11 stats and records that explain Manchester City’s current crisis

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Manchester City had hoped that an international break to aid their injured and fatigued players’ recoveries and the news that Pep Guardiola had signed a contract extension would have been the catalysts to snapping their losing streak on Saturday.

But instead, they suffered the worst result of this dire run, as Tottenham swept aside the Premier League champions 4-0. With Liverpool claiming a late win at Southampton, City are now eight points off the pace at the top of the table.

This is now by far the worst run under Guardiola and City’s poorest set to results for almost 20 years, with a visit to Anfield coming up next weekend.

Manchester City’s injury list is partly to blame for the current slump, with Rodri headlining City’s list of absentees that has included the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Nathan Ake, Kyle Walker, Jeremy Doku and Ruben Dias at various points. But what do the stats and the history books tell us about the current crisis?

Where it’s going wrong on the pitch

When you look at this season’s play, there are also a number of concerning stats.

• City had 23 shots with no goal against Spurs on Saturday – the most in a Premier League game without scoring since a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United in Match 2021.
• City has conceded the same number of goals (17) as Crystal Palace (18th) in the Premier League so far. Leaders Liverpool have conceded just eight.
• According to SofaScore, City have an xG of 8.15 in their past four games across all competitions but have found the next just three times.
• City’s first 14 games of the season saw them score 2.3 goals a game and concede 0.8 goals a game – this has been reversed in the past five matches to scoring 0.8 goals and letting in 2.3 per game
• Guardiola’s side are shipping 1.25 goals per game this season (excluding penalties), up from 0.79 per contest last year.
• City are conceding 1.2 shots from counter-attacks per game this year (as per Opta, via the BBC) – up from 0.5 last season.

What history says about Man City’s slump

It’s been almost 20 years since City have had such a poor run of form, but the club have also been sweeping up a number of unwanted records in recent weeks.

• This is City’s longest losing streak since a 2006 run which saw them lose six on the bounce in all competitions under Stuart Pearce as the club slumped to a 15th-placed Premier League finish in the 2005/06 campaign.
• Pep Guardiola has lost 4-0 just three times before in his career. Two of these came at City – a defeat to Everton in 2017 and to Barcelona in a 2016 Champions League clash, while he also lost 4-0 to Real Madrid as Bayern Munich boss in 2014.
• The last top-flight champions to lose five in a row in all competitions was Chelsea in March 1956, with the Blues finishing 16th in the old First Division that season.

• The 4-0 defeat to Spurs was City’s heaviest-ever defeat at the Etihad Stadium and worst home defeat since a 5-1 loss to Arsenal at Maine Road in 2003.
• Liverpool are only the fourth Premier League team to have a lead of eight or more points after 12 games – all three other teams (Man United in 1993/93, Man City in 2017/18 and Liverpool in 2019/20) went on to win the league that season.

What next for Man City?

After the international break came and went, City do not have the luxury of time to fix their problems.

Next up is a home Champions League tie against Feyenoord who have lost just once in the Eredivisie this season before Sunday’s huge Premier League showdown against leaders Liverpool, with City facing the prospect of an 11-point gap, should Arne Slot’s side win.

After making a stark admission about his side’s fragility following the Spurs loss, Guardiola was asked if 11 points would be too big a gap to make up.

“Yeah, because this Liverpool is winning, winning, winning,” the boss said before being quizzed about his team’s title hopes.

“I don’t know,” he continued. “But it’s not thinking about whether you’re going to win or lose [the championship]. We are not ready to think about what is going to happen at the end of the season.

“At the end [if] we don’t win [the title] it’s because we don’t deserve it – when we won in the past it was because we deserve it. What we have to do now is Feyenoord [on Tuesday]. That is the most important thing – first for the qualification for the Champions League – and step by step the players will be better.”