For an elongated period of time, one of the key factors behind Manchester City's monopolisation of silverware was their squad depth. Especially in the era of five substitutes, Pep Guardiola can call upon a quintet of superstars off the bench to change a game when needed. However, it does not appear as though this has been the case this season.
That's because, as noted by Billy Carpenter, a Manchester City substitute has scored just one goal all season in the Premier League this season. Remarkably, this was netted by Rayan Cherki at Molineux on the opening day of the campaign, with no one doing so since. So, how does that compare to everyone else?
Premier League goals by substitutes 2025/26
Goals by substitutes | Clubs |
|---|---|
9 | Arsenal, Aston Villa & Brighton. |
8 | Burnley & Fulham. |
7 | Bournemouth. |
6 | West Ham United. |
5 | Leeds United, Chelsea & Sunderland. |
4 | Liverpool, Man United, Newcastle, Tottenham & Wolves. |
3 | Everton, Brentford & Crystal Palace. |
2 | Nottingham Forest. |
1 | Manchester City. |
Note: Stats courtesy of Statmuse & are correct at the time of publication.
Amazingly, Manchester City are now rock-bottom of this ranking, after Lorenzo Lucca, of their next opponent Nottingham Forest, nodded home against Leeds on 6 February. In contrast to the Sky Blues, title rivals Arsenal have accumulated nine goals from substitutes, the joint-most, most recently seeing Viktor Gyökeres bag a brace off the bench against Sunderland last month.
Extrapolating out, how does this compare to previous Man City campaigns?
Manchester City goals by substitutes per season
Season | Man City goals by subs | PL rank |
|---|---|---|
2025/26 | 1 | 20th |
2024/25 | 6 | 12th |
2023/24 | 7 | 14th |
2022/23 | 6 | 10th |
2021/22 | 10 | 1st |
2020/21 | 3 | 15th |
2019/20 | 9 | 1st |
2018/19 | 9 | 3rd |
2017/18 | 10 | 2nd |
2016/17 | 7 | 3rd |
Note: Stats courtesy of Statmuse.
Looking across Pep Guardiola's tenure in Manchester, this season represents a major decline when it comes to goals from substitutes. The Sky Blues led the division in this metric in 2019/20 and two seasons later, accumulating at least six in all but one of the previous nine campaigns, reaching nine or more on four occasions. Thus, to only be on one with ten fixtures remaining is a major drop off.
During this decade-long period, only seven clubs have gone through an entire campaign with only one goal off the bench, namely Middlesbrough (16/17), Brighton (17/18), Leicester (17/18), Tottenham (19/20), Everton (20/21), Newcastle (21/22) and Everton again last season.
So, could this help explain why Manchester City are performing substantially better in first halves than seconds halves this calendar year?
Manchester City 1st half vs 2nd half Premier League in 2026
Statistics | Man City 1st half | Man City 2nd half |
|---|---|---|
Goals | 12 | 2 |
Shots | 70 | 71 |
Shots on target | 29 | 16 |
Big chances | 14 | 15 |
Expected goals | 8.3 | 8.38 |
Goals conceded | 1 | 5 |
Shots against | 41 | 73 |
Shots on target against | 15 | 25 |
Big chances against | 9 | 15 |
Expected goals against | 4.07 | 8.3 |
Note: All statistics courtesy of SofaScore.
Surprisingly, of the 14 Premier League goals Manchester City have scored in 2026, 12 have come during first halves, the two exceptions both coming at Anfield during their memorable comeback. On top of this, the Sky Blues have attempted 13 more shots on target during the opening 45 of matches.
At the other end of the pitch, opposition teams are mustering exponentially more shots, shots on target and big chances during second halves; Man City's xG against is more than double in second halves than in first halves this year.
Having now played ten fixtures since New Year's Day, this offers enough of a sample size to label this a trend. Perhaps a lack of impact from players coming off the bench is a key reason behind this, so could that cost Guardiola's team with three months of the campaign still to go?