Man City was not discouraged by failing to beat Liverpool away from home.
At the recovery training session the next morning, the atmosphere within the team remained excellent, and the players generally maintained high morale.
This was especially true of young players like Sterling, who had been given a chance to play in that match. The draw had not affected them in the slightest.
A 2–2 scoreline was not a bad result for Man City.
More importantly, with more matches being played, the team was rotating its lineup more extensively. Many players who usually could not get on the pitch were now getting playing time. Joe Hart, for example, had been firmly suppressed by Courtois except at the beginning of the season, but from Christmas until now, he had played several matches, with some good and some bad performances.
Joe Hart was a good goalkeeper, but his luck was simply terrible. Every time he played, he conceded.
So much so that some people said that after Courtois rose to prominence, Joe Hart and Man City had become fundamentally incompatible.
There was another league match at the weekend. The team could not take a holiday, but that evening, after training ended, Su Dong still organized a dinner for everyone in the First Team. They went together to a famous restaurant in downtown Manchester.
Man City was indeed surging forward triumphantly, but the more things were going well, the more carefully they had to proceed.
Ferguson had once said something absolutely correct: teams that tried to win every trophy in the past might end up with nothing at all. That was why, in the history of English football, Manchester United was the only treble winner to reach the summit.
Man City had also won a treble last season, but the Europa League