PEP IN THEIR STEP
▶ Guardiola’s free-scoring Man City set goals record
“You need to score goals to win games, that is no secret,” said Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola in the days after his side had beaten Leeds United 7-0 in the English Premier League.
“We have found a way to score goals from different places in different ways and Tuesday was a good example.”
Those goals came from Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez, John Stones, Nathan Ake and a brace from City talisman Kevin de Bruyne, who is on the comeback trail from injury and COVID-19.
“Scoring goals also brings confidence, for the team, for the players and that will be important in helping us to win the next game. If they are know they are capable of scoring goals like this then that confidence will help us achieve our goals,” Guardiola said.
Foden’s opener against Leeds United marked another milestone for Manchester City under the Catalan. It was the 500th English Premier League goal of Guardiola’s time in charge at the Etihad Stadium – and it was brought up in record time.
Guardiola only needed 207 games to bring up the 500-goal mark, some 27 games faster than the previous record of 234 games set by Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool. Legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguso needed 265 games – almost two seasons more than Guardiola – while Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger took 271 games. Elsewhere, Jose Mourinho (289 games) and Rafa Benitez (329 games) make up the fastest six bosses to the milestone.
There have been some free-scoring English Premier League seasons along the way to the 500-goal mark. It started back in 2016-17 with 80 goals, the lowest his team have managed in a full season.
They scored 106 goals the following campaign and then 95 goals in the 2018-19 season. City hit 102 goals in the 2019-20 season and then just 83 last season as they won the title at a canter.
There have been 40 goals in the
first 17 games of the current season and they are on course to be better than 80 at their current rate.
Some of the names on the scoresheet have been regular features of the 500 English Premier League goals under Guardiola.
Sergio Aguero, who left the club in the sumemr for Barcelona and has since retired from football over a heart condition, leads the way with 82 goals, closely followed by Raheem Sterling on 76 goals. Brazil striker Gabriel Jesus has 52 goals of the 500 while De Bruyne has contributed 37 goals, ahead of sometime captsain Ilkay Gundogan’s 31 goals.
Mahrez has scored 29 of the 500 with Bernardo Silva hitting 28 of them, while former winger Leroy Sane netted 25 before moving to Bayern Munich. Club legend David Silva also hit 25 while Foden, who brought up the 500 mark, has scored 19 times among the milestone.
Under the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss, City have scored an average of 2.4 goals per game in the English Premier League since he arrived in 2016. It is almost two years since the club brought up the 500goal mark in all competitions under Guardiola, which came in the UEFA Champions League meeting with Dinamo Kiev in December 2019 – his 199th game in charge of the club. At the time that was 95 more goals than any other English team had managed in the same period since his arrival.
Guardiola was quick to dismiss any credit after putting seven past Leeds United, praising the “quality of the players” and their “patient” play.
“I didn’t score one goal, the staff didn’t score one goal. It depends on the quality of the players,” he said.
It was a similar story earlier in the month when Guardiola was nominated for the November manager of the month alongside Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo being nominated for the player of the month award.
“Don’t focus on individual awards. They are good for communication, the show must go on. The teams play the same. Don’t pay much attention to awards. They normally are won by teams who win. It doesn’t mean they are best,” he said.
“If I am awarded, it’s because of the players, I didn’t score one goal,” Guardiola continued. “If Joao [Cancelo] or Bernardo [Silva] are nominated, it’s because there are nine or 10 more players... consistent in the way we play, for the people, our fans.”
The fans were certainly happy at the Etihad against Leeds United, where their cries of “We want seven” were met with a goal glut on the pitch. They will be happier still if the team can retain their title come the end of the season.
The champions are top of the table ahead of a busy festive period. Ahead of their trip to Newcastle United on Sunday they had played 17 games and the +31 goal difference is the third best under Guardiola at this stage of a season.
It might be some way off the +41 of 2017 and the +38 of a year later but it is an improvement on this stage last season, where City were only +16 goals to the good but still ended up being champions come the end of the campaign.
Their goal difference has certainly improved in recent games.
“The goal difference might be important but maybe one day we’ll score more,” Guardiola said after beating Watford 3-1 at Vicarage Road last month, which came on the back of a one-goal win over Aston Villa and a two-goal win in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford despite completely dominating their local rivals. He has been proved right, already by hitting Leeds for seven.
Summer signing Jack Grealish was in on the act against Leeds but the 100 million pound signing was full of praise for his boss.
“‘The amount of games he has won for us this season from his tactics is just unbelievable,” the former Aston Villa star said.
If Guardiola’s side can keep winning then they will be well on the way to their goals this season.