Manchester City may have dominated the Premier League under Pep Guardiola in terms of titles, but the journey to get their hands on the trophy hasn't always been straightforward.
Aside from the 100-point campaign, City have been pushed all the way by Liverpool as they have fought on four fronts most years and needed to find every bit of energy to maintain standards three times a week for months on end. The fact that City have put long winning runs together in winter periods has been a key element in their title-winning seasons of 2018/19, 2020/21 and 2021/22.
And those three seasons all have the same thing in common - that ability to put together a long 100 per cent run to put the pressure on Liverpool. On the one hand, that is the sign of an incredible team, but on the other, the fact that those runs were needed, points towards another common factor in those seasons - a slow start.
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Guardiola was philosophical when assessing City's start to the current season, with six points won from six and no goals conceded.
"We are not champions of the Premier League, that is for sure," he said after the Bournemouth win. "Just more than 100 points to play for but nothing to complain, especially zero goals. The fact that today we concede one shot on target and last week West Ham, Antonio the header and Declan Rice shot at goal. Apart from that we didn't concede much and that is the most important thing.
"We have the desire to regain the ball and with the ball we are really well organised in our patterns. Every time we lose the ball we don't concede, the runners, the counter-attacks, that is so important. Especially the teams like West Ham,
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