Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at Pep Guardiola, Robert Lewandowski, and game states.
As landmarks go, it was quite an appropriate way to celebrate.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola recently stated that of all the opponents he’s had as a manager, Liverpool have been his greatest rival. Their Premier League title battles have been legendary, and in his 1,000th game as a manager, he faced the Reds at the Etihad Stadium.
City put in their best performance in recent memory to see off the champions with ease on Sunday, putting themselves firmly in this season’s title race with Arsenal. In this week’s SVQ, we mark the occasion by looking back at some of the most impressive numbers from Guardiola’s 1,000.
One of his former players, Robert Lewandowski, is still scoring lots of goals at the age of 37, and we’ll also go over the Pole’s record in Spain since joining Barcelona following his latest hat-trick.
Our quiz will give you one last dose of Premier League football before the final international break of the year, while this week’s Ask Opta question challenges us to look at game states.
Let’s begin with Man City’s mastermind after his total games managed overall in his career ticked over to four figures.
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If Pep Guardiola could have hand-picked the opponent, performance and result for his 1,000th game as a manager, it’s difficult to imagine it would have been any different to how Sunday played out.
Man City comfortably beat Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium, winning 3-0 and quite possibly ending the title challenge of the defending champions, while boosting their own chances of regaining their crown.
City’s victory meant they closed to within four points of leaders Arsenal following their 2-2 draw at Sunderland on Saturday, and even at this early stage it looks like we could be back to where we were two seasons ago, with City and the Gunners battling it out for the title.
It feels appropriate to look back rather than forward when it comes to Guardiola now that he has reached 1,000 games in management, so that’s what we’ll do here.
The Spaniard has had exceptionally successful spells with Barcelona (and Barcelona B), Bayern Munich and Man City, winning three La Liga titles in Spain, three Bundesliga crowns in Germany, and so far, six Premier League titles in England.
He also has three Champions Leagues to his name, winning two with Barça and one with City.
In total, Guardiola’s teams have won 716 games (71.6%), drawn 156 and lost just 128.
His time in England has been by far his longest. Indeed, most of his games as manager have been in City’s dugout (550 – 55%), and he’s now only 12 victories away from 400 as City boss.
Guardiola’s biggest wins as a manager were both 9-0, beating L’Hospitalet with Barcelona in the Copa del Rey in December 2011, while City swept aside Burton Albion by the same score in the League Cup in January 2019.
His biggest defeats were all by four goals, losing by such a margin five times, four of which have been while managing City (4-0 to Barcelona, Everton and Tottenham, 5-1 to Arsenal).
Another battle with Arsenal will be tough, but perhaps Guardiola backs himself to best them again. The Gunners are the team he has beaten most often as a manager (20 times in 33 games), while the sides he has lost to most are Tottenham and Liverpool (both 10 defeats in 24 games).
When speaking about Liverpool as his greatest foe, he did reference in particular his head-to-heads with Jürgen Klopp, both in Germany and England. Klopp is the manager to have beaten Guardiola most often (11 times in 30 games).
However, things look bright for Guardiola in the Premier League this season. Of the managers he has defeated most in his career, four of the top five – Sean Dyche, Eddie Howe, Marco Silva and David Moyes – are currently working in England’s top flight.
We’re not sure if Pep would like to manage for another 1,000, but however long he carries on, we’ll be sure to see more passion, more big cardigans, and more impressive football from his teams.
VIZ – Lewan-still-scores-goals-ski
We sang the praises of Danny Welbeck last week, with the Brighton man in excellent form despite soon turning 35 years old.
However, it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge another even older striker who is still putting in astonishing performances.
Robert Lewandowski is, frankly, ridiculous. At the age of 37, the Pole is still banging in the goals, including a hat-trick in Barcelona’s 4-2 win at Celta Vigo on Sunday.
There were some eyebrows raised when Lewandowski signed for Barça just before turning 34 in the summer of 2022, but he has managed 108 goals in just 159 games in all competitions for the club. Of players from Europe’s top five leagues, only Kylian Mbappé (147), Erling Haaland (143) and Harry Kane (140) have scored more in that time.
Sunday was Lewandowski’s first start since returning from injury, and he’s only played 449 minutes in La Liga this season. Even so, he has seven goals to his name (only Mbappé has more – 13).
