2026-27 Premier League title race: Enzo Maresca's flawless Manchester City lead Arsenal despite guilty verdict on 114 charges

Enzo Maresca has made Premier League history with seven wins from seven, but do the numbers behind Manchester City 's perfect start justify making them favourites ahead of reigning champions Arsenal? Saturday's 3-2 win over Ipswich Town made him the first manager in Premier League history to win his opening seven league games in charge of a club.

The result has left Manchester City six points clear of reigning champions Arsenal, who have played a game fewer and travel to Nottingham Forest on Sunday. On the table alone, the answer looks simple.

Once the performances, the injury list and a very large cloud hanging over the Etihad are added to the mix, it is not. City have scored 19 goals and conceded seven in their seven league matches, a goal difference of +12, compared with Arsenal's +5 from six games.

Erling Haaland scored twice against Ipswich to take his tally for the season to 12 in all competitions. With his second goal, he became thefastest player in Premier League history to reach 100 non-penalty goals, needing just 139 appearances to beat Alan Shearer's previous mark of 150.

City have also won in the places that matter. They beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford despite playing for more than an hour with 10 men following Phil Foden's 23rd-minute red card, then won 3-0 at Anfield on October 11 in their first game since the independent commission's verdict on their finances, also, against 10-men with Ryan Gravenberch dismissed in the 62nd minute.

Since a 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal in Cardiff in August, City have won all seven of their Premier League games, a Carabao Cup tie against Norwich City and their opening Champions League match at Porto, supported by a record £458m summer outlay on new players that was partly offset by £304m in player sales. After the Ipswich game, Maresca said that it is "a matter of winning games in this business.

Arsenal's own stumble has helped City's cause. A 3-0 defeat at Brighton on September 19 was their heaviest league loss as defending champions since a 3-0 defeat at Everton in October 1989, and it ended a run of nine straight Premier League wins that stretched back to last season.

Four of City's seven league wins have come by a single goal, and they have conceded in four of their seven matches. Brian Brobbey's hat-trick dragged Sunderland level twice before City won 5-3 on September 20.

On Saturday, Daizen Maeda equalised for Ipswich within three minutes of Foden's opener, before Zian Flemming's penalty set up a nervy finish at 3-2. City's 4-2 Champions League defeat to the holders on Wednesday was their first loss since the Community Shield and ended a run of eight successive wins under Maresca, across the Premier League, the Carabao Cup and the Champions League."