Norwich City's upset win a priceless one for the EPL: Neil Humphreys
Canaries show all-conquering Man City machine may be human after all
In stating the obvious about his players, Pep Guardiola stumbled upon the profound.
We forget these guys are human.
The Manchester City manager was explaining the champions' 3-2 defeat at Norwich City yesterday morning (Singapore time), but his justification was both literally right and definitively wrong.
City's swashbucklers are not human. They haven't been even vaguely human in the English Premier League for a full two seasons now.
Last season, they won everything domestically possible, broke every record worth breaking and became boring in the process.
Not their football.
INTOXICATING
City's football is rarely less than intoxicating. Even in defeat at Carrow Road, they still contributed to one of the most exhilarating games.
But their devotion to total dominance took out most of the nuance - and perhaps a little joy - from the process of winning.
Until the chirpy Canaries treated us to an unforgettable spectacle, City had removed suspense from the hunt.
The final outcome was never in doubt. It was not the greatest human interest story.
Rather than watching a plucky angler grappling with his catch on the side of a riverbank, we were watching a fleet of gleaming fishing trawlers essentially scooping up everything.
They were efficient, but repetitive.
City owned the most expensive equipment, assembled at a cost of 1 billion euros (S$1.52b), so of course they won every domestic trophy.
And then, the Canaries came. They soared. They conquered.
And suddenly, we had euphoria and uncertainty at the same time. Football is at its messy, beautiful best when there's an element of uncertainty.
City's art deserves our admiration. Of course it does.
But if art was our only interest, we would spend 90 minutes staring at paintings on our TV screens, rather than a stunning, five-goal re-enactment of David and Goliath.
We come for the art. But we stay for the visceral thrill of the unknown.
Almost every major blockbuster this year - from Avengers: End Game to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - combined art with uncertainty.
It's pure box office.
But Hollywood's finest couldn't top Norwich's heroes.
In a two-horse race, the Canaries were written off as 20-1 no-hopers. They had practically lost before a ball had been kicked, which wasn't an illogical assumption to make.
As mentioned, City's current squad cost 1 billion euros to put together. The Canaries spent £1.4 million (S$2.4m) in the summer transfer window.
Oh, and Norwich had an injury crisis. Eight were missing. Three made their EPL first-team debuts for the season.
Norwich had to lose.
ONLY HUMAN
They were only human, facing Guardiola's otherworldly species of artists, shape-shifters and alchemists.
Instead, Daniel Farke's relentless battlers performed a kind of national service for the EPL and an international service for the rest of us.
They hinted that this season is not going to go like the previous two, ripping back the curtain to show that Guardiola's wizard of osmosis is grabbing at levers, scribbling on whiteboards and trying to conjure a back four.
Farke's risky decision to defend deep relied on Sam Byram, Ibrahim Amadou and Alexander Tettey delivering the defensive performances of their careers - and they duly obliged.
But Norwich's 4-2-3-1 also required quick, counter-attacks, with Teemu Pukki and Marco Stiepermann swamping City's centre-backs.
And they soon realised that they weren't just pushing against an open door. There was no door. In fact, there was a red carpet with John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi ushering the Canaries towards goal.
It is becoming clear that Stones and Otamendi share less of a relationship than a couple of commuters bumping into each other on an MRT carriage.
Norwich's three goals all benefited from errors of judgment among City's stupefied defenders.
With Aymeric Laporte out for six months, Guardiola should be cursing his decision not to reinforce when Vincent Kompany left.
The rest of us should be celebrating.
For the first time, there is real ambiguity about City. In central defence, there is a hole that's the size of their bottomless money pit.
They'll lose more games.
They'll concede more goals, particularly if Stones and Otamendi continue to communicate like blindfolded air-traffic controllers.
It's only September and a five-point gap is hardly insurmountable, but after two seasons of crushing inevitability, this campaign promises unpredictability.
The EPL should want that. The EPL needs that.
And we can only hope that Guardiola is right and his champions remain human and flawed and irresistible for as long as possible because the title race will benefit immeasurably from being all of those things.
When it comes to football, to err is human, but the odd cock-up is truly divine.
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