Pep Guardiola's men have won 23 consecutive home games in 2023, and another in Saturday's Premier League lunchtime clash with Liverpool takes them level with a long-standing English record.
Much of the conversation leading up to Manchester City welcoming Liverpool on Saturday has been about the kick-off time, with Jurgen Klopp saying his piece about the lunchtime slot.
However, this piece is not about to go into the dissection of Klopp's recent remarks.
How good have Manchester City been at home?
Instead, it intends to focus on the strength of Pep Guardiola's team at the Etihad Stadium. The timing feels right, as City host the last team to hold an extended undefeated run on their turf and the side that pushed last season's treble winners for several years until Arsenal's emergence under Mikel Arteta.
It seems a while back that a relegation-threatened Everton side went to the Etihad and held Guardiola's men to a 1-1 draw on the final day of 2022, with Demarai Gray outstandingly pegging back the home side after Erling Haaland's first-half goal. In the intervening period, Lampard has been ditched by the Toffees, and Gray has moved to Saudi Pro League club Al-Ettifaq since that December 31, 2022, encounter in Manchester.
Many of the City stars remain, and they aim to continue an unblemished home run that began with a 4-0 humiliation of Chelsea in January's FA Cup tie. In a sense, it is reasonable that they could make English football history on Saturday by defeating Klopp's Liverpool, the recent team to have impressed on home turf.
Liverpool's outstanding Anfield record
While the Reds could not eclipse Chelsea's 86-match undefeated streak, going 68 matches without losing a Premier League match ranks the Merseyside club second.
Even though Klopp's men never managed to rack up an extended run of consecutive victories in all competitions like Guardiola's City have in 2023, it does not diminish the 2020 Premier League winners' run.
Liverpool were without blemish at Anfield for 24 straight games, beginning with a 3-0 triumph over Bournemouth in February 2019 and ending with a 1-1 tie with Burnley post-lockdown in 2020. That Burnley draw meant Klopp's Mentality Monsters won all but one of 19 games at Anfield in their title-winning campaign, but it was significant in ending the club's 30-year wait for a league crown.
The Reds did claim 14 consecutive victories between February 2019 and October of the same year, ending as they sought a 15th in a League Cup game with Arsenal. Currently on a nine-match winning run at Anfield in all competitions, Klopp's men are far from matching City's ongoing sequence.
What is Man City's winning streak at home?
While Guardiola's men have notched 15 uninterrupted Premier League victories at the Etihad, their record is nine adrift of Liverpool's 24-game record. However, unlike Klopp's side, the Manchester outfit's consistency across all competitions has put the Cityzens one more home victory behind the English record.
By defeating Young Boys 3-0 in the Champions League at the start of November, City extended their winning streak at home to 23 games, putting Guardiola's troops one shy of Sunderland's 24-match record across 1891 and 1892.
The Manchester outfit have faced formidable opponents domestically and on the continent through their run, defeating Arsenal in the FA Cup, thrashing Liverpool 4-1 at the start of April and making light work of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the Champions League, securing 3-0 and 4-0 triumphs, respectively.
While Liverpool's run was instrumental to a successful Premier League challenge in 2019-20, Man City's winning streak on home turf was crucial to the club's treble win at the backend of last season, and they have not slowed down.
Defeating Newcastle United 1-0 in August set a new club record of 17 successive home wins, and Guardiola's outstanding side have remained relentless despite the loss of Kevin De Bruyne to injury and the departures of Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez to Barcelona and Al-Ahli, respectively.
Unsurprisingly, Erling Haaland has netted 24 of City's 76 goals in front of their fans, double the tally of Julian Alvarez (12) - while De Bruyne and the departed Mahrez are tied on eight assists. Jeremy Doku has supplied five assists - with four coming in the 6-1 thrashing of Bournemouth on November 4 - and is closing in on his Belgian teammate.
Defensively, only 11 goals have been let in at the Etihad in those 23 home victories, an astonishing feat for a club that have kept 13 clean sheets in front of their supporters and seek a 14th against Liverpool on Saturday.
Man City vs Liverpool
Despite Liverpool typically posing problems for Guardiola's team before Arsenal emerged, this fixture at the Etihad has not been kind to Klopp's troops.
The German boss has never beaten the former Barcelona and Bayern boss in a Premier League clash in Manchester since the Spaniard took charge, strikingly suffering heavy defeats in 2017-18 (5-0), 19-20 (4-0) and last term (4-1). While this extends to all competitions, Klopp's troops did claim a 2-1 second-leg victory in their 5-1 aggregate triumph over City in the 17-18 Champions League quarter-finals.
It remains to be seen if the Reds pull off a similar result on Saturday, especially given Klopp's annoyance at the fixture's timing.
Having seen several of this season's lunchtime games provide high-scoring or rip-roaring games, there is no reason to doubt the latest instalment of this rivalry would be any different.
Comments