For the last few months now we, as City fans, have bemoaned the lack of clean sheets in the Premier League. I’ve heard it said and written that if we were tighter in defense we would be unblemished and be riding a perfect 11 game winning streak. As it stands, the Top 6 in England looks like this:
Manchester United
Manchester City
Chelsea
Everton
West Brom
West Ham
A deserving Top Six based on their performances thus far this season. No one can really make a claim that none deserve to be where they are after eleven games.
Quick, without looking it up, name the top six teams in England based solely on the number of clean sheets they’ve had this season. If you managed to list the following clubs, good for you:
West Ham – 5
Stoke – 5
West Brom – 4
Chelsea – 4
Arsenal – 4
Norwich – 4
Aside from West Ham, West Brom, and Chelsea, how do the other three stand in England? Stoke is currently 12th and have failed to score on 3 occasions this season. Arsenal are 8th and have failed to score twice already, and Norwich, who are 15th, have failed to score twice and have two wins on the season.
On the other side of that, Manchester United and Everton have kept two clean sheets apiece this season, and Tottenham (sitting in 7th) have claimed a single clean sheet the entire campaign.
In conclusion, perhaps we shouldn’t be too concerned with clean sheets, as a few teams sacrifice everything to keep the ball out of the net, including scoring themselves. We should remain focused on the attack, and after looking at the numbers, I trust Mancini knows what he is doing.
UPCOMING FIXTURES
all times East Manchester
Sa 17 Nov 15h00 Aston Villa, The Etihad, PL
We 21 Nov 19h45 Real Madrid, The Etihad, CL
Su 25 Nov 16h00 Chelsea, Stamford Bridge, PL
We 28 Nov 20h00 Wigan, DW Stadium, PL
Sa 01Dec 15h00 Everton, The Etihad, PL
Tu 04Dec 19h45 B Dortmund, Signal Iduna Park, CL
Su 09Dec 13h30 The rags, The Etihad, PL
Sa 15Dec 12h45 Newcastle, St James’ Park, PL
Sa 22Dec 15h00 Reading, The Etihad, PL
We 26Dec 15h00 Sunderland, Stadium of Light, PL
Sa 29Dec 15h00 Norwich, Carrow Road, PL
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