Man City's superiority to PSG is clear following Club Brugge win

I already know some Paris Saint-Germain fans or Lionel Messi stans are reading that title and thinking 'but PSG beat Man City the other week'.

Come on guys, did you really come away from that game thinking Mauricio Pochettino's side were superior to Pep Guardiola's?

It was clear heading into City's Champions League game away at Club Brugge that they were in a false position in group A, sitting in third.

After stumbling against Tottenham on the opening day of the Premier League season, City have been near-flawless since. Heading into the October international break, they picked up four points from visits to Chelsea and Liverpool, looking by far the superior side in both games.

For all of the talk that City were in dire need of a centre-forward, Pep Guardiola has made City an even more lethal attacking machine with his use of Phil Foden as a false nine.

Surrounding him with around £1bn worth of talent will always prove to be an asterisk next to City's name in debates, but at least that talent isn't egotistical and believes in playing for the team - the same cannot be said for PSG.

Lionel Messi's full debut for Les Parisiens - alongside Neymar and Kylian Mbappe - came in their trip to Brugge last month, but the trio were flat and could barely get into the game. City, with a team of stars who actually know what they're doing, barely gave the Belgian side a sniff in their 5-1 win, walking all over them and picking them apart for fun.

Of course, the barometer of how good a super-team is doesn't just boil down to how well they perform away at Brugge. But on the evidence of the 2021/22 season so far, it's so hard to argue that PSG are better than Man City right now, despite the result at Parc des Princes suggesting otherwise.

City's main deficiency does remain the lack of a world-beating number nine, but you will always back them to score goals anyway and this lessens the problem.

PSG's woes look more structural and though Pochettino hasn't been able to get his three amigos singing from the same hymn sheet, you wonder whether anyone else could anyway. Their problems look a lot like Manchester United's with Cristiano Ronaldo this season.

Guardiola's men run hard and play for each other, which is becoming more and more of a footballing fundamental in the modern day.

After a blip in 2019/20 (along with what felt like half of Europe), they look back to their best and remain serious contenders to win the Champions League. After reaching their first final last year, you'd expect this current crop of players to have learned some tough lessons and picked up some scars that athletes need to reach the next level.

In contrast, you'd expect PSG to win 2-1 against whoever they play after trailing for 60 minutes and with a dodgy penalty accounting for one of their goals.

These two sides are not on the same level.