Manchester City moved to the top of the Premier League table for the first time this season on Saturday, capitalising on Chelsea's loss at West Ham with an authoritative 3-1 win over Watford.
Nevertheless, Pep Guardiola is nothing if not a perfectionist and he will be concerned about a slight slip in defensive standards.
City have the joint-best defence in the Premier League but clean sheets have dried up of late and, ahead of Tuesday's dead rubber at RB Leipzig, they have conceded in all five of their Champions League outings.
On the team's weekend Facebook Live, City is Ours editor Dom Farrell was accompanied by social producer Jai Mcintosh to discuss an area where the champions can improve.
DF: “I think it will drive Ruben Dias up the wall, as a man who casts himself as a defender’s defender. Look at his Instagram and there's all this sort of motivational bicep clenching and what not.
“City look like they’re on one of these rumbling runs now. Seven wins in all competitions on the spin. But, within that, there’s only two clean sheets, which were against United and Everton.
“Neither of them played football in our half throughout the game, so they were fairly easy clean sheets to achieve. I think with City, we talk about the attacking talent but also the missed chances.
“City are going to need an awful lot of chances to get their goals because there isn’t an actual striker. But, that trade-off works because there is so much creativity and they control games so well and take teams apart.
“If City aren't going to be efficient in front of goal, they can’t be letting in one of the two or three chances they might concede in the game. It’s something to work on.
“There’s the dead rubber in the Champions League against Leipzig in midweek. Then there’s back to back games against Wolves and Leeds - Wolves under Bruno Lage and we all know about Leeds under Bielsa. They’re both teams who are both going to come and have a go.
“There will be more defending to do over those games. With the calibre of defenders and goalkeeper [at City], they’re not going to be happy. They need to tighten up a bit.”
How can City ensure they keep more clean sheets in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
