Category Archives: 2025-26

MCFC v Chelsea Today

City v Chelsea today (4 January 2026 at 5.30pm). This has been an important fixture over the decades with European semi finals played between the sides decades ago for example. Many of these are featured on this website, so why not have a search around. Here’s a link to all articles tagged Chelsea on here: https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/chelsea/

1971 ECWC v Chelsea. Tony Book and mascot Paul Todd. Photo by Alan Jubb

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Sunderland v City

It’s Sunderland v Manchester City tonight (1 January 2025). There are plenty of features on my website about games & stories connecting these clubs. Here’s a link to some of them: https://gjfootballarchive.com/?s=Sunderland

Bunny Shaw: Record Scorer

Congratulations to Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw on becoming the first Manchester City Women player to score 100 goals since the relaunch of the club. It’s a wonderful feat and she deserves immense praise. Here’s City’s report of today’s (14 December 2025) 6-1 victory over Aston Villa which saw Shaw score 4 goals:

https://www.mancity.com/news/womens/man-city-aston-villa-wsl-match-report-december-2025-63901308

Manchester City v Exeter – The First Time

Today’s (8 December 2025) FA Cup third round draw has resulted in Manchester City and Exeter being drawn against each for what will be the first competitive fixture ever between the clubs. It’s always satisfying when the FA Cup throws up a unique occasion like this. Looking forward to it.

Manchester City’s 100 League Goalscorers Comparison

Now that Erling Haaland has joined an exclusive group of Manchester City players who have scored 100 League goals for the club I thought I’d post a table of all those players. I’ve also listed them in a goals per game format (I’d love to do goals per minutes but we simply don’t have that information for all players). Here goes…

The goals per game ratios for all Manchester City players who have scored 100 league goals or more…

GoalsFirst NameSurnameGoals Per GameTotal League Appearances
100ErlingHaaland0.9009111
184SergioAguero0.6691275
126BillyGillespie0.5780218
120HoraceBarnes0.5530217
122TommyBrowell0.5495222
116FrankRoberts0.5370216
158TommyJohnson0.4817328
112FrancisLee0.4498249
110FredTilson0.4472246
142JoeHayes0.4290331
107AlecHerd0.4163257
146BillyMeredith0.3989366
158EricBrook0.3511450
117ColinBell0.2970394

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Haaland Goals Per Game Comparison

It doesn’t feel that long ago since I did something like this for Sergio Aguero and I honestly felt it would be some time before the opportunity came again but then Erling Haaland arrived at Manchester City. So much was rightly made of Erling scoring his 100th Premier League goal last night that I thought I’d post a comparison between him and all other players who have netted 100 Premier League goals. Instead of totals though I decided to focus on the goals per game ratio and so here is a list of the top 25 goals per game ratios of PL players who have netted 100 goals or more. There are some amazing players on this list but significantly Haaland tops that list by some distance. It’s also gratifying to see that Aguero is third on the list.

The top 25 goals per game ratios for all PL players who have scored 100 goals or more… (note: some sources incorrectly put Kane above Aguero)

GoalsFirst NameSurnameGoals Per GameTotal PL Appearances
100ErlingHaaland0.9009111
175ThierryHenry0.6783258
184SergioAguero0.6691275
213HarryKane0.6656320
190MoSalah0.6070313
260AlanShearer0.5896441
113IanWright0.5305213
144Robinvan Persie0.5143280
127JimmyFloyd Hasselbank0.4739268
150MichaelOwen0.4601326
187AndyCole0.4517414
103CristianoRonaldo0.4364236
121RomeluLukaku0.4353278
163RobbieFowler0.4301379
149LesFerdinand0.4245351
145JamieVardy0.4240342
208WayneRooney0.4236491
111SadioMane0.4221263
104DidierDrogba0.4094254
106DarrenBent0.3841276
127SonHeung-min0.3814333
100MattLe Tissier0.3704270
126RobbieKeane0.3610349
111DionDublin0.3558312
146TeddySheringham0.3493418

Watch this space for other comparisons over the coming weeks.

