Pep Guardiola’s Treble winners last season have started the new campaign excellently, claiming 28 points from our first 12 games.
After suspicions over the summer from outside the Club that we would suffer something of a hangover from last term’s successes, we instead lead the way again at this early stage.
In order to earn a record breaking fourth straight Premier League title, we will have to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur who are all within two points of us.
When you consider we have already guaranteed progression to the Round of 16 in the Champions League, it’s been a positive beginning to 2023/24.
Once we return to domestic action with the visit of Liverpool on Saturday 25 November, club football will take centre stage until March.
That period will define which teams head into the spring with a shot at silverware.
Ahead of that, we look back at the stats from our 12 league games so far…
Goal threat
Our 32 goals so far is the best in the league, with Aston Villa next on 29. Our tally means we average 2.66 goals per game.
That total is boosted by significant home wins against Bournemouth and Fulham, but convincing wins at Burnley and Manchester United have also been important.
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As a team, our xG so far has been 24.8, meaning we’re finishing extremely well compared to the rest of the division.
After breaking records galore in his debut season, Erling Haaland is again leading the Golden Boot race.
The Norwegian has 13 goals in 12 appearances and he notched his seventh City hat-trick and fifth in the Premier League against Fulham. The rest of the league combined has only managed nine hat-tricks since the start of last season.
He now has 49 goals in 47 Premier League appearances and needs one in his next 17 matches to set the record for quickest player to 50. He has scored multiple times in a single game on 13 occasions in those 47 matches.
His 13 goals this season have come from 46 shots with an xG of 12.7 and include three strikes from the penalty spot.
Julian Alvarez is next for goals scored, having hit four so far. Phil Foden, Rodrigo and Bernardo Silva have all hit three each and Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Jeremy Doku have two apiece.
Assists
Many would expect the absence of Kevin De Bruyne for all but 23 minutes of our opener at Burnley would stifle the creativity on show.
As we’ve already heard, we’re scoring plenty of goals.
Doku has enjoyed a brilliant start to life in Manchester and lit up many of the games for which he’s been selected. The standout is of course his four assists and a goal against Bournemouth.
At the age of 21 years and 161 days, it made him the youngest player in Premier League history with five goal involvements in a single game, as well as the youngest player to assist four goals in a single game.
That took him to five assists in the Premier League so far, currently the third best tally in the league behind Wolves’ Pedro Neto (seven) and Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier (six).
The Belgian is also crucial for City in terms of dribbling the ball up the pitch, having done 67 progressive carries so far. That is only fewer than Kaoru Mitoma, Raheem Sterling and Dejan Kulusevski across the 20 sides.
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Alvarez has laid goals on for his team-mates on four occasions while Foden, Haaland and Bernardo have done so three times each.
Rodrigo has two assists while four players have each directly set up one goal so far.
While De Bruyne has been the outstanding playmaker in the division for many years now, the side are chipping in to help cover for his absence.
Defending
Our 12 goals conceded in 12 games is the third fewest in the league behind nearest challengers Liverpool and Arsenal. They have both let in 10 goals.
Ederson is one of five goalkeepers with four clean sheets to his name, one behind both Sam Johnstone and Nick Pope.
The Brazilian has made 19 saves, the 19th most of all goalkeepers to play in the league so far, suggesting he’s been well protected by the defenders in front of him.
There have been 32 shots on our goal while the outfielders have blocked 23 shots from reaching the goalkeeper.
Stefan Ortega Moreno has also played in one Premier League game – the 2-1 win over Brighton after October’s international break.
As always with our goalkeepers, it’s about more than just shot stopping and Ederson has completed an average of 33 passes per game so far.
As expected with a City side who spend most of our time in the opponent’s half, it’s our midfielders who lead the way in terms of tackles. Rodrigo and Doku have made 11 each, with Mateo Kovacic next on 10.
That is a long way back from the leaders in this metric in the division because we dominate the ball in most of our matches.
Possession
City’s league leading 62.6% average possession has seen us have 9,625 touches of the ball so far this season. That’s just over 100 more than Brighton in second.
That has led to a whopping 7,733 passes, meaning we average 644 every single game.
It’s no surprise to see Rodrigo leading the way for City here, even despite missing two games through suspension. He’s made 999 passes in total so far with only Brighton’s Lewis Dunk and Arsenal’s William Saliba ahead of him.
Rodrigo has featured in the top three for most passes made every season since arriving at City.
Home record
City haven’t failed to win at the Etihad Stadium since 31 December 2022. Across all competitions that means 23 successive victories, 15 of which have come in the Premier League.
Sunderland’s 24 successive home victories across 1891 and 1892 remains the outright record.
Our home acted as a fortress during last season’s unbelievable achievements and has remained so this campaign with straight Premier League victories there.
We have already scored 16 goals at home and conceded just three.
