The Warm-Up: Do Manchester City have to win to save their season?

Manchester City already have one trophy in the bag, they’ll win the Premier League in the next couple of weeks and they’ve played some of the most scintillating football we will ever see. But such has been the hype and expectation around their season – from the media, and from Pep Guardiola himself – will it actually turn out to be a disappointment if they “only” win two trophies at a canter?

Certainly, overturning a three-goal deficit in the Champions League against Liverpool tonight, then going on to win the whole thing, would help rather.

“Of course to go through you have to make the perfect game, create chances, be clinical and concede few chances,” Guardiola said. “All the conditions have to be perfect. The aim is tough but we have 90 minutes and in football everything can happen.”

Sounds easy enough. Should be an absolutely belting game, this. Tune in.

And what of Liverpool? How do they approach this game? Odd as it might sound, it may actually be tough for them to formulate a gameplan. They beat City the first time by going all-out and blitzing their opponents, but it would take a pretty decent set of stones to try that again, away from home, knowing that Guardiola’s side will probably be doing exactly the same.

“I saw the game of City v United at the weekend,” said Jurgen Klopp. “It was one of the best first halves I ever saw. It was like a thunderstorm. Then, in the second half, they change the game. After the first [United] goal, one team gains rhythm, another team loses rhythm.

“We can go through all scenarios – they score early, we score early, all that stuff – but it is not to plan like this. I can tell the boys ‘Score early!’ but I’m not sure that really helps. We have to think about football – what we have to do, where we have to do it.

“This is half-time. It was the same at half-time in Anfield: the game is not over. We were in the lead, nothing else. Being in the lead is not winning. We are still in the lead but we didn’t win so far. We need a little bit more from this game.”

And so, one of the most genuine footballing sentimental stories comes to an end. Fernando Torres will leave Atletico Madrid at the end of the season, for a destination currently unknown, but presumably with the gratitude of many Atleti fans to help him on his way.

Torres said:

Word is he’ll be off to China or America to make one last big slice of cash before it’s time to retire. People will remember Torres in many different ways, but

?

Hats off to Udinese for making like a Monday night five-a-side team and have their starting XI at the weekend wear 11 different shirts against Lazio. The shirts have been auctioned for charity.

It’s quite encouraging to see a striker have such a single-minded, obsessive to the point of distraction, pointlessly obsessed attitude to scoring goals. If he’s in the vicinity of the ball and it goes in, he wants the goal. Strikers are different, they think like this, and it’s quite impressive that Kane has managed to persuade Tottenham to indulge him to the point of appealing to the powers that be to award him the goal against Stoke on Saturday, initially credited to Christian Eriksen.

Still, just because your boy wants the ice cream, doesn’t mean you should give him the ice cream.

If you’ll excuse a little patronage, here’s the Warm-Up’s own Adam Hurrey with a piece about 90’s hero Dejan Savicevic.

And hey, let’s make it a theme. Apologies if your working day is now ruined and you’re late and you get sacked because you’ve watched this a billion times. Trust us, it’s worth it.

If the country’s elite footballers competing in a tension-filled Champions League tie for the highest stakes in the game doesn’t flick your switch, we do have a full Championship programme for you. Or, if you prefer, Roma v Barcelona, if dead rubbers are your bag.