Despite being a well-respected striker in the game, it can sometimes feel like Lewandowski gets a bit overlooked at Barcelona. With Lamine Yamal and Raphinha doing such incredible things in attack, coupled with the former Bayern Munich man’s injury issues, he can perhaps be a bit of an afterthought for some these days.
But he showed on Sunday that he’s sharp as ever, and remains one of the very best players in the world at putting the ball in the goal. In fact, that’s why former Bayern teammate Thomas Müller used to call him ‘Lewan-goal-ski’… (holds for laughter) … ‘Lewan-goal-ski’…
Barcelona’s victory at Celta saw them close the gap to Real Madrid at the top to just three points after Xabi Alonso’s men could only draw 0-0 at Rayo Vallecano. If Barça are to retain their La Liga title, you fancy Lewandowski will play a significant role.
QUIZ – Late Richarlison, Gibbs-White Uses His Head, and Leaky Liverpool
You know the drill. Five questions from the weekend’s action, see how many you can get right, then tell your friends you got all of them regardless. Answers at the bottom of the page.
1. How many of Richarlison’s eight Premier League goals for Tottenham in 2025 have come in the final 10 minutes of games?
2. Brian Brobbey’s equaliser for Sunderland was the first result-altering goal Arsenal have conceded in the 90th minute of a Premier League match since September 2024, when who equalised against them for Manchester City?
3. Four of Morgan Gibbs-White’s last five Premier League goals have come via headers. Which Brentford star is the only player to have more headed goals in the competition this calendar year?
4. Danny Welbeck made his 150th Premier League appearance for Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday, becoming only the fourth player to reach this milestone for the Seagulls. Name any of the other three to do so.
5. Liverpool trailed by 2+ goals at half-time in a Premier League game under Arne Slot for just the second time. Against which London club was the only other time it has happened during the Dutchman’s reign?
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Our question this week again comes from Timo Schöning, who asks: “Bayern Munich have had quite a season, having won every match over all three competitions (Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League), and being behind for only five minutes vs. Köln in the cup before scoring four goals to turn the match around impressively. Any statistics available about the big five league teams who have the least minutes behind at this point of the season?”
Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at editors@theanalyst.com or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.
Answer:
Timo’s question arrived in our inbox prior to Saturday, when Bayern’s 100% record across all competitions in 2025-26 came to an end with a 2-2 draw at Union Berlin. Had it not been for Harry Kane’s 93rd-minute equaliser, they would have lost in the German capital.
We can only look at league games for this, but unsurprisingly, Bayern are still very low in terms of the percentage of minutes they’ve spent behind in games this season. Even with the 21 minutes they trailed to Union, Vincent Kompany’s men have been losing for just 2.1% of their game time in the Bundesliga this season, while they have spent an impressive 66.3% of games in the lead.
In fact, the only team in Europe’s top five leagues to have spent longer in any game state than Bayern have winning is Parma drawing (68.4%).
In terms of least time behind in games, Atlético Madrid aren’t far behind Bayern (2.2%), while Milan (6.2%), Real Madrid (6.3%) and Borussia Dortmund (9.2%) are the only other teams who have trailed for less than 10% of their game time.
It perhaps points to the competitiveness of the Premier League that no teams from it feature in the top 10, with Crystal Palace (12th) the team to have been behind for the lowest percentage of game time in England’s top flight (12.9%), just ahead of Chelsea (13.1%).
Quiz Answers
1. How many of Richarlison’s eight Premier League goals for Tottenham in 2025 have come in the final 10 minutes of games?
Four
2. Brian Brobbey’s equaliser for Sunderland was the first result-altering goal Arsenal have conceded in the 90th minute of a Premier League match since September 2024, when who equalised against them for Manchester City?
John Stones
3. Four of Morgan Gibbs-White’s last five Premier League goals have come via headers. Which Brentford star is the only player to have more headed goals in the competition this calendar year?
Kevin Schade (5)
4. Danny Welbeck made his 150th Premier League appearance for Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday, becoming only the fourth player to reach this milestone for the Seagulls. Name any of the other three to do so.
Lewis Dunk (277), Pascal Groß (228) and Solly March (190)
5. Liverpool trailed by 2+ goals at half-time in a Premier League game under Arne Slot for just the second time. Against which London club was the only other time it has happened during the Dutchman’s reign?
Fulham on 6 April 2025
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