Before Phil Foden's superb opener against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Manchester City made 46 passes during the build-up, including Kyle Walker's cushioned cutback to set up the goalscorer.
.@PhilFoden's first goal of the season at the end of a 46-pass move! ✨ pic.twitter.com/2qDBKQUKB7
— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 23, 2023
But amazingly this was not the highest number of passes made before a goal in Premier League history.
Only one goal has featured more passes in the build-up since such data was gathered from the 2006/07 season.
That was the third goal and the second from Nacer Chadli, in Tottenham Hotspur's 4-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers in August 2014, which featured 48 passes beforehand.
Watch Chadli's goal
Perhaps not surprisingly, Foden's strike is the third goal scored by Pep Guardiola's City that gets in the top five of the longest passing sequences.
As the table of the top 10 passing sequences below shows, in total Man City have four entries of the most passes leading to a goal since such records began in 2006/07.
| Player | Team | Opp | Passes | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nacer Chadli | TOT | QPR | 48 | 24/08/2014 |
| Phil Foden | MCI | NFO | 46 | 23/09/2023 |
| Juan Mata | MUN | SOU | 45 | 20/09/2015 |
| Ilkay Gundogan | MCI | MUN | 44 | 11/11/2018 |
| Sergio Aguero | MCI | EVE | 42 | 23/05/2021 |
| Morgan Schneiderlin | SOU | NEW | 40 | 13/09/2014 |
| Ashley Young | MUN | BLB | 37 | 02/04/2012 |
| Mesut Ozil | ARS | NEW | 35 | 16/02/2020 |
| Luis Diaz | LIV | NOR | 34 | 19/02/2022 |
| Gervinho | ARS | WIG | 33 | 03/12/2011 |
| Julian Alvarez | MCI | FUL | 33 | 02/09/2023 |