It says something about Manchester City’s scoring problems that despite netting five against Burnley for the fourth consecutive home meeting with the Clarets, their tally of 15 from their first nine Premier League games is their worst at this stage since 2010.
For a team that has found scoring so easy under Pep Guardiola – 102, 95 and 106 goals in the past three Premier League seasons – some of the statistics around City’s victory over Sean Dyche’s side are startling.
It was the first time they had scored three times in a Premier League game since the opening day of the season, a stark contrast to 2019-20 when they did it on five occasions in the same number of matches.
It was the first time they had scored three in the first half of a game – and the first time they had scored five in a game – since July.
But perhaps most significantly it was the first time in seven Premier League matches they scored more than once.
Remarkably, going into this weekend City were 12th in the expected goals table, behind the likes of Fulham, West Ham and Brighton, meaning 11 sides have been creating better quality chances than them this season.
Little wonder Guardiola was somewhat dismissive when asked to put into context what the result – and specifically the size of the 5-0 victory – meant.
“It’s one game,” he said. “We have had chances in every game. Today we took them.” – BBC.
