Following Sunday’s Manchester derby, we look at the numbers behind Pep Guardiola’s excellent record against Manchester United.
Manchester United may have won three games in a row before Sunday, but they were almost as unconvincing as victories could possibly be, merely papering over their many cracks.
With that in mind, Manchester City were probably the last team on Earth they’d want to face at the moment, and the end result – a 3-0 win for Pep Guardiola’s men – was by no means a shock.
City were dominant almost from start to finish, with their 3.9 expected goals (xG) dwarfing United’s 1.0 over the course of the match. Erling Haaland scored once in either half, the first being a penalty, before teeing up Phil Foden for the visitors’ third.
The ease of City’s victory wasn’t especially surprising either. While United did win this fixture last season, Erik ten Hag’s men have been poor this term, as reflected by their slide outside the top 20 of the Opta Power Rankings at the time of writing.
Victory also improved Guardiola’s already brilliant record against United, with the Catalan coach becoming chief antagonist at the Theatre of Dreams.
Pep Guardiola’s Record Against Man Utd
● Thirty-nine different managers have presided over five or more away Premier League games at Old Trafford; Guardiola is the only one to have a win ratio of more than 50%, winning 62.5% of his matches there (5/8).
● Guardiola is also the only manager (minimum 10 meetings) with an overall 50% win ratio against United in all Premier League matches, home or away (8/15). Additionally, only Arsène Wenger (12) has won more Premier League games against Man Utd than the Man City boss (8), though the Frenchman’s record translates to only a 27.3% success rate (12/44).
● This was City’s seventh win at Old Trafford under Guardiola in all competitions, while it’s the first time they’ve won there by 3+ goals under him. Only against Arsenal (8) has Guardiola won more away games against a single opponent in his managerial career.
● Having already beaten José Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Old Trafford, Guardiola became the first Man City manager to win away against three different Man Utd managers in the English top flight. The last to achieve this in charge of any club(s) was Brian Clough, who registered wins over five different Man Utd managers (Sir Matt Busby, Tommy Docherty, Dave Sexton, Ron Atkinson and Sir Alex Ferguson).
● Guardiola has averaged 2.0 points per game at Old Trafford in the Premier League; among the other so-called ‘big six’ clubs, he only has a better away record against Arsenal, earning 2.38 points per game in fixtures with the Gunners.
● Since Guardiola joined City, they have amassed 145 more points than Manchester United (649 to 504), winning 60 more games in the Premier League (205 to 145) and scoring 229 more goals (681 to 452).
● Guardiola is one of only three managers who have seen their teams score four or more goals against Man Utd in a single match more than once in the Premier League (twice), the others being Jürgen Klopp (four times) and Kevin Keegan (two times).
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