Sunday 18 September 2016 13:13, UK
Pep Guardiola is enjoying his best-ever start to a managerial job with Manchester City.
Saturday's 4-0 thrashing of Bournemouth means City have won all eight games they've played since the Spaniard took charge in the summer, scoring 25 times and conceding just four.
Five straight Premier League triumphs has put them clear at the top of the table, while they kicked their Champions League campaign off in style with a 4-0 win over Borussia Monchengladbach in midweek, after beating Steaua Bucharest home and away in their qualifying play-off.
Never before has a Guardiola team scored so many or conceded so few in his first eight games.
In contrast, Guardiola suffered defeat in his first game as Bayern Munich boss, a 4-2 German Super Cup loss to Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund. There was also a 1-1 Bundesliga draw at Freiburg in Guardiola's opening eight fixtures with the German giants at the start of the 2013/14 season, although he did win the other six games in that spell, including a penalty shoot-out UEFA Super Cup success over Jose Mourinho's Chelsea.
His start to life as Barcelona manager was his most unsuccessful of the lot. While it began with a 4-0 Champions League qualifier win over Wisla Krakow, Barcelona lost the second leg of that tie 1-0 and then fell on the opening day of the 2008/09 La Liga season to minnows Numancia by the same scoreline. A 1-1 draw at home to Racing de Santander added to the pressure before Barca won their next four.
In fact, that run turned into 11 straight wins as Barcelona recovered from their sluggish start to claim La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.
It may be too soon to talk about titles and trophies for Manchester City, but they've made the perfect start under Guardiola.
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