The international break allows us an opportunity to step back and take stock of what has happened in these initial first few weeks of the new Premier League season.
From a Manchester City perspective, the early signs are good. Their defeat on the opening day to Tottenham has been the only league loss Pep Guardiola’s men have suffered so far and they currently sit just two points behind title rivals and current leaders Chelsea, and one point behind Sunday’s opponents Liverpool.
City of course faced both the leading two in the space of just over a week, and performed impressively across each, especially at Stamford Bridge and in the opening 45 minutes of Sunday’s clash at Anfield.
Their four points from those two matches further legitimised their tag as title favourites at the beginning of the season, yet Liverpool and Chelsea’s early season form is also adding weight to their claim as being two of City’s biggest threats.
The third side tipped to battle it out with City for the title this season were rivals Manchester United who have currently accumulated the same number of points as the Blues and sit one place behind them only on goal difference.
Yet despite their position in the table, all is not well at Old Trafford and there are already serious doubts as to whether they have what it takes to keep pace with the early league leaders this season.
Last week, United managed to win just one of three home matches against Aston Villa, Villarreal and Everton. And even their one victory came via a rather fortuitous last-minute winner against Unai Emery’s men in the Champions League.
Whilst the results alone were disappointing enough for Ole Gunna Solskjaer’s side, it was the performances accompanying them that would have raised the most alarm, particularly from an attacking point of view.
And there’s growing evidence that they don’t look at a level equal to other league rivals, despite spending over £120million in the summer
Although we’re still early into the campaign, City, Chelsea and Liverpool are already starting to lead the way in key attacking metrics. In terms of accumulated Expected Goals (xG), each ranks first, second and third, with Liverpool so far topping the Premier League with an accumulated figure of 17.9 - according to FBref.
United in comparison rank sixth, despite having arguably an easier run of fixtures on paper.
Liverpool also top the table in terms of having the highest xG per shot average (0.13), this being an average value for each shot generated by a team, with a higher value representing better all-round quality.
City and Chelsea are right behind them with a joint average of 0.12, however United’s average is noticeably lower at just 0.09. Only Norwich City, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Brighton and Arsenal have a lower xG per shot average than United so far this season.
United have still been able to score goals fairly frequently thanks to the elite finishers they have in the squad, players like Mason Greenwood, Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, there’s currently a big dependency on these players’ individual brilliance to score goals, rather than good attacking play from the team as a unit.
There’s a distinct lack of combinations in the final third, with no clear attacking identity and not enough patterns in their play, certainly in comparison to the likes of City. This means off days for key players can lead directly to struggles for United in front of goal.
On the other side of this international break, Solskjaer’s men take on Leicester City, Liverpool, Tottenham before the Manchester derby at Old Trafford, with tricky European clashes against Atalanta in between.
City in comparison take on Burnley, Brighton, West Ham and Crystal Palace in the lead up to the derby, with a double-header against Club Brugge in the middle.
That run of matches will more than likely prove to be a make or break period for United’s title hopes, and has the potential to see them begin to slip away from the leading pack, based on the above.
Whilst it’s too early to write any side off for sure, this is good news for City who look set to battle for the league title with two sides instead of three, and having already shown they’re more than a match for both, confidence should be high that they have what it takes to retain their crown once again.
