At the point where 10 rounds have passed in the Premier League, which consists of a total of 38 rounds.
Having reached roughly the one-quarter mark, Burnley secured a 2-0 victory over West Ham, placing them in second place, just three points behind league leaders Liverpool.
In their 10 league matches so far, they've achieved an astonishing record of 8 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss.
The additional two wins in the Carabao Cup feel almost like a bonus.
On top of that, while accumulating 25 points, they've scored 19 goals and conceded only 3, boasting a goal difference of +16—an impressively solid foundation.
The names of the teams currently ranked below Burnley are dazzling: Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, and more.
At this moment, every British newspaper, pundit, and TV program is overflowing with praise for Burnley's miraculous performance and the young, genius Asian manager who has led them to this point.
Yet, the man who achieved this feat—lauded by all as a miraculous accomplishment—couldn't hide his anxiety.
"Kim, are you okay?"
Had he unknowingly let his nervousness slip?
During a Tuesday morning board meeting, Hyung-min snapped back to attention under Helena's concerned gaze.
The other two directors, Technical Director Jonathan Landris, and Head Coach Arthur were also looking at him with worry.
"Is something wrong?" Helena asked gently.
Hyung-min started to shake his head but hesitated, then nodded.
"The last match has been weighing on my mind."
"The West Ham game? We won 2-0, didn't we?"
"That's true, but…"
Hyung-min paused, gathering his thoughts to articulate the unease he felt.
"Well… how should I put it? Our performance so far has been *too* good."
Confusion, disbelief, and faint smiles at the manager's concerns spread across the faces of those in the meeting room, but Helena alone remained serious, her eyes fixed on Hyung-min.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Wait, how is it a problem that we're doing well?" Mike Garlick, the club's CEO and former chairman, interjected, clearly puzzled.
Looking at the CEO and the previous chairman, Hyung-min struggled to express his sense of unease.
"What I mean is… the West Ham game was abnormal. Or rather, it wasn't abnormal—it was a very *normal* response."
Seeing the group tilt their heads in confusion, Hyung-min elaborated.
"West Ham's manager, David Moyes, came out with a highly defensive formation. Moyes may have faced criticism after being sacked from Manchester United, but he's an experienced manager with exceptional tactical ability. Last season, he led West Ham to a sixth-place finish, proving they're a solid mid-to-upper-tier team. And yet, against us, he opted for a defensive strategy."
"Couldn't it just be that Moyes tends to be defensive?" Helena suggested.
"Exactly!" Hyung-min clapped his hands together.
"If it were just West Ham versus Burnley, the norm would be Burnley playing defensively while West Ham attacked. But if it's West Ham versus the second-placed team in the league, it's normal for West Ham to go defensive and the second-placed team to take the attacking role. That's the logical response."
"Uh… I'm still not quite following what you mean," Helena admitted, still confused, along with the rest of the board.
Meanwhile, a glimmer of understanding began to dawn on Jonathan Landris and Arthur Brimlow.
"In other words," Hyung-min continued, "Moyes didn't approach Burnley as the Burnley of old. He treated us like the second-placed team in the league and adjusted his strategy accordingly. He didn't just temporarily sit back to tire us out and then counter for three points. No, he approached it like an away game against a top team, aiming for a draw and one point."
"So, doesn't that mean we've earned a level of respect?" Helena asked.
Hyung-min sighed before replying, "Being respected means they're no longer underestimating us. It's not just a flash-in-the-pan success anymore—they see us as a genuine threat. After the 12 matches we've played, there's enough data on us now. Meanwhile, we haven't ingrained our tactics deeply enough to adapt flexibly during games."
The board members' faces darkened as they fully grasped the manager's concerns.
"Going forward, the top teams will impose their style on us, while mid- and lower-tier teams will sit back defensively, desperate to scrape even a single point. In short, our opponents will come at us with tailored tactics to dismantle our game plan, and we don't have the tactical flexibility to counter that yet."
Hyung-min looked around the room at his tense colleagues.
"It's going to be a tough stretch ahead."
---
Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City.
A product of Barcelona, one of Spain's two dominant La Liga giants, Guardiola grew up in their youth system and was handpicked by legendary Dutch manager Johan Cruyff. At just 19, he became a key part of Barcelona's "Dream Team," which won three consecutive La Liga titles.
