Manchester City are top of the Premier League with a flawless record so far.
It’s not what even the most optimistic fans expected given the early scare in the Community Shield. It took Arsenal less than a minute to open the scoring and the Citizens seemed to have no will to fight back, eventually losing 0-3.
Their Premier League opener wasn’t exactly very encouraging either. Man City did go on to win the game against Bournemouth, but not before trailing until the 84th minute. And two defenders rescued them from the jaws of defeat, with Marc Guehi equalising and Josko Gvardiol making it 2-1 in stoppage time.
Still, despite a few asterisks, not only do they remain unbeaten but have also won every single match so far. Let’s dig into the numbers.
How have Man City built their perfect Premier League start?
Identity maintained
Man City going for Enzo Maresca as Pep Guardiola’s replacement was no random appointment. The idea was to have a former assistant of the Spaniard to lead the team following his exit to make the transition as seamless as possible. And they have achieved that quite easily.
Maresca is less tactically flexible than Guardiola had been as of late – especially last season with a few adjustments following the addition of Pep Lijnders to the coaching staff.
But he has the Citizens first in most of the metrics regarding control.
Man City are also top in passes per sequence (4.9), average sequence time (13.7 seconds), sequences with 10+ passes (23.6) and the lowest direct speed upfield (0.95 metres per second).
Only Brighton and Hove Albion (64.6%) have spent more time with the ball than the Maresca’s Citizens (63.1%), but noy by much.
He has also continued to provide Erling Haaland with quality chances. The Norwegian striker failed to score in his first two appearances of the season, but is already in a five-game goalscoring run, netting seven times in this span.
The main difference in terms of players might be in the treatment of Rayan Cherki. The Frenchman has been an integral part of the current system, while Guardiola seemed to keep him in a shorter leash.
Cherki has already racked up five goal contributions in five league games for Man City this season (three goals, two assists). It took him 10 matches to reach this number last season.
But they have relied heavily on Gianluigi Donnarumma’s interventions so far. Which is actually a nice segue into our next point of discussion.
Area of concern?
Only Brighton have scored more goals (16) and accumulated more Expected Goals (11.5) than Man City (13 goals, 10.5 xG) in the Premier League so far. And the Citizens are actually first in xG per shot (0.15), indicating that their attacking execution has been flawless.
However, we can’t say the same when looking at defensive numbers. Man City may have the joint-seventh best defence in the league (five goals conceded) and the ninth lowest xGA (7.2). But they have conceded the fifth-most big chances of any team so far (16). The average of 3.2 per game is only matched by Ipswich Town (3.4), Chelsea (3.8), Aston Villa (3.8) and Fulham (4.0).
In fact, their very last match saw them allow Sunderland a whopping eight big chances. That’s the second most that any team has managed in a single Premier League game so far (Manchester United‘s nine vs Ipswich).
Even their 1-0 win against Coventry City featured many wasted opportunities by the visitors. Three, to be more precise, the same amount that Man City created themselves. Taiwo Awoniyi went through on goal but placed a shot worth 0.31 xG wide, Jack Rudoni missed a wide-open header worth 0.29 xG inside the six-yard box and Ellis Simms saw an effort worth 0.30 xG saved by Donnarumma’s face.
The Italian shot-stopper, in fact, has been one of the stand-out performers in the whole league. Only Newcastle’s Lukas Hornicek (+3.2) has prevented more goals in the PL so far than Donnarumma (+2.6).
That was also the case last season, when only Man Utd’s Senne Lammens bettered Donnarumma in goals prevented. But on a per game basis, the Italian is preventing considerably more goals this season (0.5) than in the last (0.2).
No chaos football
Maresca has gone on record saying that he doesn’t like chaos in football. So he will surely be working towards making Man City’s games less entertaining for the neutral football fan, but safer for the Citizens.
It’s not like they are punching above their weight or anything. Granted, performances haven’t exactly matched the perfection of their results. But Opta’s expected points model has them second in the ‘justice table’, 1.2 xPs behind Arsenal.
And considering he just took over after 10 years of one of – if not the – best managers of all time, with lots of changes to the squad and a whole new midfield, nobody could have asked for much more.
Especially when factoring in the heavy and demoralising loss to Arsenal in the Community Shield that could have shaped their season, but from which they completely – and quickly – moved on.
It’s a highly solid foundation to build from going forward, even with all the defensive flaws.
Off-field worries
There is also now the added caveat of uncertainty surrounding Man City’s future. The club have been found guilty of 114 of their 115 financial charges brought against them by the Premier League. The charges are as follows
- 54 failures to provide accurate financial information from 2009/10 to 2017/18
- 14 failtures to provide accurate details for player and manager payments from 2009/10 to 2017/18
- 5 failures to comply with Uefa’s rules including financial fair play from 2013/14 to 2017/18
- 7 breachings of Premier League profit and sustainabiluty rules from 2015/16 to 2017/18
- 25 failures to co-operate with Premier League investigations from December 2018 to February 2023
Man City are reportedly planning to appeal the decisions, but the initial guilty verdict has thrown a huge spanner into the works. Should Man City fail in their appeal, there are a host of possible sanctions, including points deductions, financial penalties or even removal from the Premier League. So all of the work this season could be in vain, should the appeal process be a swift one.