No other English club has ever won their first four games in a top tier season more than six times, with Chelsea and Everton sharing that tally, but the Blues have now achieved the feat on nine occasions.
City 2-1 Brentford | Match report
The eight previous years in which we have won our first four league matches were 1903/04, 1912/13, 1961/62, 2009/10, 2011/12, 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2023/24.
It is also our 13th successive victory in the Premier League, stretching back to the 4-1 thrashing of Aston Villa in April.
Under Pep Guardiola alone, we are responsible for six of the 16 runs of 12 or more consecutive wins by any clubs in English top-flight history.
Heading into the game, Guardiola knew the challenge Thomas Frank’s side posed, with the Bees the last team to beat us at the Etihad in the Premier League, back in November 2022.
This victory made it 32 Premier League outings at our home ground since our last defeat.
We didn’t have it all our own way this time around, with Yoane Wissa heading the visitors into the lead after just 22 seconds.
However, two strikes from Erling Haaland turned it around.
That means Haaland now has nine goals after four appearances in the Premier League this season - the most ever at this stage of the competition.
He did everything he possibly could to make it a third successive hat-trick too, with only some dogged defending, excellent goalkeeping and on one occasion, the woodwork, denying him.
Had he converted a third, he would have become the first man since 1946 to score three hat-tricks in three successive English top-flight matches.
The incredible Norwegian is now on 99 goals after 103 games for the Club and will become the 19th City player to reach the landmark figure with his next strike.
His second goal against Brentford came courtesy of an Ederson assist - with the Brazilian launching the ball down the middle for Haaland to race on to.
It represents our goalkeeper’s fourth Premier League assist, putting him joint second amongst stoppers for that metric in the modern era of the top flight.
He is now just one behind former England man Paul Robinson, who set up five goals during his career.
That came as part of a very rare phenomenon in the first half, with City having less than half of the ball and completing fewer passes than our opponents.
Our second half performance saw us wrestle back control of those familiar numbers, having 54% of the ball in total and playing 480 passes compared to Brentford’s 390.
We also had many more shots than our opponents, with 18 in total eclipsing Brentford’s eight.
That saw a final xG of 1.90 for Guardiola‘s men, with Brentford forcing 0.92 by the same standards.
Guardiola was quick to praise Frank and his incredible organised side after the game, knowing his team have shown some mettle to come away with the three points here.
Premier League stats so far this season
To no-one’s surprise, Erling Haaland is the top scorer in the division. He has nine goals already after two hat-tricks, today’s brace and the opening weekend finish against Chelsea.
No other player has more than three goals so far, already putting our Norwegian firmly in the driving seat for a third straight Golden Boot.
Bernardo Silva has the most Premier League assists in the City squad so far with two, but had little chance to add to that today.
Ederson is one of seven goalkeepers with a singular clean sheet so far, with four goalkeepers having more than that at this stage.
