Going into this fortnight-long pause, City held a two point lead at the table summit and were in possession of the meanest defence and the most potent attack in the division.
Who has been City’s star of the first two months of the Premier League season? There are plenty of candidates on the face of it but we’ve got the latest league-only stats from Opta to see if the numbers can give us some clues.
Goals
No surprise to see Sergio Aguero atop our scorers list but there was nothing straight forward about the way he reached the summit.
Kun’s five-goal haul against Newcastle accounts for all but one of his Premier League goals, while Kevin De Bruyne has been scoring in singles in his first four Premier League games for the club to ease ahead of the shock early season pace-setters, Fernandinho and Vincent Kompany.
- Sergio Aguero – 6 goals
- Kevin De Bruyne – 3 goals
- Fernandinho & Vincent Kompany – 2 goals
Assists
David Silva is another man used to dominating his metric but he may now face competition from the continent’s so-called “assist king”.
Kevin and David are two players equally renowned for supplying goals for teammates and it will be an intriguing battle between the two as this season plays out.
- David Silva – 6 assists (one per 69mins)
- Yaya Toure – 4 assists (one per 146mins)
- Kevin De Bruyne – 2 assists (one per 167mins)
Chances created (inc. assists)
There’s a three-way lead when it comes to the player who has supplied the most clear chances for one of his teammates to score.
Messrs Navas, Silva and Toure are the trio to have laid on the opportunities but once again, there’s a certain Belgian playmaker catching up fast with a chance created for every 25 minutes he’s been on the pitch.
- Silva, Navas, Toure – 17 chances created
- Aleksandar Kolarov – 15 chances created
- Kevin De Bruyne – 13 chances created
Passes
While you might expect to see our two most-used central midfielders at the top of the list for number of passes attempted, Kolarov’s inclusion may be something of a surprise.
The left-back’s extensive coverage of his flank accounts for this, with Aleks’s link-up play with Raheem Sterling an early-season feature.
- Fernandinho – 546 passes (89.19% accuracy)
- Aleksandar Kolarov – 467 passes (83.3% accuracy)
- Yaya Toure – 452 passes (87.83% accuracy)
Tackles
There’s an outright winner, streets ahead of his nearest rival, in terms of who has made the most tackles for City this season so far.
Yet again it’s Fernandinho at the top of the pile – the Brazilian has tried to win the ball back once every 21 minutes and he has a 72% success rate. Outstanding!
- Fernandinho – 33 tackles (24 won)
- Bacary Sagna – 12 tackles (10 won)
- Yaya Toure – 11 tackles (8 won)
Minutes played
In terms of who has been on the pitch most so far, Aleksandar Kolarov is a quarter of an hour clear of his nearest rival.
The Serbian full-back has only missed the final six minutes of the game against West Ham in the Premier League.
- Aleksandar Kolarov – 714mins
- Fernandinho – 699mins
- Joe Hart & Bacary Sagna – 630mins
