The Man City Goal Machine

Manchester City Goal Machine Soaring High 

By Lee Gormley - @LeeGormley

Manchester City have been this seasons big hitters firing in an incredible 134 goals in all competitions so far.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side have already bettered their goal tally from last season’s Premier League campaign having scored 68 so far this term. They are the quickest side to score 100 goals in the history of the English top flight. The Chilean manager has brought a whole new free flowing form of football to the club from under previous manager Roberto Mancini. Mancini undoubtedly brought success to the blue side of Manchester but in a different manner to the current setup.

City overtook Arsenal to go top of the Premiership after another drubbing of Tottenham Hotspur this week. Spurs, under a new manager since the last heavy defeat, suffered the same fate as Tim Sherwood's side were hammered 5-1.

The 2011/12 Premier League champions blasted their way to the top of the table but also have an FA Cup tie with Chelsea, a Capital One Cup final against Sunderland and a Champions League clash with Barcelona to look forward to in what has been a hugely impressive first term under Pellegrini. Incidentally, Barcelona have scored 11 goals less than City domestically this season.

This Premier League season City have undertaken the game plan of simply outscoring whoever they come up against. They have scored 11 against Spurs over two fixtures and 6 against Arsenal in one fixture.

While City are cruising through games scoring almost at will, their title rivals have been doing things differently. Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea have grinded out many of their domestic victories, winning by a single goal on six occasions this season. Arsenal have been impressive having scored plenty of goals themselves but they have adopted the technique of ‘winning ugly’ at times as well, a technique which is needed to be successful over a long campaign. City’s closest locational rivals Manchester United are miles behind them in the league table. David Moyes’ United side had a troublesome start to the new season and are now six places adrift of their Manchester rivals. 

At the current rate the table-toppers City are set to break the record for most goals scored by a team in a Premier League season. The record stands at 103 set by Chelsea meaning City need 35 more goals to equal that record, which is easily achievable given their present form in front of goal. They could also surpass the record of 143 goals in all competitions scored by Sir Matt Busby’s Babes in the 1956-57 season.

Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo are City’s combined top scorers this season with 23 goals each in all competitions. Eden Dzeko has struck 17 times with Stevan Jovetic having chipped in with 3 goals.

The depth of Pellegrini’s side was proven when an injury forced arguable City’s best goal scorer Aguero to miss eight games. While most teams would struggle without their star player, City actually managed to win seven games and draw one during Aguero’s absence.

The Argentine made his come back from injury, although he is likely to miss the FA Cup tie with Chelsea through a slight knock picked up midweek. The Argentina international has been sublime this season making 8 assists as well as his 23 goals.

A mouth-watering matchup with Barcelona in the last sixteen of the Champions League is set to be City’s biggest test to date but with the form the Premier League leaders are in even the mighty Spanish champions must be wary of facing the City goal machine.