Man City joy, Man United despair: The stats showing the gulf between derby rivals

Manchester City demonstrated their dominance over neighbours Manchester United with a 4-1 win in Sunday’s derby.

This season’s Premier League statistics back up the difference in class between the sides and, here, the PA news agency assesses how they compare.

The league table shows a 22-point gap between the rivals, City top after winning 22 of their 28 games, while United are battling for a Champions League place after winning only 13 of 28 – on course to win less than half of their games for only the third time in the Premier League era.

Statistics relating to goals at either end of the field make the differences all the more clear, particularly at the defensive end where City have kept more than twice as many clean sheets but required less than half as many saves to do so.

City and Ederson lead the Premier League with 16 clean sheets, with United managing only seven to rank joint 11th even as David De Gea leads the league with 104 saves. He and Leeds’ Illan Meslier are the only goalkeepers in three figures, according to the league’s official website, with Ederson called into action for only 48 saves and City 50 in total.

City’s attack, meanwhile, ranks second to only Liverpool with 68 goals and 517 shots – respectively three and 11 behind Jurgen Klopp’s side. United rank a respectable third in shots, but a long way behind City with 399, while their 45 goals rank fifth.

The playing style of Pep Guardiola’s team is reflected in the Premier League passing statistics, with their players occupying the top four spots in terms of passes attempted.

Joao Cancelo leads the way with 2,164, averaging over 83 per match in his 26 appearances, with Aymeric Laporte also over 2,000 and fellow centre-back Ruben Dias just nine short.