Manchester City's excellent defence is nothing new but still has room for improvement

In some ways, it was Manchester City’s worst defensive display of the Premier League season to date.

Kyle Walker was trying too hard to make a point against his former club. John Stones allowed Harry Kane to have an early attempt at goal when Ederson was poorly positioned. Aymeric Laporte’s mistimed header later sent Kane though on a one-on-one. The less said about Benjamin Mendy’s performance, the better.

And yet, as Pep Guardiola’s side left Wembley with their sixth consecutive league clean sheet and their third away from home against a ‘top six’ rival, the public and punditry are gradually waking up to just what an excellent defensive outfit they have become.

“I think the impressive thing is the defending now,” said Gary Neville regarding City on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, moments after the final whistle. “You wondered whether Stones could step in, Laporte had just settled from Bilbao, and you thought: ‘Can they emerge as a top-class pair?’

“If they can stay together, stay fit and grow in that team they could be something special together,” he added. “They’re brilliant defensively. There’s a lot to be said for their possession, they’re attacking play, but the defending is fantastic.”

Granted, on another night, Erik Lamela equalises in the 80th-minute. But last night Lamela had to equalise. It was the one clear-cut opportunity Tottenham had. While not playing particularly well, City’s defence limited Mauricio Pochettino’s side to four shots, only one of which was on target. Such meanness is in-keeping with City’s season so far.

After 10 games, City have let in a mere three goals. Since the start of the Premier League era, this record is only matched by Carlo Ancelotti’s 2010-11 Chelsea and, curiously, John Gregory’s 1998-99 Aston Villa. Only Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea champions in 2004-05 had conceded fewer goals at this stage of the season.

City have also now travelled to Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur – completing three of their five most difficult trips this year – and have not conceded in any of them. It makes ominous reading for those pretenders to City’s throne.

It should not, however, come as much of a surprise. The champions had the league’s best defensive record last season, of course, conceding one goal fewer than Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United.

Their 27 goals against last term equalled the seventh-best defensive record in Premier League history. It could and perhaps should have been better, too. Jamie Carragher revealed on Monday Night Football that City’s ‘expected goals against’ figure last year was 24 – three goals fewer than their actual total.

What’s more, as noted in an excellent analysis of his career defences published by Sky Sports before the Tottenham victory, Guardiola has taken charge of the team with the best defensive record in the league in eight of his nine seasons in management. This is solidity is no accident, but a product of his dominant style.

Perhaps the only surprise in all of this is that, when numerous records were tumbling before this team at the end of last season, few of them related to the defence. Why?

Despite conceding one goal fewer than United, City lost out to their rivals in terms of clean sheets, with 18 to United’s 19. This would not have been the case had City not picked up an annoying habit of conceding cheap consolation goals when already on their way to victory.

3-0 up against Stoke City last October, City allowed their lead to be cut to one goal before ultimately winning 7-2. West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal, Tottenham, Watford, Everton and West Ham would all peg City back from a dominant position before the season was out.

In total, 11 of the 27 goals City conceded last year came when they were ahead by two goals or more. Few of them carried consequences. Only United – in their 3-2 comeback win at the Etihad – ever managed to turn a game around.

If you subtract these consolation goals from City’s total, you realise how close Guardiola would have been to rivalling the 15 goals conceded by Chelsea’s class of 2005.

Whether City have fixed this remains to be seen, though conceding cheaply at home to Huddersfield and Newcastle suggests not. It is in truth a very minor issue and surely not a priority for Guardiola.

Still, it explains why City's defensive excellence has often been overlooked, with clean sheets spoiled by inconsequential goals. It also demonstrates how dominant this team was last year. On the relatively few occasions City conceded, they were often already in a comfortable position.

The three shut-outs at Arsenal, Liverpool and now Tottenham should not be played down but they were just reminders that a miserly defensive unit has been lying beneath this brilliant team the whole time.