Manchester City were made to work hard for their 2-1 win against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane, but Rodri’s late winner saw them maintain their 100% winning record.
Manchester City continued their 100% start to the season with a 2-1 win over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. Pep Guardiola’s side now remain the only Premier League team to have won all their matches.
It looked like Jayden Bogle’s late strike had earned Sheffield United their first point of the campaign, after Kyle Walker’s backheeled pass inside his own box was intercepted and Bogle was on hand to fire past Ederson.
Rodri, though, so often Manchester City’s big-game player, stepped up when his side needed him most, lasing in the winner.
In fairness, it was no more than the away team deserved. They saw 80% of the ball, racked up 30 shots to Sheffield United’s six, and registered 3.5 expected goals.
But despite that domination, City had to wait over an hour for the breakthrough with what was their 23rd shot of the game. Jack Grealish jinked his way to the byline and chipped a lovely ball to the back post for Erling Haaland to head home. Grealish was a constant outlet down the left for City, creating six chances and registering 12 touches in Sheffield United’s box. Both were team highs.
That goal was Haaland’s seventh shot of the game, and he had missed a golden opportunity to put his side in front in the first half after Julián Álvarez had won his side a penalty. Haaland scuffed the resulting spot-kick onto the post. The Norwegian has now missed two of his last three penalties, while City have missed three of their last five. For a team so dominant, and a manager in Guardiola so relentless in his pursuit of perfection, this remains the one area of the game they are yet to master.
Yet champions find ways to win and win they did.
Guardiola has brought up plenty of personal accolades during his time in England, and he achieved yet another one in this game. Although he wasn’t present in the stadium, this will go down as his 200th win in the top flight. It’s taken him just 269 games to get there, and that makes him the fastest manager in English top-flight history to 200 victories. It beats José Mourinho’s current record by a distance, with the former Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham boss taking 326 games to record his 200th Premier League victory.
This defeat continues Sheffield United’s miserable record against City – they’ve not beaten them in a Premier League game in their history, losing eight and drawing three of their 11 clashes.
This loss was their third consecutive defeat of the season, and they’ve only started a campaign with three league defeats on three previous occasions – 1966-67 (top-flight), 1995-96 (second tier) and 2020-21 (Premier League). They were relegated in that most recent Premier League campaign, and while they displayed a lot of spirit in this game to keep it interesting until the end, they didn’t really show much to convince us they won’t suffer that same fate again this campaign.
Below is the Opta match centre for the game, which includes team and player stats, a passing network, an Opta chalkboard and more. Everything you need to do your own analysis following the Sheffield United vs Manchester City Premier League match.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Sheffield United vs Manchester City Opta Stats
Post-Match
- Man City earned their 200th win in 269 Premier League games under Pep Guardiola – the quickest any manager has reached 200 wins in English top-flight history.
- Sheffield United have lost each of their opening three games of a top-flight season for only a third time, after 1966-67 and 2020-21.
- Man City have won each of their opening three games of a league season for the first time since Pep Guardiola’s first campaign in charge in 2016-17 (first 6).
- Man City fired in 30 shots against Sheffield United, their most in a single Premier League match since May 2022 against West Ham (31).
- Erling Haaland missed a Premier League penalty for the very first time, with today’s his eighth taken for Manchester City. Indeed, the Norwegian had scored each of his last 13 league penalties for Borussia Dortmund/Man City combined before today, since last missing against 1. FC Union Berlin in April 2021.
- Man City’s Erling Haaland has scored nine goals in eight Premier League appearances against promoted clubs, while he has now scored against 18 of the 21 clubs he has appeared against overall in the competition (86%).
- Manchester City have now won each of their last 15 Premier League games in which Rodri has scored. The Spaniard has scored as many goals in three league games this season as he managed in 36 last term (2).
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