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Newcastle v City

It’s Newcastle v Manchester City today. There are lots of articles on games between these clubs on this website, here’s a link to some of them:

The 1950s: FA Cup Final MCFC v Newcastle
Congratulations Newcastle
Newcastle v Manchester City: The Story So Far
The 1970s: Newcastle Away At Home?
On This Day in 1977: Colin Bell’s Emotional Return
Game of the Season 1956-1957: Manchester City V Newcastle United
Manchester City Win The League
Billy Meredith’s Last Game: 1924 FA Cup Semi

Lessons From History: MCFC 2020 & 2025

It’s part of the football circus these days that occasional defeats are greeted as devastating occurences. Social media goes into meltdown; shock jock style radio stations begin to predict the end of eras and even the BBC seems to take a ‘your all doomed’ approach if you lose a game. After City’s narrow defeat at Villa last week the BBC’s website stated: ‘In the context of the title race, there are concerning signs for City’ and elsewhere on the BBC there were fans quoted complaining about the weaknesses in the team. So, to take a more reasoned view I decided to take a look at the 2020-21 season when similar reporting occurred of City’s games. Back then pundits like the former Arsenal player Martin Keown were highly critical of City. After five games of the 2020-21 season City were 12th and Keown said: ‘there’s certainly some rebuilding to be done. We will see how good Pep really is now; he’s got to rebuild the team.’

Those Keown comments are similar to some being aired at the moment about City being rebuilt etc. Pep proved back then (I wonder if he chatted to Keown about his comments in 2020?) how good he was.

Back in 2020-21 City lost to Tottenham in their eighth League game. That put Spurs top and some began predicting the London club may manage to actually win the league. Similarly, some predicted that City were too unpredictable to lift the title. The statistic often quoted that weekend was that City’s points total of 12 from eight games was the club’s lowest at that stage since 2008-09. Very similar style comments to this season when the BBC quoted (after the Villa defeat): ‘City have lost three of their opening nine games in the Premier League this season (W5 D1), with the Cityzens last suffering more defeats at this stage of a league campaign in 2008-09 (four).‘

As a direct comparison it’s worth noting that City are two points behind where they were five years ago, and in both seasons faced criticism. Remarkably City ended up winning the Premier League in 2020-21 by 12 points and the early season leaders Spurs finished seventh. Some pundits and journalists would later rewrite history and go on to talk as if the 2020-21 title race had been a foregone conclusion with City ‘dominating football’ like no other team had ever done before (it was ‘bad’ for football, blah, blah blah). They talked negatively about other teams not standing a chance etc. but that is so wrong.

So, what am I going on about. Well, if 2020-21 shows us anything it is that no league title is decided so early in the season. Nor does a defeat mean all is lost. City are currently two points behind where they were in that remarkable 2020-21 season, when they won the title by 12 points. Imagine if that happened again? I know it’s doubtful and Arsenal are certainly a better team than they were back then and Spurs were too. But football’s unpredictable and anything is possible.

For those wondering here are 2020-21’s results at this stage followed by a table with this season’s:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
21/09/2020Wolverhampton WanderersA3-13
27/09/2020Leicester CityH2-50
03/10/2020Leeds UnitedA1-11
17/10/2020ArsenalH1-03
24/10/2020West Ham UnitedA1-11
31/10/2020Sheffield UnitedA1-03
08/11/2020LiverpoolH1-11
21/11/2020Tottenham HotspurA0-23
28/11/2020BurnleyH5-03
Total18

Here’s this season’s results:

DateOpponentVenueResultPoints
16/08/2025WolvesA4-03
23/08/2025SpursH0-20
31/08/2025BrightonA1-20
14/09/2025UtdH3-03
21/09/2025ArsenalA1-11
27/09/2025BurnleyH5-13
05/10/2025BrentfordA1-03
18/10/2025EvertonH2-03
26/10/2025Aston VillaA0-10
Total16

Swansea and City

It’s Swansea v Manchester City tonight in the League Cup and so Here’s a few historical facts and stats about games between the two clubs.

