Pep brings up 250: Guardiola´s Premier League career in numbers

In normal circumstances, Pep Guardiola’s landmark achievement might have been the focus ahead of Manchester City’s clash with Aston Villa.

Yet the build-up to Sunday’s fixture at the Etihad Stadium was overshadowed by City having been accused of over 100 breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations.

While City will defend themselves off the pitch, their players stepped up by beating Villa 3-1 to ensure Guardiola’s 250th Premier League game in charge was marked in style.

Stats Perform has looked at the numbers from Guardiola’s time in England’s top tier.

FULL-TIME | All three points!

3-1 #ManCity pic.twitter.com/5tlfNScYxU

— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 12, 2023

The numbers

1 – Guardiola has the highest win rate of any manager to have coached in 100 or more games in the Premier League (73.6 per cent).

29 – Guardiola is the 29th manager to reach the 250-game milestone in the Premier League’s history.

184 – After City’s victory over Villa, Guardiola has won 184 of his games in the competition. This is a Premier League career total bettered by only five other managers (Jose Mourinho, Harry Redknapp, David Moyes, Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson). His tally of victories is the most of any manager across their first 250 games in the competition (Jurgen Klopp is second, with 160).

34 – City have lost only 34 league games under Guardiola.

4 – Of those defeats, four have come against Klopp’s Liverpool, but it is Tottenham who Guardiola has notoriously struggled against. He has lost six times to Spurs in the top flight, including five of their last seven such meetings.

115 – Renowned for their glorious attacking play, City have nevertheless built their success on a stingy defence under Guardiola, whose team have kept 115 clean sheets.

621 – Guardiola’s City have netted 621 goals in the Premier League.

204 – In contrast, they have conceded only 204 times.

184 – Pep Guardiola has won 184 of his 250 matches in the Premier League, the most wins by any manager after 250 games in charge in the competition:

184 – Pep Guardiola
160 – Jürgen Klopp
158 – José Mourinho
152 – Alex Ferguson
146 – Arsène Wenger

Levels. pic.twitter.com/dZU8V0bsOk

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 12, 2023

The records

Guardiola’s largest league win as City boss came against Watford in September 2019 (8-0).

His biggest loss as City manager in the Premier League came in his first season in charge, when his side lost 4-0 to Everton at Goodison Park in January 2017.

City stormed to their first league title under Guardiola in the 2017-18 season, becoming the first team in the competition’s history to attain 100 points in a season.

They took 50 of those points on the road in the 2017-18 campaign, a Premier League record, as is their tally of 16 away wins that term. Another record haul is their tally of 106 goals in that season.

Their side of 2017-18 won 32 games, another competition high mark, and incredibly City matched that total in the following season.

City went on a run of 18 successive wins between 26 August and 27 December, 2017. That tally has not been bettered, though it was matched by Liverpool in the 2019-20 season (as was the 32 wins in a season record).

In 2021, Guardiola’s City netted 113 times, a Premier League record for goals in a calendar year.

City’s streak of 14 victories to end a season (2018-19) is a record, as is their run of 12 consecutive away wins between December 2020 and May 2021.

The Players

Raheem Sterling is the player with the most top-flight goals for City across Guardiola’s 250 games in charge, with 85. Sergio Aguero ranks second on 82.

Ederson has made the most appearances (204 – all of them starts) while Kevin De Bruyne (203) is the outfield player to have played the most games.

De Bruyne, as expected, leads the way for assists (87). With a goal haul of 53, the Belgian tops the charts for direct goal involvements (140).