Six wins, four clean sheets, and a manager looking the other way
Manchester City's 5-0 Carabao Cup win over Norwich City on Thursday night made it six victories from six since Enzo Maresca took charge. Four of those have come in the Premier League, one in the Champions League, and the Norwich rout completed the set.
City have not conceded in their last four matches. That defensive run is the sort of detail that tends to get noticed, even when the opposition has been obliging.
Maresca, though, was having none of it. Asked by the media after the Norwich game how he felt about his 6-0 start, he offered a response that was polite but pointed.
"Very happy with these six in a row, but now the main focus is on the next one. I am not thinking we have won six in a row. I am happy, yes, but now the focus is on Sunderland and then the international break."
It is the sort of line a manager reaches for when he knows the fixture list has been kind and the real tests are still to come. There are 34 Premier League matches left. Nobody wins anything in September.
Maresca has enough experience, both in winning and losing, to understand that. The next match, against Sunderland on Sunday, offers a chance to extend the run before the international break interrupts the rhythm.
For now, the start is exactly that. A start. The kind that looks impressive in isolation and means little until the weather turns. City fans have seen enough false dawns to know the difference.