1. They have the best team spine of all the title contenders

CONSIDER MANCHESTER CITY’S backbone: Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero.

There is a case to be made that each of the aforementioned players are the best in their respective positions in the league.

Of course, as always even with great players, there are caveats. Hart looked disconcertingly error-prone at times last season, Toure tends to be quite lazy and consequently leaves City defensively vulnerable on occasion, while Aguero and Kompany have both been a little injury-prone in recent years.

But should the quartet reach the heights they are expected to meet this year, City will surely be very difficult to stop once again.

2. Experience

It may seem a facile point, but experience is huge in title run-ins, and the reassurance of having succeeded before can make that small difference which invariably separates champions from also-rans. There is a reason, for instance, why Man United dominated for a sustained period in the 90s, while Chelsea were similarly unstoppable at one point during the 00s.

The first Premier League title is undoubtedly the hardest to win and once teams get over that obstacle, they tend to be in a far better position from a psychological perspective.

Manchester City have managed to retain virtually the same squad as last year, in addition to acquiring some solid additions to the team such as Bacary Sagna and Frank Lampard.

By comparison, their rivals have few players with the experience of winning a Premier League. The team that most are tipping to be the biggest threat to City recapturing their title — Chelsea — undeniably boast a solid squad. However, key players such as Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas will surely take time to settle into their new surroundings, whereas City’s stars are largely familiar with the challenge that’s about to ensue.

3. Their prodigious ability to score goals

AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

(Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero were two of Man City’s key attacking stars last year)

Much was made of Liverpool’s exceptional attacking ability last year, largely owing to their exciting counter-attacking style and in particular, the bravura performances of Luis Suarez.

And while City may not have been quite as enthralling to watch, they were undoubtedly equally effective going forward.

In fact, they ended up scoring one goal more than the Reds, and finished the season just one strike off the all-time Premier League record for most goals in a season (Chelsea’s 103 goals in 2009-10).

And what was particularly impressive about City was the sheer number of goalscorers they had in the team. Whereas Liverpool were at times overly reliant on their dynamic duo (Suarez and Sturridge), City could afford for a player such as Alvaro Negredo to go off form or Sergio Aguero to pick up an injury and rely upon others, such as Edin Dzeko, to step in and perform proficiently in their place.

4. Their home form

One of the main reasons for City’s title win last year was their formidable form at home.
In 19 games at the Etihad, they dropped just four points — a better record even than the similarly impressive achievements of Liverpool and Chelsea at their respective grounds.

As with Old Trafford back in the peak Ferguson years, City is now a place that teams fear visiting, with many sides effectively being beaten before they step onto the pitch.

The season before was not considerably worse, as they won 14 out of 19 matches at home and lost just twice, while in 2011-12, they won all but one of their games in the City of Manchester Stadium. So essentially, over the past three campaigns, they boast an average of just one defeat per season at home.

Their one loss last year at their own ground was owing to an immaculate, near-perfect defensive display by Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, and it will presumably take a similarly heroic performance to emulate such an outcome in the coming season. Moreover, with just five losses on the road in 2013-14, their away form was hardly considerably worse.

5. Manuel Pellegrini is one of the most astute managers around

Not many managers could oversee their side winning the Premier League at the first time of asking. Yet Manuel Pelligrini achieved the feat in highly impressive fashion with City last year.

Pellegrini took over a City side that seemed on the brink of footballing civil war – rumours of dressing room cliques abound, with their disappointing 2012-13 Premier League performance and humiliating FA Cup final loss to Wigan consolidating the suspicion that they were a team in disarray.

Yet incredibly, once Pellegrini arrived, their problems seemed to disappear promptly and most of the talk surrounding City began to focus on their performances on the pitch.

In stark contrast with other Premier League coaches, most notably Jose Mourinho, the 60-year-old former Malaga manager usually tends to be quite low maintenance and in general, has the emotional intelligence to refrain from castigating referees, players and journalists at every available opportunity, on the rare occasions when his invariably quite meticulously conceived plans go awry.

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