encounter on Wednesday morning (Singapore time) and they might just win the jug-eared trophy if they maintain this giddy madness.
The runaway leaders didn't play particularly well against Leicester City yesterday morning, but scored five times.
Elite competitive matches are turning into exhibitions.
Sergio Aguero bagged four. Kevin de Bruyne edged closer to scooping every individual honour of the season with a hat-trick of assists as City performed their version of the Ali Shuffle again.
Boxing experts have long questioned the actual merits of the Ali Shuffle.
All of that footwork was exhausting, but Ali danced simply because he knew his opponents couldn't. He cowed fighters with his athletic superiority. He tore up the rule book with every silky step.
Guardiola is doing something similar at the Etihad.
During City's lazy walk past Leicester, Ederson swaggered out of goal and met a long ball with his chest. He sauntered forward, ball at his feet, more Franz Beckenbauer than Claudio Bravo, and slipped a pass towards Kyle Walker - across his own goal.
At any other club, this is a risky endeavour. At City, it's a way of life. This is how Pep's boys play. Every week. Even if there's an injury crisis.
David Silva, Gabriel Jesus, Leroy Sane, Benjamin Mendy and Fabian Delph are all missing. At least four of those names would walk into the starting line-ups of the chasing pack, but their absence doesn't warrant compromise.
Guardiola's template isn't tinkered. The artistry endures. Those who come in are always on-message.
Aguero has now scored 13 goals in 10 games (all competitions), a timely run of form that coincided with Jesus' injury. The baton was passed without fuss.
Oleksandr Zinchenko, a midfielder, came in at left back.
ROAD RUNNER
Aymeric Laporte partnered the erratic Nicolas Otamendi, making an unfamiliar defensive line-up, but Walker still bombed forward like a demented Road Runner.
City refuse to play safe, as if Guardiola is openly defying those pundits who dare to question his genius.
De Bruyne caused carnage around the Etihad, like a mad professor wandering through a science lab and setting off chemical explosions to amuse himself.
Raheem Sterling, the artist formerly known as a princely winger, has morphed into a six-yard poacher. He now has 20 goals in all competitions this season - way ahead of his previous season-best total of 11.
Aguero has 28 so far, in a season of supposed decline. Jesus might be waiting in the wings, but Aguero is the only one interested in resurrection.
Fernandinho has turned into one of the world's most reliable gatekeepers and City's second-stringers are doing decent impressions of first-team regulars.
They attack endlessly, almost goading opponents into testing their minor defensive frailties that can exist between centre backs.
That handicap almost gives City something to do, as if conceding the odd weak goal makes the game more challenging and less predictable.
But then, there's nothing predictable about City, apart from the margin of victory. Guardiola has fashioned a squad of anarchists. They do as they please.
Their second-half showing against Leicester was a 45-minute long Ali Shuffle, an intimidating display of cheeky grandstanding.
And they can only get better.
Silva, Jesus, Sane, Mendy and Delph will gradually swell the ranks, just in time for the pointy-end of Champions League business.
Who's going to stop them? Basel are up next, but even the usual suspects from Paris and Barcelona must be wary of potentially facing rivals that reject conventional wisdom.
Full-strength or injury-ravaged, English Premier League or Champions League, home or away, City play only to a Frank Sinatra soundtrack. They do it their way.
Watching Guardiola's rebels can be like watching kindergarten kids in their first football session.
They all want the ball. They're all swopping positions and they can only run in one direction: forward, always forward.
Traditional coaching rules do not apply here.
Heaven knows if City really can sustain such a radical, beautiful game all the way through to Champions League glory.
But it's going to be great fun watching them try.
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