Yahoo Sport 
Balague: Why do Pep's City fall so hard when they fall?
Aside from a 100% confirmation of that well-worn cliché that football is indeed a game of two halves, the latest instalment in the City /United, Pep/Jose Manchester rivalry, while unlikely to change much in league title terms, does tell us much more.
In the extremely unlikely double scenario that City beat Tottenham at Wembley and the following day United lose at home to West Bromwich Albion then it will be all over.
Unlikely indeed, but who knows, because if this game shows us anything it is that you never take anything for granted nor do you ever rule anything out?
What it does show us however is that in Pep and Jose we have two managers of totally differing styles and strengths.
Pep has always shown us wherever he has coached – and not just this season – that he is truly a manager of talent, while José continues to demonstrate that he is certainly a manager of moments.
As such, Jose’s ready-made, bought off the shelf superstars failed spectacularly to deliver in a first 45 minutes so one sided that it bordered on the embarrassing.
Just how his side managed to go in at the interval just two goals adrift is just another of those great footballing imponderables that consistently thumbs its nose at all of us so called ‘experts’ although there were certainly a couple of contributing factors that gave Mou the springboard that he needed.
The performance of Martin Atkinson in unquestionably the biggest league game of the season was poor and bearing in mind that Mr Atkinson is generally regarded as one of this country’s finest, perhaps proved – and not for the first team this season – that FIFA’s decision not to appoint a single Premier League official for the upcoming Russia World Cup is a correct one.
READ MORE: Guardiola identifies flaw in his own management
READ MORE: Five things United must do next season to overhaul City
READ MORE: Guardiola considering big changes for Liverpool return leg
That he failed to see Ashley Young’s handball in the first half was excusable but, in the second half, it’s decisions like the one not to red card Ashley Young for a potentially career-ending tackle on Sergio Aguero that makes the blood run cold, that sends shivers up the spines of everyone involved in football.
You will never hear Guardiola moan about the level of officiating after a defeat because, quite simply, he knows it will always sound like sour grapes. He will also know that once Atkinson had lost control he could and should also have sent off Fernandinho for a tackle on Lingard. Instead he handed out a yellow.
But don’t take my word for it. This is what ex-referee, Keith Hackett the former head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board had to say about it: “This was Atkinson’s worst performance in two years and it is alarming that it came in arguably the biggest match of the season, one which will have been watched by millions of people the world over.
“It sends a bad message about the standard of our refereeing in general and makes it harder to argue with Fifa’s decision to cut our guys out of the World Cup.”
Of course Atkinson had nothing to do with the two glaring misses by Raheem Sterling, a striker who the stats tell us has the best conversion to chances figures in the Premier League (54.5%) compared to Mohamed Salah’s 50% which you can’t help feeling justifies Disraeli’s assertion that there are three things in life, “Lies, damned lies and statistics”.
Sterling’s difficulties in front of goal meant that United had got out of jail and José knew it. It handed him a lifeline, albeit it a slim one, because at 4-0 it is highly unlikely that even José accompanied by the inspirational rallying calls from a combination of Henry V, Winston Churchill, JFK and Nelson Mandela could have brought about a United comeback. A banana skin scoreline of 2-0 meant he saw a chink of light in the distance and he exploited it to the maximum.
Whatever ones feeling on the matter, Mou’s modus operandi is about buying players that are formed and matured, players that have the mental strengths for something akin to what occurred in the second half at the Etihad on Sunday.
READ MORE: Guardiola – City must be at their best
READ MORE: Mourinho ‘not interested’ in Guardiola and Raiola row
Where he has occasionally struggled is when getting the most on a regular basis of that type of personality imbued with that sort of talent. But as a manager of specific moments and scenarios he is one of the best.
Whether or not Sterling’s profligacy in front of goal affected his team, you sensed a nervousness among the City side eager to get over the line from the moment the second half began. Once United had reduced the arrears you just knew that this was not going to be the end of the scoring.
And the reason for this is because in that department Pep’s sides have ‘previous’.
As recently in fact as last week at Anfield, but prior to that when Barcelona hit them for four in 2016 and also when Real Madrid hit four past his Bayern Munich side in the first home leg of the 2014 Champions League semi final.
Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan (right) celebrates with Raheem Sterling after scoring his side’s second goal – but Sterling missed two great chances
In all cases a succession of quick strikes that effectively kill the game off.
But why does this happen? How can you be in such total control and then suddenly lose it?
My take on it is that Guardiola puts so much emphasis on the style of the game that he wants to play using the skills and those profiles – who tend to be young – needed to make it work. His aim beforehand is to control everything in a game hence his obsession to detail beforehand.
Maturity
With that comes the energy and the willingness to learn, to climb out of their comfort zones. The flip side of that is that it is also frequently comes with players who lack the experience, maturity and personality to manage games once control has been lost.
Secondly, Guardiola’s team all have the DNA to be offensive so even at 2-1, all their instincts will be on attacking which is something that will run the risk of exposing the team. Against both Liverpool and Manchester United there were clear moments when his City side did not look as motivated or as highly charged as their rivals – in fact it drove Pep mad some of the back passing and passing with no intent in the first half against United.
But in any case it is always easier to come from behind as in the case of United, or revel in the role of underdog as Liverpool did, than it is to lead from the front.
Maybe the style of possession and control much beloved by Guardiola may be enough to give your players the impression that is sufficient to boss any encounter, and in fairness, in most matches this season this has indeed been the case. Lest we forget and before we go completely overboard, we should remind ourselves that this is a City side that has lost TWO league games this season.
Pep has always maintained that you will always learn more from defeat than from victory but it certainly raises a warning flag, over certain aspects of their play.
They should certainly have beaten United but it is impossible to escape the reality that against Liverpool there were certain individual errors that cost them dear.
Mou’s modus operandi is about buying players that are formed and matured
An error in the build up brought the first goal. A timidity in a 50/50 challenge led to Liverpool’s second goal, then allowing Salah time and space to get in a cross on his left foot instead of ushering him over onto his weaker side led to Liverpool’s third.
Nor will Kompany be particularly pleased that he allowed Mané time and space to get in his header and City had also possession prior to the the first and third goals.
Individual errors that when added to a loss of control, can prove costly.
Pep will now turn his sights towards Liverpool and then immediately onto getting his Manchester City side over the line for a well-deserved title win.
