Pep Guardiola’s men claimed a third domestic title in four seasons in May 2021, finishing 12 points ahead of our nearest rivals to crown a truly memorable campaign.
And although the season has only just moved beyond the halfway point, City enter 2022 with a healthy eight-point advantage on nearest rivals Liverpool as we look to retain the title for another year.
City have shown an astonishing consistency across the past 12 months, culminating in us creating English top flight history on more than one occasion this year.
Read on to discover some of the phenomenal figures behind our success in 2021…
Back of the net
City have found the net 113 times in just 44 Premier League matches across 2021, more than any other side.
It’s the best goalscoring tally in English top flight history since 1960, and averages out at an astonishing 2.5 goals per game across the entire year.
Of those goals, 62 were scored from January through to May of our title-winning 2020/21 campaign, while Guardiola’s men have found the net a further 51 times so far this season.
Individually, Ilkay Gundogan tops the charts with 15 Premier League goals in 2021, closely followed by Raheem Sterling (13), Phil Foden (12) and Riyad Mahrez (10), while a further 18 players have also been on target in the past 12 months.
Calendar year wins
Guardiola’s men have broken new ground by registering 36 victories in just 44 matches across 2021.
Our haul is the most in English top flight history for a calendar year, surpassing the previous record set by Liverpool in 1982 by three wins.
That 75% win rate across the past 12 months means that, in other words, for every four matches across the entirety of the year, City have won three.
On the road
Of those 36 wins across 2021, 19 have come on our travels, setting another English top flight record.
Guardiola’s men surpassed Bill Nicholson’s famous double-winning Tottenham Hotspur side of 1960 with our 4-0 victory over Newcastle, before extending the record with a 1-0 win over Brentford.
City achieved the feat in just 22 matches, with one draw away to Liverpool and defeats to Brighton and Tottenham the only blemishes on an otherwise phenomenal record.
That equates to an incredible Premier League away win percentage of 86% across the entirety of 2021.
Total points
Out of a possible 132 points on offer in 2021, City picked up an astonishing 110.
That incredible haul is 27 more than any other side in the Premier League, with Chelsea second in the list with 83 points.
It also sees City ranked as the highest points-earner across any of the top European divisions, with Inter Milan’s tally of 104 making the current Italian Serie A champions our nearest rivals.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid registered 97 points in La Liga, Paris Saint-Germain claimed 93 in Ligue 1 while Bayern Munich amassed 91 in the Bundesliga.
Guardiola’s men have constantly pushed footballing boundaries in 2021, but this particular stat demonstrates that our success across the past 12 months goes beyond domestic accomplishments.
Possession figures
City have forged a reputation under Guardiola as a side which likes to dominate the ball, and that style is reinforced by our phenomenal possession stats across the year.
In our 44 matches in 2021, City have averaged an astonishing 65.25% possession in the Premier League.
Unsurprisingly, that figure surpasses every other side in the English top flight over the past 12 months, with Liverpool (61.90%) and Chelsea (61.12%) the only two other teams to register more than 60% in the division.
Longest Winning run
Guardiola’s men have also enjoyed the two longest winning sequences in the Premier League across 2021.
Our current 10-match streak, which began on 6 November with a 2-0 Manchester derby triumph, is bettered only by our run of 13 matches from 3 January to 7 March.
Indeed, that latter winning sequence broke the record for the longest run of victories from the start of a calendar year in Premier League history.
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Defensive record
City’s defensive record is equally impressive, having conceded just 32 times in 44 matches.
That equates to an average of 0.72 goals per game, and is matched only by Chelsea, who achieved the same haul in 42 matches.
However, City’s record of 24 clean sheets in that 44-game sequence eclipses Thomas Tuchel’s men, who could only achieve 20 within the same time frame.
Indeed, Guardiola’s men have prevented the opposition from finding the net at a better rate than once every other match in the Premier League across the whole of 2021.
