The black record at the Emirates that set City and Guardiola back 13 years

Manchester City suffered a 1-0 defeat in London on Sunday evening, which was their second consecutive defeat in the Premier League (after the 2-1 loss to Wolves at Molinos). What surprised the English public, however, was not the result, but a statistic concerning the champions of England and Europe.

This was down to how much they threatened their opponents, with City finishing the game with just four final tries, a record for the team in the Premier League under Pep Guardiola (274 games in total), with the Blacks counted for the first time ever a derby with United in January 2023, when he played five finals.

The impressive thing is that both City and Guardiola himself have had many years to experience a similar situation in their game. The last time City ended their league season with just four finals was again in 2010 against Arsenal, while the last time this poor figure appeared in a game for Guardiola’s team was in a Catalan derby in April 2010 – which was when his team played Barcelona vs Espanyol.

In fact, things went better for the Blaugrana in this game, considering that they didn’t lose (0-0), despite having to play at a numerical disadvantage from the 62nd minute due to Dani Alves’ sending off.