The scoreline was a familiar one. Jacob de la Rose Jersey . Tottenham Hotspur 1, Manchester City 5. Two seasons ago on the final Sunday in August of 2011, Roberto Mancinis Manchester City won by the same scoreline at White Hart Lane. Those who watched closely that day were blown away by the utter arrogance in attack a new-look City showed with the ball. Those who werent there paid no attention because, on the same afternoon, Manchester United thumped Arsenal 8-2 at Old Trafford and that was all anyone talked about the next day. Hiding in the shadows of the Old Trafford storylines was arguably the finest performance Manchester City had produced in decades. Sure, a 6-1 win at United would follow, as would a title, but, under Mancini, City never again played as well as they did at Tottenham that day. Since that afternoon at White Hart Lane, City have undergone some dramatic changes off the field, but you had to look hard for them on the field on Wednesday night. Their latest victory came with eight of the same starting XI from that win over two years ago. In goal, Joe Hart remains and Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany and, to a lesser extent, Gael Clichy remain regulars in defence. David Silva and Yaya Toure, arguably two of the finest midfielders in the league, are just as important now as they were back then, joined by even better talent in Fernandinho and Jesus Navas. Samir Nasri, who played back in 2011 at Tottenham, is currently injured, but has played his best football for the club this season. And up top, the deadly strike pairing of Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko, who got the five goals between them in 2011, had an opportunity to start together with the in-form Alvaro Negredo not fully fit. But that is where the similarities end. The first 5-1 win gave us a rare glimpse of what City could become. The latest 5-1 win confirms they are finally what they hoped they could become back in 2011. Nine months after their first 5-1 win at Tottenham, Manchester City were Premier League champions, however, this was not achieved the way many imagined after watching their clinical victories at Spurs and Manchester United. Far from it. After blistering out of the blocks, like a 1500-metre runner in a marathon, City hit a wall hard midseason and struggled to get any offensive spark into their game. In 10 away games, from the end of November to the middle of April, City scored just five goals (only two from open play,) won two, drew three and lost five. Mancinis men had been worked out, as teams sat deeper, and City couldnt find the code to unlock them. While City struggled, Mancini moaned, Mario Balotelli caused trouble on and off the field and Carlos Tevez played golf and sang karaoke after being sent home to Argentina after a bust-up with his manager. A team that had gone from the threat of bankruptcy, in the wake of the Thaksin Shinawatra fiasco, to the top of the table in less than four years had no identity and gave neutrals many reasons to dislike them. Fast forward to 2014 and Manchester City are back at the top of the Premier League. This time, however, there is no circus at the Etihad. Gone are the distractions and gone is their rigid, narrow and predictable attack. Large amounts of money continues to be spent on quality players but, despite that, gone also is the disdain towards them. Football fans fueled by jealousy are taught to dislike the best and that came easy when the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho led teams featuring world class, high-maintenance divas like Cristiano Ronaldo, John Terry and Wayne Rooney to glory, but this current Manchester City presents a whole new set of challenges for haters. This is a football club that is so easy to admire. It is true that the new Man City have yet to win anything, but it is also possible that they could sweep the domestic treble - Premier League, FA Cup and Capital One Cup - come May. Past teams in such pursuit would be tormented at every ground of chants suggesting they would win nothing, but thats not happening with this City team. The way fans of English football have stared at the revolutions taking place at Barcelona and Bayern Munich is the way they currently look at the class and guile being produced by Manuel Pellegrinis men. While they should be angry and jealous at the money and success that has come their way, they are romanced by a style of breathtaking football so often unseen on English shores. They watch and admire a true leader in Kompany, the guardian of a back line including a centre-half partner that everyone still feels is the clubs major weakness. For most clubs, whether it be Martin Demichilis or Matija Nastasic, it would be their strength. Theyll watch in awe of Yaya Toure, a player no one in the sport is like, dominating the crucial midfield, where games are so often won and lost, with a ferocious combination of power, strength and football intelligence. Theyll watch "Space Invader" David Silva drift away from defenders better than anyone else in the league, moving in from the flanks and producing delicious passes to hungry strikers and rampaging full backs, who have added more gears under "the engineer" And theyll watch the brilliance of Sergio Aguero, arguably the most talented player in the league, who can hold a ball up better than anyone and finish with both feet in such a deadly fashion. It is a spine that cannot be challenged, in terms of talent through the middle, in the Premier League. Navas, Negredo, Fernandinho, Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov are all having wonderful seasons and are more than just extras in this plot, drawn up by the brains of Chief Executive Officer, Ferran Soriano, and Director of Football Txiki Begiristain, formerly of Barcelona. The Spanish duo knew when they took over that the clubs identity had to be dictated by what they did on the field and not by what big personalities did with fireworks or golf clubs.Removing the likes of Tevez, Balotelli and Mancini was part one of the project. Hiring a gentleman in Pellegrini, who wouldnt make himself bigger than the club, was part two of the project. Getting their team to express themselves and play at a high level each week was part three. One hundred-and-fifteen goals in all competitions by the end of January suggests that this part has already been completed. An astonishing 85 goals in their last 23 matches in all competitions shows that even the most adventurous plans, drawn up by the Spaniards, can be matched. The final part of the plan is the need to fill the space created in the clubs trophy cabinet. On Monday, they meet Chelsea (You can catch action live on TSN2 at 3pm et/12pm pt) and start a 28-day journey where they will play Mourinhos men twice, Barcelona twice in the Champions League and travel to Wembley to play Sunderland in the Capital One Cup final. By the end of it we will have a more clearer idea of what City can