Manchester City betting statistics 2024/25

Manchester City’s title defence didn’t quite go to plan. Pep Guardiola’s side ultimately finished the campaign in third, 13 points off Liverpool, and it took a 10-game unbeaten run to see out the season to secure a Champions League finish.

The expectation, though, is that City will be back stronger next season. They strengthened in January, with Omar Marmoush the stand out addition, and he was joined by Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Nico Gonzalez. They haven’t stopped there either, having wrapped up the signings of Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Tijjani Reijnders ahead of the Club World Cup.

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Possession and chances created

As was to be expected from a Pep Guardiola side, they again dominated possession in the Premier League last season, even coming ahead of Premier League champs Liverpool, as the Liverpool stats show. A staple of Guardiola sides is the desire for control, and it’s no surprise they ranked top for possession (61.6%) in the division. A pass success rate of 89.9% was also top, they just lacked the ability to regularly break teams down.

However, while they were able to dictate the tempo in games, this didn’t always translate to goals. Indeed, while City ranked second for key passes per game (12.4) in the Premier League last season, this was a drop on 14.3 on the previous campaign. Much of that can be down to Kevin De Bruyne’s prolonged spells on the sidelines.

While a simplistic way of looking at it, De Bruyne’s time spent on the sidelines certainly impacted City’s chances of breaking down teams. Even as he started just 19 league matches, the experienced Belgian registered seven league assists for City last season; only Savinho (8) returned more for the Cityzens. In addition, of those to make more than 20 appearances, no player made more key passes per 90 than De Bruyne (3) in the division.

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Dribbles and replacing De Bruyne

Without De Bruyne readily available, it was clear that Guardiola sought to peg opponents back by using the dribble wizards at his disposal. Savinho joined from Girona last summer and, with Jeremy Doku on the books, Guardiola had two effective wingers to ghost past opponents with ease.

Not only did City rank top for dribbles per game (9.9) in the Premier League last season, it was Doku (107) who completed more dribbles than any other player. Teammate Savinho (52) ranked 12th for this metric, while new signing Ait-Nouri (63) finished the campaign inside the top 10 for successful dribbles. Factor in that Cherki completed the ninth most dribbles per 90 (2.1) in Ligue 1 last season, and Guardiola is still going to look to his players to breeze past markers to punch a hole in opposition backlines.

Crucially about Cherki, though, is that he’s not just a ball carrier, but a creative star too. The Frenchman finished joint-top for assists (11) and key passes per 90 (3.3) in Ligue 1 last season, and there is a possibility that City have signed the Frenchman as Napoli-bound De Bruyne’s replacement in the final third.

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Passes and chances conceded

As mentioned, City’s pass success rate was the best in the Premier League last season, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise as the Cityzens saw the ball more regularly than any other team. The onus, then, is on the goalkeeper and the centre-backs to instigate attacks from the back. In modern-day football, goalkeepers are no longer just there to prevent goals, but effectively act as an 11th outfielder too.

Ederson was arguably the best ball-playing goalkeeper in Europe when he joined from Benfica in 2017, and while his shot-stopping capabilities have been called into question, there is no denying his quality with the ball at his feet. As you might expect, the Brazilian ranks top for both pass success rate (86.3%) and long ball success rate (57.9%) of goalkeepers in the Premier League last season.

In defence, Ruben Dias ranked top for passes per game (85.5) and fourth for pass success rate (93.8%). Fellow City defender Manuel Akanji placed third for the latter metric (94.1%). As such, City’s return of 604.6 passes per game was the most in the division, and that shouldn’t come as a shock.

In turn, this meant City didn’t need to actively pursue opponents off the ball in order to protect their goal. Guardiola’s side ranked bottom for tackles (13.1) and fouls per game (7.6), while the Arsenal stats show only the Gunners (5.9) averaged fewer interceptions per game than City (6). Even so, City conceded fewer shots per game (9.3) and made fewer ball recoveries (1626) than any other team in the 2024/25 Premier League campaign as they essentially strangled the life out of teams in their quest for three points.

City’s underlying numbers were again strong, and they’ve already made some sound additions to the squad in the off-season. They’ve added dynamism to the midfield, rectified their left-back concerns and, crucially, brought in a player capable of shouldering the creative burden now De Bruyne has left. Expect this new-look City side to come back all guns blazing next season. 

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