After retiring as a legendary player, Guardiola embarked on a managerial career. He gained experience coaching Barcelona's reserve team before being unexpectedly appointed as the first-team manager in the summer of 2008, at the age of 37.
In his debut season as first-team manager, he led Barcelona to a treble—winning La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. Over his four seasons with Barcelona, he secured four consecutive La Liga titles, two Champions League trophies, and a total of 14 major honors.
He then moved to Bayern Munich, where he won three consecutive Bundesliga titles, before arriving at Manchester City. In his last five seasons there, he claimed three Premier League titles, cementing his status as a managerial genius.
Pep Guardiola's trademark is the "tiki-taka" style—a system of short passes that maintains overwhelming possession to suffocate opponents. He's famously summed it up with the phrase, "If the opponent doesn't have the ball, they can't attack. If they can't attack, we can't lose." His perfection of tiki-taka has earned him widespread acclaim.
However, a common misconception is that Guardiola's Manchester City only excels at passing.
To be precise, Manchester City under Guardiola excels at both passing *and* pressing.
They just happen to be *even better* at passing.
And Hyung-min and Burnley's players were experiencing Manchester City's mastery of passing and pressing firsthand.
"Tiki-taka," a term said to derive from the Spanish onomatopoeia for the sound of a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth.
Over the past few months, Burnley's players had trained extensively in short passes, improving their ability significantly. But they were no match for Manchester City—a team assembled with the world's best players, backed by the limitless financial power of the Abu Dhabi group.
When Burnley lost possession, City immediately applied full pressing, cutting off passing lanes and quickly reclaiming the ball. Rather than rushing into attack after regaining possession, City leisurely circulated the ball, probing for weaknesses in the opposition's setup before exploiting cracks and sliding the ball into the net as smoothly as a pass.
Six minutes into the first half.
Burnley's left winger Dwight McNeil attempted a dribble down the left sideline, only for Manchester City's right-back Kyle Walker to effortlessly intercept. In the brief moment where Burnley's players couldn't press or retreat, Walker exchanged triangular passes with right winger Riyad Mahrez and defensive midfielder Fernandinho, who had dropped back to support, calmly building their attack.
"Phil!"
Manchester City's central striker and false nine, Phil Foden, dropped into midfield to receive the ball before sprinting down the right sideline. Meanwhile, Riyad Mahrez slipped into the central striker position Foden had vacated.
It was a move identical to the switching play between Burnley's central striker Chris Wood and right winger Karim Adeyemi.
"Jack!"
But Manchester City took it a step further.
Foden, charging down the right sideline, whipped in a powerful cross.
As Burnley's defenders, gathered in the penalty box, looked on in confusion, the ball sailed clear across the box to the opposite sideline, landing perfectly at the feet of Manchester City's waiting left winger, Jack Grealish.
"Julian!"
With Burnley's defenders scrambling in disarray, Grealish fired a cross back into the center of the penalty box, where Manchester City's defensive midfielder Julian Weigl was positioned. The German midfielder, standing in a wide-open space, took all the time in the world to curl a shot with his right foot.
The ball traced an elegant arc through the air, slipping just beyond the outstretched fingertips of Burnley's goalkeeper Nick Pope and narrowly missing the goalpost before landing in the stands.
"Ahhh!!!"
As Manchester City's home fans at the Etihad Stadium groaned in disappointment, Arthur wiped his brow in relief.
"Phew! That took ten years off my life."
But Hyung-min's expression remained stern as he watched Manchester City's players casually tease their young teammate for missing the shot while returning to their positions.
"This game… it's going to be absolutely brutal."
The crisis Hyung-min feared arrived sooner than expected.
Ten minutes into the first half, Manchester City strolled into Burnley's half as if it were a training session, exchanging passes and occasionally firing off shots whenever they felt like it.
No matter how tight the space, City's players twisted free or found a way to keep the ball moving. Burnley's players were rapidly wearing down under the relentless skill of their opponents.
Seizing a momentary lapse in Burnley's defensive focus, Manchester City's ace Kevin De Bruyne—who roamed freely in and around the penalty box exchanging passes—unleashed a sudden shot.
The home crowd leapt to their feet, sensing a goal, but Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope's lightning-fast reflexes knocked the ball out of play.
"Ooh!!!"
As the home fans lamented, Manchester City earned a corner.
Watching Riyad Mahrez trudge toward the corner flag to take the kick, Hyung-min muttered under his breath.
"Come on, lads… let's hold them off!"