In going down to defeat to Man Utd in the Manchester derby Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola set an unwanted personal record.
His team have now lost seven games in the league this campaign, more than the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach has ever lost in a season before.
United capitalised on two errors by Ederson to emerge 2-0 winners despite Guardiola’s men having 72 per cent of the possession.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team did muster 12 shots in the game while City only had seven.
The win means the Red Devils have done the league double over their fierce rivals. The last time they achieved that was in 2009-10, when Sir Alex Ferguson was still in charge.
They are only the third team ever to do the double over a side coached by Guardiola, following Wolves this season, and Antonio Conte’s Chelsea side in 2016-17.
United also defeated City in the Carabao Cup this season, meaning that Sunday’s result made them just the second team to defeat a Guardiola-coached team three times in the same season.
The other was Liverpool, coached by Jurgen Klopp, in 2017-18. The latest loss by City this year means Liverpool need just six points to clinch the Premier League title for the first time in 30 years.
They could do so at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby on March 16th, if City lose either of their games between now and then.
The Blues play Arsenal and Burnley at home in that period.
7 - Manchester City suffered their seventh defeat of the Premier League campaign, making 2019-20 the season in which Pep Guardiola has lost the most league games in his managerial career. Unfamiliar. #MNUMCI pic.twitter.com/Sz8N8deELo
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 8, 2020
The signs are healthier for United at the moment. They have not lost in any of their last 10 games in all competitions, their longest undefeated stretch since 11 games between December 2018 and February 2019.
Those were Solskjaer's first games at the helm, a period that saw him assume full time control of the club he so famously represented as a player.
The win takes United into fifth place in the table, which may be enough to see them qualify for the Champions League as City face a two-year ban from European competition for financial irregularities.
The current Premier League champions are appealing the ban, with United three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.