Talking Points: Can City set a new Club record?

Will they do it? Who will start? Where might the game be won and lost? Here are five things to look out for…

The only place to start… the victory over Everton equalled a 103-year old Club record of nine consecutive wins and City will be expected to break it on Saturday.

There have only been eight occasions where a team has won 10+ games in a row in the Premier League in the history of the competition.

One match at a time of course, but the all-time Premier League is 14 and was set by Arsenal in 2002. Let’s hope we’re still discussing that record on these pages in a few weeks’ time…

There’s only been one change to the line-up which kicked off the season at West Brom in the subsequent two games and that stat could well remain the same.

Sergio Aguero came in for the win over Chelsea but, with no other competitions to worry about for the time being, consistency has superseded rotation in the mind of Manuel Pellegrini so far this season.

City’s new system featuring the pace of Jesus Navas and Raheem Sterling on the flanks and David Silva in behind Aguero has looked devastating, so it seems unlikely that there will be too many alterations for Saturday.

In defence, Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala have been imperious and with new boy Nicolas Otamendi unavailable, expect the same again.

Complacency is the enemy…

As Manuel Pellegrini tirelessly pointed out towards the back end of last season, City’s troubles more often than not surfaced against the teams fighting against relegation rather than against those around them.

Whether or not Watford will be one of those sides this year remains to be seen but the Blues cannot afford any complacency to creep in following three supremely impressive wins.

City have made the perfect start to the season but that will quickly be forgotten if they fail to register maximum points against the newly-promoted side.

Since the winter of our discontent when the then-reigning champions failed to win four of five home games in January and February, we’ve unquestionably turned the Etihad Stadium back into a fortress again.

We’ve won our last eight home games and have kept seven clean sheets in that time, scoring 26 and conceding just two in that run.

With the addition of the South Stand third tier and the new singing section, the atmosphere was electric in City’s last home game against Chelsea – here’s hoping for the same on Saturday when the Hornets come to town.

Saturday’s game will be City’s last until 12 September with the first international break of the season coming up fast. If we could remain as the only team with a 100% record going into that pause, it will leave us sitting pretty at the top of the table for a fortnight.

Last time we won our first four Premier League games was back in 2011/12 and we all know how that campaign turned out…