Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side have kept their collective nose in front of the chasing pack in the Premier League with a 2-1 win at Watford last night and got within touching distance of an age-old record in the process.
The Blues sit atop the league with a goal difference of +38 after the 15 games that have passed, the best of any side in the English top flight since Sunderland’s effort all the way back in 1892-93.
The Mackems were just one better on that metric at the +39 mark when they set the record 125 years ago.
That team, made up almost entirely of Scottish players, was lead to an 11-point win in the title that term - their second on the spin - under the guidance of Tom Watson.
City have scored a remarkable 45 times this term and let only seven past them and, were it not for a bit of sketchy defending in the late moments of their tie at Vicarage Road last night, they’d have levelled the record for the finest goal difference in top-flight history.
Guardiola’s men have been near flawless this term and have collected a total of 13 wins and two draws from their 15 games.
Had Riyad Mahrez knocked in the penalty he snatched from the grasp of Gabriel Jesus at Anfield in a 0-0 draw there back in October, they’d have an eight-point advantage at the top of the division.
As a measure of just how sharp the contrast is between the fortunes of City and their old rivals across Manchester, United now sit on a negative goal difference of -1 down in eighth place in the table as they await their own 15th game of the league campaign against Arsenal at Old Trafford this evening.
