31 and counting… how close Man City are to equalling Arsenal’s 20-year Premier League record
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Manchester City made it 31 Premier League games unbeaten on Sunday, setting a new club record in the process.
The dramatic 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers came just a few miles from the scene of City’s last league defeat, when they were beaten 1-0 at Aston Villa in December last year. It means the champions are closing in on a year without losing in the top flight.
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Hide AdPep Guardiola’s previous longest unbeaten spell came between April 2017 and January 2018, when City went 30 unbeaten. That run was ended by a 4-3 loss at Anfield and remains the joint-fifth longest unbeaten sequence in Premier League history.
The current City iteration sit fourth in the all-time list after Chelsea (40, 2004-05), Liverpool (44, 2019-20) and Arsenal (49, 2003-04). It means City would need to go another 19 games without losing to beat the outright record set Arsenal’s Invincibles.
If they’re to achieve that, City will have to navigate several tricky fixtures over the coming months, including trips to Anfield and Villa Park in December, while City face Arsenal at the Emirates in early February. With the fixtures already mapped out over the coming months, Guardiola’s side know they could equal the 49-match record against their old foes Liverpool in late February.
Match no.50 - if City can stretch the run that far - will come in the last week of February at one of grounds Guardiola has found most difficult: The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. While the Blues have won the last two games at Spurs, they lost all of their first five visits to the ground and failed to score a single goal across those matches.
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Hide AdFor now, Guardiola will just focus on continuing that run each week. The Catalan - along with Arsene Wenger - is the only manager to twice put together a run of 30+ unbeaten in the Premier League, and only the former Arsenal boss, Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho have bettered City’s current record of 31 games without losing.
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