Wensdi Gossip

by David Clayton@dclayton_MCFC

Sky Sports: Free-scoring City are Europe's best

City have raced clear as Europe’s top scorers for the season so far.

The New Year goal blitz – including 19 in the last three games – has seen the Blues top the charts in all competitions with 99 scored to date.
Sky Sports take up the story: “Manchester City are one goal away from reaching 100 for the season ahead of their Super Sunday clash with managerless Huddersfield.

“Their 3-0 win over Wolves on Monday Night Football took them to 99 goals in all competitions with four months of the campaign still to play.
“Pep Guardiola's side still have plenty of work to do to catch Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, but no side in Europe's top leagues - let alone in England - comes close to their extraordinary scoring record this season.


“City's total of 99, which works out at an average of 2.9 per game, puts them 18 clear at the top of Europe's scoring charts ahead of French giants Paris Saint-German.
“City's scoring feats have accelerated in 2019, with 22 goals scored in four games so far, including their seven and nine-goal thrashings of Rotherham and Burton Albion respectively."
Better still, Inside World Football predict the Blues will eventually overhaul Liverpool and secure a second successive Premier League title.
The stats-based website suggest City have been slightly under-achieving this campaign while Liverpool might have been punching above their weight – but claim this pattern is likely to change in the coming months.
They report: “This season’s Big 5 European league champions will be Manchester City, Barcelona, PSG, Juventus and Bayern Munich, according to a set statistical model developed by the CIES Football Observatory.

“Barca, PSG and Juve already lead their divisions, while both Man City and Bayern currently sit in second place.

Sane and Sterling: Europe's top assist kings?: The Special Air Service (SAS) motto of ‘Who dares wins’ could certainly be applied to City’s own SAS pairing.
Hour
Sane and Sterling: Europe's top assist kings?: The Special Air Service (SAS) motto of ‘Who dares wins’ could certainly be applied to City’s own SAS pairing.
“The CIES Football Observatory data is built around what it calls ‘pitch production’ which includes data sets on shots on target, ball possession and shots conceded from the box.
“The result is a calculation of expected points per match. The model has been built over the past two seasons with the first half of this season’s data being used to create the current tables.
‘Manchester City achieved so far 5% of points per match less than expected according to its pitch production. Conversely, Liverpool obtained 15% more and its results are supposed to decline in the second part of the season,’ say the report authors.
Interesting!
Finally, it’s not only statisticians that are warning Jurgen Klopp’s men that the Blues are coming up on the rails.
Our brilliant playmaker Bernardo Silva is convinced that the Blues will kick on again with a fully-fit squad – something the champions haven’t enjoyed all season - but could have imminently.