English Premier League: The reign of Manchester City

When you watch Manchester City play it’s easy to see why Benjamin Mendy called them ‘the shark team’ (#sharkteam.)

As they surge into the opposition’s third, there’s no guessing who will strike. This is largely due to City’s deadly passing.

To put it simply, City gets assists. In fact, the top four Premier League players in assists are all from City. These are De Bruyne, Sané, Silva, and Sterling. Looking at this list, it’s easy to see what kind of player Pep prefers.

Manchester City has also broken the record for most successful passes in a game with 902. This beats the previous record by 59 passes. The previous record holder? Manchester City.

To have assists, though, you need goals and boy do City have those. Six of their players have scored at least eight times this season. This has helped them to be the highest scoring club this year, and it’s not even close.

If that’s not enough, Guardiola’s team has had the least amount of goals-conceded (26.) This is quite impressive considering the only consistent defenders are Otamendi and Walker. However, City’s defensive dominance is thanks largely to the vast amount of ball possession they can keep in games. Also, they have Ederson to thank.

Ederson was a brilliant signing by Pep this year. Having been described as a sweeper-keeper, he has proven to be an energetic and physical guardian of the goal. Ederson is capable of both split-second reactions and diving saves. He also can kick-start an attack with his long yet accurate passes.

Still, these players wouldn’t be on the team if it wasn’t for one thing – money.