At least 89 points has been needed to finish first in the last three years, and 90+ in six of the last eight campaigns. But it might be difficult in such a fixture-laden season for those sorts of tallies to be matched again.
Meanwhile, pre-season title favourites City and Arsenal have struggled in recent weeks. The champions are far off their best at present and fell to a first defeat of the league season against Bournemouth on Saturday, while they laboured in victories over Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers prior to that.
As for the Gunners, they’ve taken one point from the last three league games and were beaten 1-0 by Newcastle United on Saturday.
Leaders Liverpool have offered a slightly surprising title challenge in the early weeks of the season and sit top of the table after 10 games, having collected 25 points. But like City and Arsenal, the Merseyside club have a mountain of fixtures to deal with over the coming months which could see them drop points.
City, in particular, are feeling the effects of the busy schedule and, while Guardiola said he does think it will take a lower points tally to win the title this season, he does not want to use the ample injuries as an excuse.
“If we had five more days to prepare we would have been better, or maybe not, who knows,” said the City boss. “I do not want to put it down for the calendar. Now it looks like [an excuse] because we lost a game.
“The reality is they [Bournemouth] won, I congratulate them. In the previous seasons we played a lot of games. Maybe if we go to the World Cup and play in the last stages we are going to play almost 70 games.
“It comes from the previous seasons because you have injuries. It’s going to happen and we have to handle it and have the perfect amount of training sessions to games. Our physical condition is to arrive as well as possible to play games. This is what it is. We cannot do anything and we cannot practise.”
Perhaps no player embodies the issues with training, fixture pile-up and fatigue more than Kyle Walker. The defender has endured a tough start to the new season and was poor again at the Vitality.
Walker couldn’t cope with Antoine Semenyo, having returned surprisingly early from injury. Guardiola explained that the City skipper barely trained in 18 days prior to the trip to the Vitality, making his disappointing display less of a surprise.
“Since he arrived this season after the Euros, he trained maybe four or five sessions with us,” Guardiola said on Walker. “He can play with no training due to his human condition and physicality.
“Of course he needs to get back to a routine of playing games and being focused on what we have to do. I appreciate a lot the effort he has done to come back. The last game he played was the national team with England.
“He arrived and didn’t train once until yesterday. Six minutes, made the boxes and six minutes, and then played today 90 minutes against Semenyo and all the fast players. It is not easy. Of course we need him, he is our captain.”
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