accomplish this season. Already, however, we have a clearer idea of what City has become - a Premier League powerhouse gaining more and more admirers every week. Serge Savard Jersey . With a victory seemingly slipping away late in the third quarter, his quick scoring flurry helped Golden State regain control early in the fourth. Artturi Lehkonen Jersey . Steve has built a solid reputation throughout the years - first as a hockey player, then as an NHL general manager and now as a scout. http://www.officialcanadiensfanstore.com/authentic-antti-niemi-canadiens-jersey/ . Brooks replaces right-hander Yordano Ventura, who left his last outing with a sore elbow. Ventura is expected to miss one start. Brooks has made one relief appearance for the Royals this season, allowing six runs in two innings in a May 3 loss to Detroit.The challenges of playing hockey in a Canadian market are well documented: higher taxes, over abundant media coverage, lack of anonymity, an unrelenting and vicious winter, way too much Rush in rotation on FM radio. What makes Canada such a great place to be a hockey fan makes it a difficult environment to play in. Canada is indisputably the centre of the hockey universe, and at that universes core is Toronto. The Greater Toronto Hockey League is over a hundred years old and the largest minor hockey league in the world. Despite their futility, the Leafs could sell out Rogers Centre for home games charging $1000 and first-born children for upper deck seats. The Marlies are flourishing in the AHL. Next years World Junior Hockey Championships (co-hosted with Montreal) are sure to be the most successfully attended and celebrated ever. And yet, as a player, what would entice you to ply your trade in the Big Smoke?The crowds at the ACC for Leafs game are an embarrassment to hockeys most important market. The stories of the suits in the expensive seats, absent for starts of periods and reticent to loosen their ties even as Brian Burke undid his, are well known. The arena is eerily quiet compared to its contemporaries, a conservative and reserved audience in a sport and city renowned for its maniacal fandom. And this is not indicative of Toronto crowds, as we witnessed during the Raptors playoff appearance this year, rowdy afternoons at Jays games at Rogers Centre, and the masses that turned out this year and last in Maple Leaf/Raptors Square. But those involved fans (who make up the vast majority of Leafs Nation) enthusiasms are negatively tempered by the lower bowls reservations, reservations bred by alternately flawed and complacent approaches to building a competitive team and the absence of a winning presence. As a player who is passionate about his vocation, why would you want to commit to an environment that doesnt match that passion, especially when the home ice advantage can be such an important component of the game?Often in pieces that claim players like Thornton are interested in playing for the Leafs, the prospect of coming "home" is cited as a key factor. The very notion of "home" is a flawed premise in this lazy argument. Even if you call "home" somewhere in Southern Ontario, as a hockey player you probably havent lived there since you were 16. Thornton has lived in San Jose for nearly a decade, is a naturalized US citizen, has a wife, a mortgage, perhaps a few pets, maybe a café he really likes to go to, a favourite pizza place, a butcher who cuts his ribeyes to just the perfect thickness. But the Toronto Sun is going to tell him where his home is.For many players, one might suspect that playing at home in front of an overbearing hockey dad, mum and her new husband, and sycophantic high school acquaintances just a few blocks from where that girl broke your heart is the very definition of hell. And is working in your hometown really all that enticing? How many of you work in your hometowns? Hardly any. Youve all moved to Toronnto. Jonathan Drouin Jersey. Thornton is from St. Thomas, Ontario, which would place his NHL "hometown" in Detroit or Buffalo as much as in Toronto, and yet those markets media dont seem to be making the "coming home" argument. Torontos hockey media is the most intense in all of professional sports. Maybe Montreals is equal, but half of the vitriol and conjecture there is in French, and only a fraction of NHLers understand it. (Reasonably, even those of us who are bilingual dont really understand it.) In Toronto, there is endless speculation, much of it even based in fact. Each flaw, each mistake (on and off the ice) is dissected and disseminated ad nauseum. Trade rumours are fabricated on a daily basis, the ubiquitous "NHL executive" noted as an unimpeachable source. The discussion of hockey in Toronto has become an insufferable wall of noise for an uninvested observer, so imagine if the discourse directly affected your family, your income, and your life.It seems a lot to ask of a player to endure such amplified attention, especially given the fact the Leafs have not been a competitive team since 2004. And that is final circle of the NHLs Hell: irrelevance. Toronto is still recovering from the John Ferguson Jr. era. They have some formidable pieces in Kessel, Morgan Reilly, and Jonathan Bernier; a young skilled forward, puck moving defenseman, and promising goaltender around which to build. They have a top-ten pick in the coming draft, some interesting if not spectacular prospects (Stuart Percy, Matt Finn), and some movable pieces (Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner). Brendan Shanahan emanates stability and hubris. But theyre still saddled with bad contracts (Dion Phaneuf, David Clarkson), a suspect coaching philosophy, and a lack of depth. And to watch the Kings, Blackhawks, and Rangers this spring is to know the Leafs are far removed from that level of hockey.So if you were an unrestricted free agent, or a player on the trading block with some say in his future, why would you come to Toronto? Consider Thornton: Youre in your mid-30s, never won a Cup, live in the perfection of Northern California, in a market that sustains you but doesnt invade you, and youd chose to move to Toronto, with its high taxes, magnified attention, and with as much of a chance of winning a Cup in the next five years as Quebec City? Toronto is a world-class city, cultured and cosmopolitan, a great place to live and make a life. The Joe Thorntons of the world should want to play home games at the ACC. The challenges of the market need to be offset by a tradition of winning and the only way for Toronto to do that is to build a stable and competitive franchise through hoarding draft picks and young controllable players, and eschewing the temptation of quick expensive fixes like Clarkson, or Thornton. The best thing for a successful NHL would be a dominant Toronto Maple Leafs team. Given the teams last decade, however, it seems like that wont happen until Hell freezes over. 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