It wasn’t vintage City against Coventry. Far from it.
Enzo Maresca admitted as much afterwards, describing Saturday’s 1-0 victory as the sort of “ugly” win his side will occasionally need.
But buried among the numbers from the Etihad was one statistic which caught the eye.
City attempted 803 passes. Of those, 736 found a teammate, giving Maresca’s side a completion rate of almost 92 per cent.
A very City number
There has been an enormous amount of change at the Etihad.
Around £450m has been spent rebuilding the squad, Enzo Fernández and Iliman Ndiaye made their debuts on Saturday and Elliot Anderson has quickly established himself in midfield.
Yet City’s appetite for dominating the ball looked rather familiar.
They had almost 78 per cent possession, with Coventry attempting just 217 passes by comparison. The problem was turning all of that possession into something more comfortable.
Erling Haaland’s first-half header proved enough, but Coventry remained in the game, and Gianluigi Donnarumma was required to make some important saves late on.
Maresca knows there is work to do. But three Premier League games have brought three victories and his new-look midfield is already seeing plenty of the ball. The next job is making better use of it.
New manager. New players. A very different City squad.
But 803 passes?
Some things haven’t changed.
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