The statistics are imposing enough. Five games played, five games won, with 11 goals scored and none conceded. Factor in the fixtures, including trips to West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace, where few relish going, a visit to an in-form Everton and a home game against champions Chelsea and they are still more impressive.
Manchester City appear to have an iron defence, a potent attack and, with nine scorers, an ability to source goals from all over the team.
Consider the stuttering starts their peers, particularly Chelsea, have made, and it is little wonder that some are already wondering if anyone can stop them. City, after all, were English football’s biggest summer spenders, with an outlay topping £150 million (Dh854m), and are on a club record run of 11 successive league wins. They have form, flair and financial might.
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Yet Juventus found a way of overcoming City in the Uefa Champions League on Tuesday. As Massimiliano Allegri's side are Champions League finalists and as English clubs' results against continental opponents are increasingly dismal, that may offer little encouragement to Premier League rivals.
After all, Saturday’s visitors to the Etihad Stadium, West Ham United, were knocked out of Europe by the low-profile Romanian club Astra Giurgiu.
But there are reasons to think that if anyone can halt the City juggernaut, it may be the schizophrenic WestHam, who already have away wins at Arsenal and Liverpool this season and have the counter-attacking speed to pose problems on the break.
They are yet to concede on the road, where their defending has been rather more reliable than at home, in England. Saturday’s game is a clash of sides with different 100 per cent records. Something has to give.
If Juventus have reached a standard in Europe that the Premier League’s underachievers can only dream of emulating, their victory nonetheless betrayed hints of frailties in the City camp.
Certainly, it illustrated Sergio Aguero’s importance. The Argentine was limited to a late cameo against the Italian champions but, following a knee injury, should be fit to start against West Ham. His understudy, Wilfried Bony, has still only scored two City goals and spurned his chances on Tuesday.
Aguero, admittedly, is yet to hit top form himself this season but excelled when it mattered most, tormenting Chelsea with pace and persistence.
After a tactical tweak, City are overloaded with attacking midfielders this season. When they get into goalscoring positions, however, they need them to be as clinical as strikers to relieve the burden on Aguero. Raheem Sterling failed that particular test against Juventus.
That game was a reminder, too, that matches tend to be decided at either end of the pitch. City possess an expensive and enviable midfield, and Fernandinho excelled against Juventus, but that counted for naught.
City have been virtually flawless defensively in domestic action so far but Eliaquim Mangala, who had been much improved, briefly offered unwanted reminders of his erratic displays last year when he lost Mario Mandzukic as the Croatian levelled.
Nicolas Otamendi was slightly slow to react when Alvaro Morata scored a delicious winner.
Mangala and Otamendi are the two costliest centre-backs in Premier League history. It is unfair to damn the £31.5m Argentine on the basis of a brief debut against the most demanding of opposition.
Nevertheless, it is no coincidence that City improved defensively when Vincent Kompany returned to his commanding best. A calf injury meant the Belgian departed against Juventus and, while it is a minor issue, his past injury problems mean there is never a promise of permanence with Kompany.
And while City have spent heavily on Otamendi and invested still more in Sterling and Kevin de Bruyne to fashion the most creative midfield in England, the probability is that Kompany and Aguero remain their key players.
That neither has a track record of being fit all season may offer encouragement to the chasing pack. Their other plan may be simply to hope that West Ham can complete a hat-trick of improbable away wins.
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