Seven games needed to be squeezed into 21 days, so the matches came thick and fast and the City began the month with a tricky-looking home game against Liverpool.
It started evenly, and the visitors could have been ahead had Mo Salah taken one of his opportunities, but once Sergio Aguero had opened the scoring, the game began to tilt the Blues’ way – and emphatically so when Sadio Mane was dismissed for a dangerous challenge on Ederson.
City doubled the lead in first-half added time through Gabriel Jesus and went on the rampage after the break with another from Jesus and two fine goals from sub Leroy Sane.
The news on Ederson wasn’t good, with the Brazilian needing several stitches in a nasty facial gash, but he was back in goal for the next game as City began their Champions League quest with a comfortable 4-0 win away to Feyenoord. John Stones scored a couple and Aguero and Jesus were also on target.
Next up was a trip to Vicarage Road to face Watford.
The Blues had won 5-0 in the same fixture just four months earlier and one Hornets’ fan tweeted before the game, “At least it can’t be as bad as the last time we played them.” – he was right – it was worse!
City tore Marco Silva’s side to shreds with Aguero scoring a ‘perfect’ hat-trick and Jesus, Nicolas Otamendi and Raheem Sterling all on target in a 6-0 win and put the Blues top of the Premier League – a position that wouldn’t be surrendered again all season.
A much-changed City then edged past West Brom in the Carabao Cup with two crackers from Sane securing a 2-1 win and a place in the last 16.
Back to Premier League action and Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace arrived at the Etihad with no points from their opening five games – yet the visitors started brightly and were the better team for much of the first half until Sane scored a minute before the break.
The Blues killed the game off just after half-time with two Sterling goals and further efforts from Aguero and a beauty from Fabian Delph completed a 5-0 victory.
City had scored 16 goals from just three league games and the rest of the top flight knew Pep’s side were going to take some stopping.
Shakhtar Donetsk were the Blues’ next Champions league opponents and City had to work hard to beat a technical and well-organised side with the game still in the balance until the final moments when Sterling added to Kevin De Bruyne’s 51st-minute thunderbolt.
To end September, City faced the biggest test yet to their title credentials – an away game at reigning champions Chelsea.
Antonio Conte’s side had made a stuttering start, but the Blues knew that if a marker was to be laid, Stamford Bridge was the perfect place to do it.
City dominated, virtually from start to finish with a performance that oozed class and when De Bruyne scored a superb goal against his former employers on 67 minutes, there was no way the Blues would give up their advantage.
That 1-0 win meant City had won all seven games in September, playing mouth-watering football in the process.
The question was, could Pep’s men maintain that sort of blistering form in the months ahead…?
Stats: Played: 7 Won: 7 Drawn: 0 Lost: 0 For: 25 Against: 1
Player of the Month: Kevin De Bruyne