Game One: The first competitive meeting between the two teams came in Division Two on 25 September 1926. The Blues had been relegated the previous May and the historic first meeting with Swansea Town (Swansea was not a city at this point) ended in a 3-1 City victory at Maine Road, before 24,314 fans. George Hicks, Tommy Johnson & Frank Roberts netted for the Blues.

The return game also ended in a 3-1 win on 12 February 1927. Hicks and Johnson both scored again, with Johnson netting twice. A Swansea crowd of 20,345 watched on.

The first top flight game between the sides didn’t come until 21 November 1981 (following Swansea’s promotion) and saw two each from Kevin Reeves and Dennis Tueart (the first a penalty 4 minutes before half time) help City to a 4-0 win.

The first Premier League meeting came on 15 August 2011 – another 4-0 City win. This time Dzeko, Aguero (2) and David Silva each scored at the Etihad before 46,802. Film of that game here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2011/august/city-v-swansea-60-seconds

Incredibly the first FA Cup meeting didn’t come until 16 March 2019 and this saw City win 3-2 at Swansea (OG from Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Bernardo Silva & Sergio Aguero). City had been losing 2-0 (a penalty from Matt Grimes in 20th minute and Bersant Celina netted the other in 29th minute) up until Silva’s 69th minute goal. The action from this game can be viewed here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2019/march/swansea-v-city-highlights-extended

The first League Cup tie was a 2-1 City win at Swansea in 2016:

https://bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/History/Matches/Match.aspx?id=5300

The highest scoring game between the teams came in August 1927 when City beat Swansea Town 7-4 in Division Two. 34,316 watched a hat trick from Tommy Johnson and other goals from Peter Bell, Charlie Broadhurst, George Hicks and Frank Roberts.

Here’s hoping tonight’s game brings as much entertainment as that one did.

While you’re here, it’s worth taking a look at something else already posted on http://www.GJFootballArchive.com. It’s a profile of Tommy Hutchison who was a cult hero at MCFC and also spent time with Swansea City:

THE STARTING ELEVEN – Tommy Hutchison

Manchester City’s Three Royal Boxes!

Last Saturday (25 October 2025) I was fortunate to be invited to the England v Brazil women’s international as a guest of the FA. My seat was in the Royal Box at the Etihad (City of Manchester Stadium as it was named on the night due to sponsorship reasons). On social media someone commented that the Royal Box was a bit of a stretch in terms of its name but the truth is that the Directors Box (as it’s more commonly known) has housed members of the British royal family, including the late Queen Elizabeth II. In fact it was originally named the Royal Box for the Commonwealth Games in 2002. Back then I remember suggesting it should retain the name and now, maybe, the original name should return?

Other royals, including the former King of Spain, have sat there for Manchester City games and other events, so the name would be quite apt. Funnily enough, the Etihad’s ‘Royal Box’ isn’t the first part of a City ground to be given that name. It’s not even the second but the third! Both Maine Road and before that Hyde Road, had visits from senior members of the British Royal Family and on each occasion the Directors Box was spruced up and renamed the Royal Box for the game. Here’s the current King’s great grandad at Hyde Road’s Royal Box in 1920:

The King with the Mayor in Hyde Road’s ‘Royal Box’. Notice Lawrence Furniss stood, behind the King. Furniss was a major figure from the 1880s to the 1940s at City.

So, City, how about renaming the Directors Box the Royal Box again?

The following subscriber article talks about all of that, but in essence the current King’s dad, grandad and great grandad have all attended City matches at one of City’s home grounds. You can read about those visits here:

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