By Abiodun Adewale Adeniyi | Founder & Editor, Beyond the Final Whistle
September 21, 2026 | Premier League
Five matches. Five victories. Fifteen points.
Enzo Maresca’s start as Manchester City manager has now entered the Premier League record books.
City’s extraordinary 5–3 victory over Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday preserved their perfect league record and made Maresca only the sixth manager in Premier League history to win his first five matches in charge of a club.
The result also moved Manchester City three points clear at the top of the Premier League as the only team with a 100 per cent record after five matches.
We have already analysed the match itself in our five key lessons from Manchester City’s 5–3 victory over Sunderland.
But there is another story emerging from that eight-goal thriller.
Maresca is beginning to make history of his own.
Enzo Maresca Joins an Exclusive Premier League Club
Maresca is now alongside some distinguished names.
Before him, only Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Craig Shakespeare at Leicester City, Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea and Ole Gunnar Solskjær at Manchester United had won their first five Premier League matches in charge of a club.
Ancelotti, Guardiola and Solskjær extended their winning starts to six matches, while Shakespeare and Sarri stopped at five.
That means City's next Premier League match presents Maresca with another piece of history to chase.
One more victory would move him alongside Ancelotti, Guardiola and Solskjær on six.
But for Manchester City, the significance goes beyond an individual managerial record.
Replacing Guardiola was always going to bring enormous expectations.
Five Premier League victories later, Maresca could hardly have produced a stronger answer.
Sunderland Made City Work for Number Five
There was nothing straightforward about the victory that put Maresca into the record books.
Enzo Fernández opened the scoring after nine minutes with his first Manchester City goal, only for Brian Brobbey to equalise three minutes later.
Rayan Cherki restored City’s advantage in the 29th minute.
Four minutes later, Brobbey equalised again.
Antoine Semenyo then put City ahead for a third time shortly before half-time before scoring again after the break.
Brobbey completed his hat-trick to make it 4–3, ensuring Sunderland remained within touching distance until Erling Haaland finally gave City breathing room in the 81st minute.
City had won 5–3.
But Sunderland had exposed vulnerabilities that Maresca cannot ignore.
Our full Manchester City 5–3 Sunderland tactical analysis examines those defensive concerns in greater detail.
Five Games Have Already Shown Two Different Manchester City Teams
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Maresca’s opening five league victories is that Manchester City have not needed to win every match in the same way.
At Old Trafford, City had to survive adversity.
Phil Foden was sent off in the first half, leaving Maresca’s side to play most of the Manchester derby with ten men.
They reorganised, defended and eventually found a winner through Haaland.
That match later became dominated by refereeing controversy, which we covered in our analysis of the Manchester United vs Manchester City VAR controversy.
Against Sunderland, the challenge was completely different.
City could not shut their opponents out.
Instead, they outscored them.
That adaptability matters.
A team hoping to win the Premier League will not dominate every match. There will be afternoons when possession football works perfectly, games when defensive organisation becomes essential and others when the contest becomes chaotic.
So far, Maresca’s City have found an answer every time.
Haaland Keeps Delivering for Maresca
Even on an afternoon when Semenyo and Brobbey dominated the goalscoring headlines, Haaland still found a way onto the scoresheet.
His 81st-minute finish completed City's five-goal haul and produced another extraordinary statistic.
Sunderland had been the only Premier League opponent Haaland had faced without scoring against.
Not anymore.
The Norwegian has now scored against all 25 Premier League clubs he has faced.
It is another addition to a remarkable collection of numbers.
Earlier this month, we examined his scoring record in Erling Haaland Reaches 300 Club Goals — The Incredible Numbers Behind Manchester City’s Superstar.
But there was something equally encouraging for Maresca against Sunderland.
Haaland did not have to carry the attack.
Semenyo scored twice. Fernández and Cherki also scored.
City are becoming less dependent on one player producing the decisive moment.
For opponents, that creates a serious tactical problem.
Maresca Still Wasn’t Completely Happy
Scoring five goals would satisfy most managers.
Maresca was thinking about the three at the other end.
Sunderland generated 4.32 expected goals compared with City's 2.72, and Brobbey repeatedly exposed weaknesses in the home defence.
Maresca admitted afterward that he would rather win 1–0 than 5–3.
That reaction says something important about the standards he is attempting to establish.
Five victories cannot become an excuse to ignore problems.
City's attack currently looks capable of overwhelming almost anyone.
Their defensive structure against Sunderland did not.
Reuters also highlighted the contrast between City's devastating attack and the cracks Sunderland exposed at the back.
Maresca now has time during the international break to address them.
Manchester City Stand Alone at the Top
Five wins have produced the maximum 15 points.
More importantly, Manchester City are now the only Premier League team yet to drop a point this season.
Arsenal entered the weekend with their own perfect record, but their 3–0 defeat at Brighton allowed City to open a three-point advantage at the summit.
It is far too early to draw conclusions about the title race.
But points collected in August and September count exactly the same as points collected in April and May.
And City have collected every point available to them.
Maresca has therefore achieved two things simultaneously.
He has created a historic personal start while ensuring City have immediately established themselves at the front of the Premier League race.
From Guardiola’s Assistant to Manchester City’s Main Man
The Guardiola connection makes Maresca’s record particularly interesting.
Maresca previously worked as part of Guardiola’s Manchester City coaching staff before leaving to build his own managerial career.
Now he has returned to succeed the man whose era transformed the club.
There are obvious similarities in their football.
Maresca values possession, positional structure and control.
But this Manchester City side is beginning to develop its own identity.
Semenyo provides direct running and physical power.
Cherki offers creativity between the lines.
Fernández gives the midfield another technically gifted player capable of contributing around the penalty area.
And Haaland remains the devastating reference point at the front of the attack.
The Sunderland match showed what happens when all of those weapons begin functioning together.
Five goals.
Four different scorers.
And another three points.
Can Maresca Make It Six?
This is now the historical question hanging over Manchester City's next Premier League match.
Maresca has reached five.
Only Ancelotti, Guardiola and Solskjær among the managers in this exclusive group managed to extend their winning starts to six Premier League matches.
City return from the international break with a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool on October 11.
That makes the pursuit of number six considerably more interesting.
Liverpool away represents the type of fixture capable of providing a much clearer measure of Maresca’s new Manchester City.
Win there and the conversation surrounding City's perfect start will become even louder.
Lose, and five victories from five will still represent an outstanding beginning.
Either way, Maresca has already achieved something only five Premier League managers before him had managed.
And he has done it while taking on one of the most difficult assignments in English football: succeeding Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Beyond the Final Whistle, Enzo Maresca’s first five Premier League matches have delivered everything Manchester City could have hoped for — five victories, 15 points and first place in the table. The 5–3 thriller against Sunderland showed that his side remains defensively unfinished, but it also demonstrated the attacking depth and adaptability that could make City extremely difficult to stop. Five straight wins have put Maresca into an exclusive Premier League club. What happens next will show just how far his new City can go.
Can Enzo Maresca make it six straight Premier League victories at Anfield and match the starts achieved by Ancelotti, Guardiola and Solskjær, or will Liverpool finally end Manchester City’s perfect run? Join the conversation on Beyond the Final Whistle.
