Pep Guardiola pictured during Man City's Premier League match vs Brighton
Pep Guardiola pictured during Man City's Premier League match vs Brighton
Manchester City have been enjoying a great Premier League campaign to date this season, with the reigning champions claiming 26 wins and scoring an impressive 84 goals in the process so far.
Despite this, they find themselves still uncomfortable at the top, following Liverpool's win over Newcastle on Saturday.
Although the 4-0 win over Leeds saw City reclaim top spot by just one point — demonstrating just how tight the Premier League title race is this season — it's still firmly in the balance. But what has caused the race to be just so close this campaign? There is one fact that is fairly odd that provides the answer.
Of City’s 34 games this season, the Sky Blues have failed to win eight of them, succumbing to five draws and three losses. What makes this statistic all the more unique is that all eight negative results came against the same four teams.
A pair of losses against Tottenham Hotspur, two draws versus Liverpool, successful stalemates against Southampton and a loss coupled with a draw when facing Crystal Palace have all prevented City from running away from their competition in the league as they did in 2018 and 2021.
It is worth assessing why these teams in particular have caused Pep Guardiola’s side such severe problems in their clashes this season both home and away.
In the case of Tottenham and Southampton, both teams set up very defensively in the four fixtures against City, managing to stifle the Sky Blues’ attack. This led to City only being able to muster three goals in over 360 minutes vs the two sides.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0