Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has dropped update on Manual Akanji injury after he was subbed off yesterday
Manchester City won 5-0 over Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup on Sunday, and a statistic has emerged that demonstrates how dominant the hosts were.
Pep Guardiola’s team got the year off to a flying start, easily defeating the Championship club at the Etihad Stadium.
Huddersfield started strongly and defended well in the first 20 minutes. However, City’s quality prevailed, with Phil Foden breaking the tie.
In the second half, the outstanding Englishman added another, with Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku also scoring, and Oscar Bobb seeing his cross deflect in.
The game went exactly as predicted; City dominated the Terriers and Stefan Ortega Moreno only needed to make a couple of saves.
The Manuel Akanji statistic demonstrating Manchester City’s dominance over Huddersfield.
City had a very successful day. There were five goals, a clean sheet, Foden continued his excellent form in the number 10 role, Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis shone, and Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne made significant comebacks from injury.
Pep Guardiola will be pleased with how the day went.
However, City suffered a little setback when Manuel Akanji was injured after only 20 minutes.
City fans will hope it’s nothing serious, but £15 million star Akanji stepping off when he did gave statisticians the opportunity to offer a real belter after the game.
Despite only being on the pitch for 20 minutes, Akanji completed more passes (27) than any other Huddersfield player on Sunday, according to WhoScored.
The city is out of control.
Despite just playing for 20 minutes, Akanji – dubbed ‘unbelievable’ by Sam Allardyce last season – finished the game with more completed passes than all Huddersfield players combined.
It only goes to show how dominant City were yesterday, which will not surprise or even impress many neutrals.
But City must be commended for their professional performance, even if it was against a Championship side. In the FA Cup, anything can happen, so a 5-0 win merits some credit.
Hopefully, Akanji’s problem isn’t too serious. He’s had his detractors this season, but he’s still an important player for Pep, who values the Switzerland international’s flexibility to play anywhere across the defence and, yes, even in midfield on occasion.