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The season for club football is coming to an end and it's time to consider the big winners (and the losers) of domestic competitions. While certain contests, such as the Serie A, are likely to go all the way through to the end of the season in determining a winner, some of the top European leagues already have their champions.
Some of these teams have already been offered the winners' medal, and for some, this is a matter of formality. Today we take a look at four teams that took control of their local competitions early on and never let go of the control.
Here's how they managed and what football clubs can learn from this.
(All data and stats come courtesy of www.whoscored.com)
Manchester City - English Premier League
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City's defeat last week to Manchester United merely delayed the inevitable. Their victory over Spurs, coupled with United's miserable display against lowly West Brom have made things official. At the end of a great season, Pep Guardiola's side is to lift the Premier League trophy. It's a worthy honor and it represents another mission accomplished for the Spanish manager.
What led to City's impressive success? First of all, a successful transfer strategy benefiting from a €300 million budget. The defensive line, in particular, was significantly improved with the addition of players such as Ederson, Walker, Mendy, Danilo. While City's rivals also invested in major transfers, none of their newcomers were able to help their teams to the same extent.
Guardiola finally had his dream team in place and the results showed. The team managed to score the highest number of goals, while conceding the least. In fact, City left the impression that any of its players were fully capable of scoring goals when most needed.
The Spanish manager's vision for his team came to fruition in his second season in England. While many doubted that the strategy which had worked in La Liga and Bundesliga would be as successful in the Premier League, the manager has certainly managed to prove them wrong.
City has held a firm grip on the competition and their efficiency is an important factor in their success. The team has had a passing accuracy rating of 88.7% and average possession of 65.9%. They have also averaged 2.8 goals per game. It's especially impressive considering this has happened in a competition that boasts having some of the tighest defenses in European football.
Guardiola was given free reign to assemble his team at the start of the season and he took full advantage of this freedom. Spending a record amount to ensure his tactical vision would come to fruition, City took control of the Premier League from its first matchdays. The season started in August of 2017 and it took until January 2018 for the team to lose its first EPL game. The early momentum meant their biggest rivals had to play catch-up for the rest of the campaign.
Manchester City have a 16 points advantage over their nearest rival, Manchester United and with five matches left to go, they are mathematically champions. It is for the first time that the team has won the competition since 2014.
FC Barcelona - La Liga
Barcelona's players may be dealing with the disappointment of having being knocked out of the Champions League in the Quarter Finals for the third year running, but they do have their domestic record to lean on.
The Catalans are 11 points clear of Atletico Madrid who is in second place. While the victory is yet to be made official it would take a miracle (or disaster depending on how you look at these kinds of matters), for Barca to lose out on the trophy. More importantly, it's an occasion for Messi and his teammates to gain a victory over their arch-rivals Real Madrid, winners of last season's competition.
There are plenty of reasons to account for Barcelona's success in the Spanish competition, but the biggest contribution has to have been that of Lionel Messi. In fact, the Argentine leads both in terms of goals scored and assists and has managed to win the Man of the Match award on 20 occasions from the 29 La Liga games he has been involved in.
The team's stats show just what it took for the team to manage and achieve their La Liga success. Barcelona average 2.5 goals per game, a passing success rate of 87.2% and their possession rate stands at 60.8%.
Barcelona had a great starting team and substitute bench to choose from. While Real Madrid may have had better squad depth, Barca's best players ended up making the difference.
The Catalans followed up losing Neymar to PSG, with some high-profile transfers meant to successfully replace the Brazilian. Over €300 million was spent on the likes of Coutinho, Dembele, Paulinho and Semedo.
Barcelona also started out strong out of the gates winning their first nine La Liga games and haven't lost a game in the competition thus far. By comparison, their rivals had an up and down season, with Real Madrid losing five of their encounters.
Regardless of the performances of their new players, the Camp Nou side once again proved to be dependent on the form of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta. Morale for the squad received an important boost when it was announced the two would sign new contracts with the club, in this way putting an end to growing uncertainty.
Leading by example, the Argentine has scored, assisted and lead the team to great performances which will result in another trophy in the Catalans' very wealthy trophy cabinet.
Paris Saint-Germain - Ligue 1
PSG were never going to take likely losing the 2017 Ligue 1 trophy to AS Monaco. To ensure that this would not happen again the Parisians spent big. Neymar was brought in from Barcelona (the biggest transfer in world football) and Monaco's wonderkid Kylian Mbappe was also persuaded to join.
With renewed confidence and vigor, PSG dominated the Ligue 1 competition. Currently, they stand top of the league with 17 points ahead of Monaco and only two losses for the entire season.
Their strikers, Edinson Cavani and Neymar, also dominate the goalscoring table, in first and second place, with their goals accounting for 42% of all the goals scored by the team in the league.
The team's stats showcase a team clearly dominating the competition with their average possession sitting at 62.8% and their pass accuracy at a whopping 89.6%. The Parisians have made good use of their attacking players, averaging 3 goals per game.
An important factor in the success was the fact that PSG managed to retain their most important players and have brought improvements to their squad, in a bid to challenge for the Champions League trophy. On the other hand, previous champions AS Monaco lost a lot of high-quality players such as Mendy, Silva, Bakayoko, Mbappe. It accounted for Monaco's four defeats to PSG this season.
Success in Ligue 1 was bound to follow. With so much talent at their disposal and the willingness to spend plenty of money on huge transfers, PSG has every right to celebrate and demand more of themselves. The Champions League trophy remains, of course, the big, and thus far elusive, dream.
Bayern Munchen - Bundesliga
There is always plenty of talent being developed in the Bundesliga. With teams such as Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig on the rise in European competitions, you could think that this would be the season in which Bayern's dominance in the league would finally come to an end.
But it wasn't to happen this year, as the Bavarians enjoyed a clear dominance of the competition, which puts them currently 20 points ahead of second place. Manager Jupp Heynckes has brought glory to Bayern before. It's the manager's experience that has been an important factor in the team's success. Heynckes is expected to retire at the end of the season and is currently making the best of his remaining time.
An important factor in the team's success has been its ability to get the same level of consistency they've been used to in recent seasons from familiar faces such as Lewandowski, Vidal and Robben and new-comer James Rodriguez has also been keen to take the opportunity to prove himself.
The German champions are known to be unwilling to take part in transfer battles for the world's most expensive players. Rather they have put their trust in experienced players, as well as having progressively added younger players to the main squad. Coman, Tolisso, Kimmich are all under 25 years of age and have already made an important impact on the competition.
Bayern's style of play rarely changes. Against the other Bundesliga teams, the German champs have an average of 61.9% possession and 87.2% pass accuracy. This has meant that Bayern are by far the best team offensively, as well as defensively in the Bundesliga.
The Bavarians will lift the Bundesliga trophy for a sixth season running and their opponents will need to outdo themselves next season if they want to stand a chance of ending their incredible dominance.
