Despite this, United conceded six goals at home for the first time in 81 years, but it was no real surprise; Nemanja Vidic wasn’t playing and when the Serbian doesn’t play the average shots on target the opposition has increases by 70%. United’s only saving grace this season is the form of David de Gea, because they certainly aren’t defending well.
Then there is Chelsea and they aren’t the Chelsea that Alan Hansen said could afford to have “anyone playing alongside John Terry, even you (Colin Murray)”. They are the Chelsea that own the worst saves to shots ratio in the PL at 46%, 33% worse than United’s; the Chelsea that let Arsenal have 8 shots on target and concede 5, the first time they’ve conceded 5 at The Bridge in 22 years and the first hat-trick conceded since Kanu’s in ’99; and the Chelsea that have only kept 1 clean sheet, their first game of the campaign, in the first 10 games of the season. Their desperation to improve this is evident too; Chelsea are averaging more bookings per game, under AVB, than they ever have during the Abramovich ownership.
City, however, are capitalising on a season that has reaped the most goals per game for 44 years, that has seen more away hat-tricks scored than the past two campaigns put together and has seen 32.3% of games end in away wins due to poor home records.
Man City bagged 33 goals in their first 9 games of season, no side has ever scored more after 9 PL matches and the potency of their strike-force is epitomized in the form of Aguero and Balotelli; before this weekend’s games Aguero had scored 9 goals from 12 shots on target and Ballotelli had recorded 5 from 7. This works out as a combined scoring rate of 74% of their shots on target. The free-scoring nature of Mancini’s City is hugely down to the creativity of David Silva, who has created the most goal-scoring chances from open play than any other player in the PL.
Where Ferguson has bragged that his countless trophy winnings have come down to his view that they score more late goals than any other side in the world, it is City that are doing it this season, hinting at title winning credentials. City have netted a higher percentage of second half goals, at 78%, than any other PL team this season, and three of them came in 237 seconds against Manchester United in injury time; ironically 20 seconds less than the average amount of injury time played at Old Trafford when Fergie’s side is losing.
So exactly how do City’s chances line-up for winning the Premier League? Well, five of the six previous teams to equal City’s best ever start to a Premier League, nine wins and a draw, have gone on to win the title. Furthermore, it is evident that, whilst last season Mancini was criticised for setting up excessively defensive, the Italian philosophy of defend first attack second has been fully instilled into the City way of playing and this season it is providing the foundations for a creative team to fire their way to the title.
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles like this visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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As i support a team in the Championship i can view the Premiership without bias and personally its great to see City giving the other so called big sides a run for their money this season. It keeps the Premiership interesting and anything that upsets Ferguson is a good thing in my book! Apart from that City are an entertaining side to watch.