The stats behind Man City's worst start to a season since Mark Hughes | OneFootball

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Dan Burke·22 November 2020

The stats behind Man City's worst start to a season since Mark Hughes

Article image:The stats behind Man City's worst start to a season since Mark Hughes

Earlier this week, Manchester City celebrated the news of manager Pep Guardiola’s two-year contract extension.

But the party was short-lived as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of José Mourinho’s Tottenham on Saturday evening.


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That result leaves City 11th in the Premier League with just 12 points from their first eight matches.

And it’s their worst start to a season since 2008/09, when Mark Hughes was manager and they had 10 points after eight matches.

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The club had been taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group late in the summer of 2008, prompting a frantic deadline day scramble which ended with the stunning capture of Robinho.

But the squad at Hughes’s disposal was an imbalanced one and after finding themselves in the relegation zone at Christmas, they ultimately finished 10th.

Article image:The stats behind Man City's worst start to a season since Mark Hughes

However, despite their poor start to that campaign, they did score 20 goals in their first eight matches.

Fast forward to 2020/21, and Guardiola’s City have managed just 10 Premier League goals so far.

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That’s City’s worst scoring return since 2006/07 under Stuart Pearce, when they scored just six goals in their first eight matches.

They finished 14th that year having scored just 29 goals all season (the joint-lowest in the league) and they famously didn’t score a goal at home after New Year’s Day.

Article image:The stats behind Man City's worst start to a season since Mark Hughes

Remarkably, they had 22 shots (five on target) and 67% possession during Saturday’s defeat at Spurs, but still drew a blank.

Hughes was sacked in 2009. Pearce was sacked in 2007. If Guardiola doesn’t solve City’s scoring woes quickly, he could well be out of the door in 2021 as well.