Manchester's 'noisy neighbours' now believe in silence
Pellegrini shows van Gaal and Mourinho how it's done - going about his job at City quietly and efficiently
Manuel Pellegrini's men are making one half of Manchester extraordinarily proud. The other half is turning into a city of fools.
There is an ominous, almost eerie sound drifting across the Etihad. It's the sound of an approaching assassin, the sound of silence.
In a season that has so far been marked by bombastic speeches and excessive grandstanding on the red side of Manchester, City have said very little.
Pellegrini shut up shop and went back to basics. He rallied the troops rather than waste time pandering to the media.
Never one for pithy remarks at press conferences at the best of times, it's worth recalling how often the City manager has made an impact on the back pages in the first three matches.
He hasn't. Not once. He's left it to his players. He has focused on replenishing the stocks with minimal fuss and, more importantly, recharging the batteries of weary veterans.
Compare the respective fortunes of Vincent Kompany and John Terry.
The Chelsea skipper played like a bird released last season, eternally grateful to Jose Mourinho for opening the cage after previous managers had clipped his wings.
His City counterpart was a washed-up relic, a defender in terminal decline. His colleagues were no longer in good company.
On Sunday, Kompany took off like a teenager to acrobatically clear Gareth Barry's header off the line.
The clearance proved to be the turning point, as City added a second to confirm their 2-0 victory over Everton.
Two hours earlier, Terry had painfully discovered that the inability to find that extra inch can happen instantly. He could no longer cover lost ground and was punished with a red card.
Age had stolen half a yard.
Man City had stolen Chelsea's siege mentality.
The soft-spoken Pellegrini has circled the wagons and fostered an "us and them" steeliness in the dressing room without raising his voice above a whisper.
Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala channelled the chip on the shoulder to repel everything Everton threw at them, repelling Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku to earn a third consecutive clean sheet.
Kompany was supposedly over the hill and Mangala overrated. They are using this season to demonstrate otherwise.
So is Yaya Toure. Despite a slight groin niggle, he stretched those languid, giraffe-like limbs to feed substitute Samir Nasri for City's sublime second goal. Even the subs have something to prove.
Without preening or pontificating, Pellegrini has re-established and refortified the most complete spine in the English Premier League by relying on little more than the training ground, regular rest and recuperation and some managerial mollycoddling.
Kompany, Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero are running through walls again.
Taking a leaf from Mourinho's well-thumbed textbook, Pellegrini bought what was needed, rather than what might be wanted.
City required youth and pace on the left side to offer faster options beyond Jesus Navas and grant Silva greater autonomy in the No. 10 role. Raheem Sterling has ticked a lot of boxes.
His prize tag will fade from view if he maintains the creative urgency he displayed at Everton. Only the footballer will remain.
Aside from league positions, the difference between the two halves of Manchester is a legitimate cause for concern among the United faithful.
In contrast to Pellegrini's quiet, methodical approach, Louis van Gaal's increasingly erratic pronouncements begin to convince less than a snake oil salesman.
IMPRESSIVE
Whereas the less Pellegrini says, the more he impresses.
The Chilean deserves immense credit for persevering with both Kompany and Mangala, recognising their potential relationship on the training ground and sticking when others would have folded.
While Mourinho is famous for ditching players after a single mediocre season (Juan Mata, Filipe Luis and so on), Pellegrini persisted with Kompany, Mangala and Toure after the worst campaigns of their respective careers.
Even Navas, a perennial punch-line for all that was wrong with the stuttering Citizens last season, is revelling in the newfound freedom offered by Sterling on the other flank.
As for strength in depth, Samir Nasri, Fabian Delph and Wilfried Bony were all on the bench at Everton.
United are stuck with a slowing talisman masquerading as a target man.
Van Gaal and Mourinho are always good for a quirky quote and an easy headline. Pellegrini's press conferences are a cure for insomnia.
But talk is cheap. And right now, the Citizens look a billion dollars.
'We always play the best football'
Manuel Pellegrini has challenged Manchester City to maintain their momentum throughout the season, after powering to the top of the Premier League with another impressive victory.
Pellegrini's side were given their toughest examination yet as they faced a spirited Everton side at Goodison Park on Sunday, but second-half goals from Aleksandar Kolarov and Samir Nasri earned them a 2-0 win.
It was their third win from three games and took them two points clear at the summit, having scored eight goals and conceded none.
After last season's disappointing runners-up finish to Chelsea - a side they swept aside two weeks ago - City have started the season in formidable fashion.
Pellegrini said: "We are in a new season and we have started playing well in three games.
"We are a consistent team, a solid team, have shown we can score goals in every game and have three clean sheets. That is important.
"But we are just starting the season; we have to continue in the way we are doing so far.
"The thing is to be a consistent team from the beginning until the end."
It was a thoroughly professional performance by the title hopefuls, who have now equalled a 103-year-old club record of nine successive top-flight wins. Pellegrini believes his team have learnt from the mistakes of last season.
He said: "This team, in the last three seasons, have been the team that always play the best football, but we made a lot of mistakes in games that seemed easy (last season).
"Normally, we are a team that go forward, play attractive football, try to score goals and don't change the style. Even in the worst moments of last season, I continued thinking in the way we must play and we will continue.
IMPORTANT
"But, if you want to be an offensive team and to score goals, it is very important to know how to defend, sometimes with 11 players, sometimes eight, sometimes five.
"The backline have played very well in the three games.
"All of them are at a high-performance level. There are a lot of things that all together make us a good team at this moment."
Pellegrini downplayed the strong message to rivals that his side's performances might be sending out.
He said: "We are not clear about that. We are just clear about winning the next game. Now we have won, we must think about Watford.
"What other the teams think about our team is not our problem."
Opposite number Roberto Martinez thought City's performance was excellent and was pleased with how Everton stood up to them for most of the game.
Martinez said: "In terms of effort and a proper face-to-face confrontation against, in my eyes, the best team in the league at this moment, we can get a lot of positives and have a real strong platform to work towards what is in front of us.
"Before the first goal, I thought we had the best moments, carried a real threat and looked very dynamic but didn't have that normal composure around the 18-yard box."
Martinez added that he hoped to "complete three signings before the window closes", with a deal for River Plate defender Ramiro Funes Mori, who watched the game wearing an Everton scarf, very close.
Left back Brendan Galloway, who was deputising for the injured Leighton Baines, will be assessed in the coming days after being forced off with a knee problem. - PA Sport.
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