Seven without is perfect; 15 with is not

Fifteen games together, four wins, five draws, six defeats: 1.1 goals scored a game and 1.3 conceded. Seven games with just one of them, seven wins, no draws, no defeats: 2.9 scored and 0.3 conceded. The difference is not a quirk of a small sample; it is the spine of Manchester City’s season so far, and it points squarely at the middle of the pitch.

Faris Asonganyi and Saad Ataba have started together in central midfield fifteen times this campaign. The returns are ordinary, the kind of form that leaves a club chasing rather than leading. Without one of the pair on the pitch, City have been ruthless: twenty goals scored in seven games, two conceded, maximum points. With both, the side has scored sixteen times in fifteen and shipped twenty. The contrast is stark enough to be the story of the season at the top of the Premier Division.

Asonganyi, the academy product who has spent his whole senior career at the club, has been a constant through almost two decades of City sides. Ataba, the Moroccan international who arrived on a free transfer five summers ago, has made himself a fixture too. Individually, both have been fine servants; together, the blend is not working. The numbers are not a verdict on either man’s quality, but they are a verdict on the combination.

When one sits out, City play with a different tempo. The midfield is less congested, the passing quicker, the press more coherent. Seven wins from seven without one of the two is not a run built on luck; it is a run built on a shape that works. The more games that pass with both in the side, the more the question writes itself: can City afford to keep picking them together?

The answer, on current evidence, is no. The title race will not wait for a partnership to click. If City are to push the leaders, something has to give. The numbers have already made their case.