Manchester City will be aiming to make a winning start to a Premier League campaign for an incredible 11th season in a row on Sunday.
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Remarkably, the champions have not dropped a single point in their first fixture of a campaign since a 0-0 draw in August 2010.
However, that match was at the home of their 2021/22 opening opponents, Tottenham Hotspur, against whom they have also struggled in recent years, losing all three away matches at Spurs' new stadium.
When Spurs and Man City last met in MW1
Man City have in fact won all four of their opening matches as defending Premier League champions, a record they will be keen to maintain this term.
They defeated Southampton 3-2 at the start of 2012/13 and won 2-0 at Newcastle United in 2014/15, before beating Arsenal 2-0 and West Ham United 5-0 in 2018/19 and 2019/20 respectively.
Perfect five
Manager Pep Guardiola also boasts a perfect record of five wins from five in City's season-opening fixture.
Man City win their 2020/21 opener
The Spaniard's 100 per cent success rate is the best in PL history, ahead of Carlo Ancelotti and former Nottingham Forest manager Frank Clark, who also won all of their opening matches but only had three of them apiece.
The next-best record belongs to Jurgen Klopp, who overtook Jose Mourinho on Saturday when his Liverpool team won 3-0 at Norwich City.
Best managers in opening match*
| Manager/head coach | Matches | Win % |
| Guardiola | 5 | 100.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Ancelotti | 3 | 100.0 |
| Clark | 3 | 100.0 |
| Klopp | 6 | 85.7 |
| Mourinho | 11 | 81.8 |
| Houllier | 5 | 80.0 |
*Minimum three matches
In 29 Premier League seasons, the title-winners have only tasted defeat on the opening weekend of the following campaign on two occasions, with Leicester City suffering a 2-1 reverse at Hull City in 2016/17 before Chelsea lost 3-2 at home against Burnley the following season.
Champions on opening weekend
| P | W | D | L | Win % |
| 29 | 23 | 4 | 2 | 79.3 |
|---|
Although recent history appears to favour City, their opening-weekend opponents will take heart from the fact Guardiola's side were surprisingly inconsistent towards the end of their 2020/21 title-winning campaign, losing three of their last seven matches.
Even so, the champions will look to their 5-0 victory over Everton on the final day and be eager to pick up where they left off when the 2021/22 campaign gets under way.
