Manchester City can break Premier League record

Five things we learned from the weekend

1 Rampant leaders can beat Chelsea's landmark
Saturday's 3-0 win over Burnley took Manchester City's Premier League goal tally to 32 in just nine matches - an average of over 3.5 per game. If they maintain that for the entire campaign it would see them reach 135 come the end of the campaign.

That may be asking too much, even of Pep Guardiola's side, but Chelsea's Premier League record of 103 looks well within sight and City could be overpriced at 7-4 with bet365 to pass that mark.

City had 78 per cent possession and ten shots on target as they continued their rampant domination, not only in scores where their goal difference is plus 28 but also with expected-goal figures that mark them out as a potentially special team.

Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus were given a breather at the Etihad, although the team was hardly weaker with Sergio Aguero and Bernardo Silva called into action, and bookmakers are running for cover.

City are between 2-7 and 2-9 to beat West Brom at the Hawthorns on Saturday, a sure indication the leaders are going off at prices usually reserved for ultra-dominant domestic outfits such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

2 Wagner on-song with slight tactical change
It's only natural to focus on the failings of the bigger clubs when they suffer a surprise defeat but Manchester United were covered at length in this column last week.

The idea that it's wise to be so defensive in big away games because you can pick up all your wins against the smaller sides is flawed and Jose Mourinho's need only look at Sporting Index's points expectancy to see the task facing his side. United's points are rated at 79-80.5 while City's total is trading at 90-91.5.

Huddersfield deserved to beat United and David Wagner seems to have learned from the recent 4-0 thumping against Tottenham.

It was only a minor change, but taking out one forward-thinking player in Rajiv van La Parra for a more solid central base in Danny Williams allowed Huddersfield more defensive protection and control that was lacking against Spurs.

At some stage Wagner will want to leave Huddersfield and there is likely to be a long queue of potential takers.

3 Stoke are struggling
In many ways losing 2-1 at home to Bournemouth is worse than getting thumped by seven at City, as Stoke were last week.

The Cherries loss made it five defeats in six, one win in eight and a lingering question mark over whether things have gone stale for Mark Hughes.

Stoke's next four matches - Watford (away), Leicester (home), Brighton (away) and Crystal Palace (away) - should tell us plenty.

4 Southgate needs to look at other goalkeeping options
After Joe Hart's recent robbery at the hands of a moped gang one newspaper report said the West Ham goalkeeper had the "safest hands in England".

That's a worrying thought on many levels and his latest average performance for the Hammers during Friday's 3-0 defeat to Brighton must surely leave England boss Gareth Southgate pondering his options for the World Cup.

Everyone knows what Hart can (or rather can't) do and there is no harm in Southgate using next month's friendly double-header to assess his other keepers.

5 Monk praying for time at the Riverside
These are worrying times for Middlesbrough backers after the latest defeat, this time 1-0 at home to Cardiff which left some fans calling for the head of summer arrival Garry Monk.

Boro had two shots on target and Cardiff boss Neil Warnock said afterwards: "We looked like we knew what we were doing."

The same cannot be said for this Boro side, who look particularly tense on Teesside.

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