The City, an ‘ogre’ at the beginning of the game

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The first quarter of an hour of the game that Manchester City already beat Leicester 2-0 on Boxing Day had not been completed. The group led by Pep Guardiola came out like a whirlwind to the meeting and overwhelmed their rival in the first few bars where they squandered intensity and football.

It may seem like a mere coincidence, but scoring at the first substitution is becoming a habit for City. So far this season (19 games), the ‘citizen’ team has hit 8 times before the first 10 minutes of play, a devastating fact that shows the demand that Guardiola places on his players when facing a game.

In the next 10 minutes, before the 20th minute, they have also given good returns to the ‘citizens’, who have managed to open the can of two more games. Thus, there are already 10 games that City manages to score in the first moments of the clash.

A constant with Guardiola

This season, Guardiola’s team seems especially inspired at the start of the matches, but looking further back we see that this circumstance becomes a constant, making City an ogre at the beginning of each duel.

Since the Catalan’s arrival on the bench in 2016, City have gotten used to starting strong and making the most of it. Of 209 Premier matches, the ‘citizens’ have managed to score their first goal before minute 10 on 43 occasions, or what is the same, in one out of every five matches (20.5%). The data is even more devastating when you look at the first 20 minutes, since there are 77 games (36.8%) in which City has managed to find the rival goal net.

The best season in this regard was 2018/19. The ‘citizens’ drilled the opposite goal 12 times before reaching 10′ of the game and a total of 19 before the 20th minute.

Synonym of victory

As if that were not enough, the data shows that when City overwhelms the start and sees the goal in the first 20 minutes of play, it is very difficult to snatch the victory from them. Guardiola touches 91% of victories when that happens and only 7 times has he ended up giving up points, losing four games and drawing another two.


Matches where City has scored before minute 20:

  1. 10 games in 16/17 (9 wins, 1 draw)
  2. 13 at 17/18 (13 wins)
  3. 19 on 18/19 (17 wins, 2 losses)
  4. 10 at 19/20 (10 wins)
  5. 15 in 20/21 (12 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses)
  6. 10 at 21/22 (10 wins) (19 rounds)