Manchester City

Also written as Man City.

The club

Manchester City were founded in 1880 as St Mark's (West Gorton), became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and took their present name in 1894. They play at the Etihad Stadium, formerly the City of Manchester Stadium, in east Manchester, capacity 61,038, having moved there in 2003 from Maine Road, their home since 1923. They are the Citizens, the Blues or the Sky Blues, and have worn sky blue and white since 1894.

Recent seasons

City won four consecutive Premier League titles between 2020/21 and 2023/24: 86 points in 2020/21, 93 in 2021/22, 89 in 2022/23 and 91 in 2023/24. The 2022/23 season was the treble, the league won alongside the FA Cup and the Champions League. The run ended in 2024/25, when they finished third with 71 points, lost the FA Cup final and went out of the Champions League in the knockout phase play-offs.

The 2025/26 season was better without being a title season. City finished second with 78 points, seven behind Arsenal, who won their first championship since 2004. They went out of the Champions League in the round of 16, beaten 5-1 on aggregate by Real Madrid. Both domestic cups came back: the League Cup, won 2-0 against Arsenal in the final on 22 March 2026, and the FA Cup, won 1-0 against Chelsea on 16 May 2026. Erling Haaland scored 27 league goals and 38 in all competitions. On 22 May 2026 the club announced that Pep Guardiola would step down at the end of the season after ten years.

Honours and landmarks

Eleven English league titles: 1937, 1968, 1972, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Eight FA Cups: 1904, 1934, 1956, 1969, 2011, 2019, 2023 and 2026. Eight League Cups: 1970, 1976, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2026. In Europe, the Cup Winners' Cup of 1970 and the Champions League of 2023, the latter completing the treble; they also won the FIFA Club World Cup in 2023.

The records that a writer can use are mostly from the Guardiola decade. City are the only English club to have reached 100 points in a top-flight season, in 2017/18, when they also scored 106 league goals, both national records. They won 21 consecutive matches in all competitions between December 2020 and March 2021.

Record attendance is 84,569 against Stoke City in an FA Cup sixth-round tie at Maine Road on 3 March 1934, which remains the highest crowd recorded at an English club ground. No Etihad Stadium record attendance figure was established from the sources consulted, nor was an all-time record transfer fee received; the record fee paid is now the £116m for Elliot Anderson in July 2026.

The status of the Premier League's charges against the club over financial reporting, brought in February 2023, could not be established from the sources consulted. Neither the Wikipedia articles on the club nor those on the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons carry a verdict or sanction. Do not assert an outcome either way without checking.

Notable scorelines

Record league win: 11-3 against Lincoln City on 23 March 1895, with the widest margin being 10-0 against Darwen on 18 February 1899. Record cup win: 12-0 against Liverpool Stanley in the FA Cup on 4 October 1890. Record defeats: 0-8, twice, against Burton Wanderers on 26 December 1894 and against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 23 December 1933.

In the Manchester derby, City's biggest wins are 6-1 at Old Trafford, achieved twice, on 23 January 1926 and again on 23 October 2011. The highest-scoring derby of all is City's 6-3 home win on 2 October 2022.

Head-to-head notes

Against Manchester United, the all-time competitive record after the meeting of 17 January 2026 stood at 198 matches, United 81 wins, City 62, 55 draws. The 2025/26 derbies split: City won 3-0 at home on 14 September 2025 through Phil Foden and two from Haaland, and United won 2-0 at Old Trafford on 17 January 2026 through Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu, ending a City run of 13 matches unbeaten and coming days after Michael Carrick's permanent appointment.

No published all-time head-to-head records for City against Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or Tottenham Hotspur were established from the sources consulted, so no numbers are given here. What is on record from 2025/26 is the final table: Arsenal 85, City 78, United 71, Aston Villa 65, Liverpool 60, Bournemouth 57, Sunderland 54, Brighton 53, Brentford 53, Chelsea 52, Fulham 52, Newcastle 49, Everton 49, Leeds 47, Crystal Palace 45, Nottingham Forest 44, Tottenham 41, West Ham 39, Burnley 22, Wolves 20. City beat Arsenal in the League Cup final and Chelsea in the FA Cup final in the same season, and finished behind Arsenal in the league.

Of the newly promoted sides, Coventry City return after 25 years, Ipswich Town after a single season away and Hull City after nine. No all-time records against them were established.

Right now (2026/27)

Enzo Maresca was appointed manager on 29 June 2026 on a three-year contract, succeeding Pep Guardiola after Guardiola's ten years in charge ended with the 2025/26 season.

The rebuild has been substantial and expensive. Elliot Anderson arrived from Nottingham Forest on 23 July 2026 for £116m, a club record fee. Jeremy Monga joined from Leicester City for £12.5m on 11 July and goalkeeper Pierce Charles from Sheffield Wednesday for £3m on 10 July. Two long-serving players left for nothing when their contracts expired on 30 June 2026: Bernardo Silva, who joined Real Madrid on 1 July, and John Stones, who joined Inter Milan on 30 July. Manuel Akanji was sold to Inter Milan for £13m on 1 July and Nathan Ake to Fenerbahce for £7m on 3 July. That is four defenders or midfielders of long standing gone and one very large signing in.

Pre-season is a late Asian tour: Inter Milan in Hong Kong on 1 August 2026, the K-League All Stars in South Korea on 5 August and Atletico Madrid in South Korea on 9 August. The FA Community Shield against Arsenal is on 16 August 2026 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The Premier League season starts a week later than usual because of the 2026 World Cup: City open at home to Bournemouth on 23 August 2026 at 14:00, then go to Crystal Palace on 28 August and host Coventry City on 5 September.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.