Analyzing the Premier League’s top four offenses
By Gary Pearson
3. Manchester City
Manchester City will have one of the best offenses in the world as long as Sergio Aguero suits up. He’s the main reason, though there are many, why City are so dangerous going forward. His eight goals in nine appearances thus far sums it up nicely. Diego Costa, the league’s leading scorer, has one more goal than Aguero, but the Spaniard has played in two more matches.
And I’d be extremely remiss not to mention the assist machine, Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian international has a league-leading six assists, which, considering he missed a few games due to injury, is incredibly impressive.
City, like Arsenal, could — and probably should — have more goals. They’ve hit the woodwork seven times and missed a few penalties, too. City have scored 22 of their 25 goals from inside the box.
City, like every team in the top four, play with the ball at their feet for what must seem like an eternity. With 6,545 completed passes, City trail only Liverpool in a category they’ll deem as integral to consistent success. Possession is the name of the game for City, probably even more than the other three teams atop the table.
City hate knocking the ball long and will risk conceding a goal to play it out of the back. It’s one of the main reasons Pep Guardiola dropped Joe Hart in favor of Claudio Bravo. They’ve hit the long ball 628 times, the third least in the league. Continuing on with the possession obsession, City have passed the ball backwards 990 times, the most of any team. Who said you have to go forward to frustrate teams?
Guardiola’s team really do believe that possession is nine-tenths of the law.