By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-11-20 12:57:27 | Updated at 2024-11-20 15:21:44
2 hours ago
With a contract extension reportedly agreed at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has the chance to make even more history at the club. We look at the stats behind his exceptionally successful tenure so far.
Pep Guardiola has reportedly signed a contract extension at Manchester City, which will see the Spaniard’s spell at the club run to at least 10 seasons.
Guardiola has transformed Manchester City into arguably the world’s best team across men’s football since his arrival at the club in the summer of 2016.
Not only have Man City won the Premier League in six of his eight seasons in charge, but last season also saw the club become the first men’s side in English top-flight history to seal four consecutive titles. In fact, City have won more top-flight league titles in eight years under Guardiola (six) than they won in 87 seasons as a top-flight club before his arrival in Manchester (four).
Their best season so far undoubtedly came in 2022-23, when Guardiola guided Man City to a historic treble. In winning the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, they became just the second men’s team in English club history to secure the treble, after Manchester United in 1998-99.
While his first season in the Premier League ended without a trophy in any competition and a third-place finish in the league 15 points behind champions Chelsea, Guardiola made up for it with a sensational record-breaking campaign in 2017-18.
Their title success that season saw them secure 100 points, becoming the first team in English top-flight history to reach the century (even considering three points for a win in the two-points-for-a-win era). They scored 106 goals that season, too, making them the first team to score that many goals in England’s top division in a single campaign since Tottenham in 1962-63 (111).
In 2018-19, a 6-0 FA Cup final rout of Watford in addition to another Premier League title and the EFL Cup saw Manchester City become the first men’s team in England to secure the domestic treble.
Overall, during his time as a Premier League manager, Guardiola has secured 232 wins in 315 games. That total is already the fifth-most by a coach in the competition, but on a points-per-game basis, he is the most successful of all time amog managers to take charge of at least 20 matches.
Averaging 2.35 points per game across his time as a Premier League manager, he sits ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson (2.16), Jürgen Klopp (2.11) and former City boss Roberto Mancini (2.05) when considering those to have taken charge of at least 100 matches in the competition. Similarly, his win rate of 73.7% eclipses that of the next in the rankings by over eight percentage points (Ferguson: 65.2%).
Looking at Guardiola’s City record compared to single spells by other managers at Premier League clubs, his points-per-game average is even higher than José Mourinho’s during his first period in charge of Chelsea between June 2004 and September 2007 (2.33), which brought two Premier League titles to Stamford Bridge.
Guardiola’s tenure at Man City has seen them win the most games (232), the most points (739) and score the most goals (777) in the competition, while in defence they have collected seven more clean sheets than any other side (135 – Liverpool on 128).
In fact, Man City have won more points in 315 matches under Guardiola (739) than they won in the 424 matches before his appointment (738).
One sentence you might not have expected to read today around Guardiola’s contract extension is that he will probably be keen for Middlesbrough to win promotion back to the top flight for next season. He has faced 33 different clubs across his Premier League managerial career, and Boro are the only side that he’s failed to win against.
A 1-1 home draw in November 2016 followed by a 2-2 stalemate in Middlesbrough in April 2017 means the Teesside club achieved a unique feat over Guardiola.
It’s West Ham who have suffered the most against Guardiola’s Man City, winning just two points and losing 15 of their 17 Premier League meetings, more than any other club. They have also conceded more goals against City under Guardiola than any other team (46).
Nuno Espírito Santo will come up against Manchester City in the league on Wednesday 4 December looking to equal a record. He’s currently won three of his eight Premier League meetings with Guardiola – only Klopp, Antonio Conte and Mourinho have won as many as four games against him in the competition.
With it seemingly likely that Guardiola will be staying at Man City beyond this season, he will give himself even more of a chance to pull closer to Ferguson’s record tally of 13 Premier League titles. His six are already the second most in the competition’s history, but level with Bob Paisley and George Ramsay across all English top-flight history.
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