11 shocking stats that show Man City & Pep Guardiola are definitely in crisis
Manchester City suffered their fourth straight defeat after losing 2-1 at Brighton on Saturday night – & there are plenty of worrying statistics which hint their current run of results could fatally derail their season.
Following their Carabao Cup exit to Tottenham, league defeat to Bournemouth and Champions League mauling against Sporting Lisbon, City travelled to the South Coast full of trepidation.
But Erling Haaland’s strike capped a dominant first-half performance, indicating that perhaps City were about to recall a morale-boosting win.
This didn’t materalise; Brighton turned the screw after the break as City gradually ran out of ideas and were unable to respond to late goals from Joao Pedro and Matt O’Reilly.
The champions’ latest damaging loss ensures they will trail Liverpool into November’s international break and doubts over the strength of their squad will continue to grow.
We’ve collected 11 stats to show that City and Guardiola are in danger of letting their season spiral out of control.
– City had zero shots on target during the second half against Brighton, a sign their vaunted attack is far from clinical during the present difficulties.
– The Seagulls created more chances (eight to five) and beat the four-in-a-row league champions on expected goals as well (2.26 – 2.16).
– City have lost their last three consecutive matches on xG, which has never happened before in the Pep Guardiola era.
– Worryingly for Guardiola, Brighton also made more successful tackles than his side (16 against 12) as City were outgunned on the South Coast.
– Guardiola has lost four games in a row in all competitions for the very first time in his managerial career.
– And City have lost four straight games for the first time since August 2006, when Stuart Pearce was manager of the club.
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– Ilkay Gundogan returned to the Etihad this summer to much fanfare, but his impact against Brighton was negligible. The midfielder created no chances, provided no accurate crosses and looked off-the-pace against spirited opponents.
– Since the start of the 2023-24 Premier League season, City have lost none of the 36 matches Rodri has played. Without the Ballon d’Or winner, the champions have lost five of 13 league games.
– Phil Foden, who was voted last year’s PFA Footballer of the Year, is yet to get going this campaign. The England midfielder has one goal contribution in 2024-25, less than Joao Pedro has managed solely from substitute appearances (two).
– Perhaps one chink of light is the continued goalscoring form of Erling Haaland. His goal at the AMEX was his 75th goal in the Premier League, a tally he has achieved in just 77 matches – beating Alan Shearer’s record by 16 games.
– But the Norweigan striker still lost a Premier League match in which he scored a goal for the first time, having won 40 and drawn six of the previous 46 he’d scored in before this defeat at Brighton.