Eight Man City fixtures in October could shape Pep Guardiola's trophy hunt

It would be more than fair to say that Manchester City have made an excellent start to the new season. Pep Guardiola's men have won five of their opening seven Premier League matches, as well as securing two victories in the Champions League. With the Blues unbeaten heading into October, things couldn't really be better.

Well, City could be top of the league, of course. But there is a chance that they will be by the end of next month anyway, depending on what the in-form Arsenal do.

It took Erling Haaland 36 minutes to prove his few doubters wrong on the opening day of the season against West Ham, and the Norwegian frontman has simply kicked on from there. The 22-year-old, who arrived from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, has scored 14 goals and grabbed one assist already term — and is showing no signs of slowing down.

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City's Premier League victories (against West Ham, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Wolves) have all been impressive. In fairness, the draws against Newcastle and Aston Villa haven't been bad, either. Guardiola's side showed immense character to come from 3-1 to draw with the Magpies, and Villa — to their credit — played well against City.

In the Champions League, the Blues thrashed Sevilla on matchday one, but against Dortmund, it was a different story. With England international Jude Bellingham putting the away side in front, John Stones and Haaland scored in the 80th and 84th minute respectively to complete the comeback.

With that in mind, then, it's clear that City are in a good place during the first international break. While Guardiola will be hoping that none of his first-team stars come back to