Manchester City were comfortable 5-0 winners against Huddersfield Town in the FA on Sunday – and a statistic has emerged that shows just how dominant the hosts were.
Pep Guardiola‘s side got the calendar year off to the perfect start, swatting aside the Championship outfit with ease at the Etihad Stadium.
Huddersfield played well in the first 20 minutes or so and defended resolutely. But City’s quality told, with Phil Foden breaking the deadlock.
The superb Englishman grabbed another in the second-half, with Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku also scoring, and Oscar Bobb seeing his cross deflect in.
The game panned out as most expected it to; City just passed the Terriers to death and Stefan Ortega Moreno only had a couple of saves to make on the day.
The Manuel Akanji statistic that shows how dominant Manchester City were against Huddersfield
It was a day of real positives for City. There were five goals, there was a clean sheet, Foden continued his great form in the number 10 role, youngsters Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis dazzled and Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne made impactful returns from injury.
Pep Guardiola will have been delighted with how the day went.
But there was one small negative for City, with Manuel Akanji going off injured after just 20 minutes.
City fans will hope it’s nothing too serious, but £15 million star Akanji going off when he did provide the opportunity for statisticians to provide a real belter after the game.
According to WhoScored, Akanji actually completed more passes (27) than every Huddersfield player on Sunday, despite only being on the field for 20 minutes.
City rampant
It is remarkable that Akanji – a player branded ‘unbelievable’ by Sam Allardyce last season – finished the game with more completed passes than all the Huddersfield players despite only playing for 20 minutes.
If anything it just shows how utterly dominant City were yesterday, although it will not surprise or even impress too many neutrals.
But City must come in for some credit for the professional job they did, even if it was against a Championship side. Anything can happen in the FA Cup, so a 5-0 win deserves a little bit of praise.
Hopefully, Akanji’s issue isn’t too bad. He’s had his critics at times this season, but he remains a key player for Pep and the manager rates the Switzerland international very highly for his ability to play anywhere across the defence and of course, he even uses him in midfield sometimes.
