When 2021 began, Manchester City were eighth in the Premier League, level on points with Southampton, five places behind Everton.
- Published on December 30, stats correct up to that date.
Pep Guardiola had to stare up at his old enemy Jose Mourinho in the league table, along with Frank Lampard and Dean Smith.
When it ends, it will be with City eight points clear and having amassed a host of records. They have 36 top-flight wins in the calendar year, including 19 away from home, both all-time bests. They began the year with 13 straight wins – a record at the start of a calendar win – and ended it with 10. They did not drop a point in January, February, November or December.
By contrast, Arsenal did not get a point in August and Tottenham failed to collect one in September.
Sterling and Gundogan lead way but City spread goals out
Eight City players got at least nine league goals in the calendar year but their top scorers, Raheem Sterling and Ilkay Gundogan, both got 17, just 15% apiece of the team's record total of 113 goals.
To put that into context, Chelsea’s games have only produced 102 goals in total. Under Lampard, they scored two and conceded five. Under Thomas Tuchel, they have never let in more than three in a game except on the day they scored two and conceded five against Sam Allardyce’s West Bromwich Albion.
Allardyce suffered his first Premier League relegation, 20 years after first managing in the division. Meanwhile, Lampard achieved one-third of the number of Premier League wins Paul Heckingbottom oversaw in the calendar year.
The only teams who did not draw in the first six months finished top and bottom of the division, in City and Sheffield United. City drew only two of 44 league matches in 2021. The Blades drew none of 22 in the Premier League.
At the other end of the spectrum, Brighton drew 16 top-flight games. They finished 2020-21 with the same record as in 2019-20: nine wins, 14 draws, 15 defeats and 41 points.
Liverpool rally after awful Anfield run
Meanwhile, Liverpool started 2021 by not winning, or even scoring in open play, at Anfield before April but ended it with the only unbeaten home record this season. The top scorer at Anfield in the first three months of the year was Gundogan. But a year with 302 goalscorers in the Premier League included one goalkeeper: Alisson.
Nevertheless, over the year, the most productive player came from Jurgen Klopp’s team. Mohamed Salah was directly involved in 35 Premier League goals, scoring 24 and assisting 11.
Wolves' players combined produced one fewer goal than Salah - 34 their meagre tally. They averaged under one per game at the right end in both the second half of last season and the first half of this. Their 40 Premier League matches brought just 79 goals in total, an average of 1.975 per match.
Mason Mount makes Norwich's woes readily apparent
But Norwich were the lowest scorers with just eight in 19 matches. Teemu Pukki (with five) got 62.5% of their league goals. The second top scorer in Norwich's Premier League games in 2021 is Mason Mount.
Norwich sacked a manager within a couple of hours of 50% of their league wins while Smith managed against Southampton in consecutive games but with different clubs. At the moment, Smith has lost his last five league games in charge of both Aston Villa and Norwich.
Meanwhile, Tottenham have 15 points under two different managers, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte. Watford scored three goals in both Premier League wins under Xisco Munoz and won by three goals in both wins under Claudio Ranieri.
Another promoted club, Brentford, have conceded the fewest Premier League goals in 2021 (25); of those who have been in the division for the whole year, Chelsea and City (32) have let in the fewest.
Porous Newcastle achieve unwanted Premier League record
Newcastle have let in the most (80) in any calendar year in the Premier League era. Newcastle played 42 league games in the year and got 62.5% of their wins in their final eight games of last season.
Among other strugglers, Fulham’s last two Premier League points both came on the 18th of the month in 1-1 draws away from home. Fulham got twice as many Premier League wins on Merseyside as at Craven Cottage in 2021 while Burnley got as many on Merseyside as at Turf Moor.
Everton’s only points since September came against clubs who tried to become founder members of the European Super League. Those clubs also lost to Fulham (Liverpool), Burnley (Liverpool), Brentford (Arsenal), West Brom (Chelsea), Watford (Manchester United) and Sheffield United (Manchester United) in 2021.
West Ham got their record number of Premier League wins in a calendar year (22) while Mark Noble’s goal at Watford means he extends the longest current streak by scoring in the division for a 15th consecutive year. He was also the only player to miss a penalty with 100 percent of his touches in a match in the year after his spot kick against Manchester United.
But the only player to save a penalty in all of his Premier League games and record a 90% pass completion rate was Scott Carson.
Perhaps that is another record for City in their record-breaking year.