Ancelotti expresses his satisfaction with Brazil's performance in the first round after the World Cup, and Manchester City continues its strong start in the English Premier League

Carlo Ancelotti, Brazil's coach, expressed his satisfaction with the level of his players during their first round since being eliminated from the round of 16 in the FIFA World Cup last July, which ended with a 4-0 victory over India on Saturday, after playing two matches against Australia.

Ancelotti relied on a wide rotation policy during the three friendly matches, which allowed him to include all 26 players included in the list. Vinicius Junior and Danilo were the only ones who started in the three matches, while eight players made their international debuts with the Brazilian national team.

Nearly two-thirds of Brazil's World Cup squad missed this round, as Ancelotti began his efforts to build the next generation for the national team.

Ancelotti told reporters after the end of the round with two wins and one draw: “We came out of this period with a positive impression. Because the players performed well, even if some could do better. “Every player has his own personality.”

The veteran Italian coach added: “In the end, we are living in a state of satisfaction. The level of the matches does not matter, but what matters to us is to prepare for them seriously and compete to the best of our ability, taking all circumstances into consideration... I have come to know these players much better.”

Van Anderson and Samuel Leno scored their first international goals, with the latter scoring a brace against India, ranked 138th in the world.

“It was a very useful period,” Ancelotti said, referring to the upcoming friendlies against Japan and Singapore in November. “I have a much clearer vision about the choices ahead.”

He continued: “Of course, we will not make major changes, but we need to develop more young players who were not on this list, and who will join us in the upcoming call-ups.”

The first international break gives us enough time to assess the situation and understand what happened in the first weeks of the Premier League season. Manchester City is the only team to win all five of its matches; The team started its campaign in the best possible way inside the green rectangle, expanding the difference to 3 points over Arsenal (the defending champion).

But how important is this strong start? Of course, we do not yet know the nature of the penalties that Manchester City may face for violating the rules of financial fair play in the English Premier League, so we will put this issue aside in this article.

Manchester City, led by Italian coach Enzo Maresca, has become the fifteenth team in the history of the competition to win its first 5 matches of the season, and it is the fourth time that Manchester City has achieved this achievement. However, the team only succeeded in winning the title in one of the previous three seasons in which it achieved this start; He won the league in the 2023-2024 season, but failed to take advantage of his strong start (5 consecutive victories) in the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 seasons.

This is consistent with a general trend in the league; Only 3 teams (including a team in two seasons) out of the 14 teams that achieved victory in their first five matches of the season succeeded in going ahead and winning the title (a percentage of 29%): Manchester City in the 2023-2024 season, Liverpool in the 2019-2020 season, and Chelsea in the 2005-2006 and 2009-2010 seasons. Perhaps the most important thing is Is that all of these teams continued to consolidate their winning streak at the beginning of those seasons; Chelsea (in the 2009-2010 season) and Manchester City (in the 2023-2024 season) extended their winning streak to include an additional match (for a total of 6 consecutive victories), while Liverpool began the 2019-2020 season with a series of 8 consecutive victories. Chelsea (in the 2005-2006 season) achieved the longest winning streak at the beginning of the English Premier League season under its current system, with 9 victories.

Tottenham holds the record for the most consecutive wins at the start of a Premier League season ever. He won his first 11 matches in the 1960-1961 season, and was crowned champion that season, which was not surprising. But a strong start with victories does not necessarily guarantee success, which is what happened to Manchester United in the 1985-1986 season. Despite winning its first ten matches (and not suffering any defeat in the first 15 matches) under the leadership of coach Ron Atkinson, the team’s level declined sharply after that, and it ended the season in fourth place.

It must be noted that Manchester City has benefited from a relatively easy schedule of matches; According to Opta’s classifications, Manchester City had the second easiest start to this season. The average rating of his opponents was 91.2. No team had an easier start than Liverpool (91.1), according to the fixtures compiled by the Premier League's computer system.

Liverpool was the newest on this list last season; The defending champion at the time won its matches against Bournemouth, Newcastle, Arsenal, Burnley and Everton at the beginning of the season, before suffering four consecutive defeats. The fact that Liverpool won 4 of their first five matches with goals scored after the 83rd minute indicated that this series of victories would not last long, which has already been proven to be true.

The question marks raised over Manchester City's defensive performance this season indicate that the current winning streak may also be unsustainable. The team will undergo a real test when the English Premier League resumes, when it visits Liverpool at Anfield. Note that Liverpool has not suffered any defeat so far, under the leadership of its new coach, Andoni Iraola.

The lowest position a team finished after winning the first five matches was sixth place (which happened with Newcastle United in the 1994-1995 season), even though that happened in a season that included 42 matches.

When looking at the entire history of the Premier League (in its old form, and in its new form after converting its system to the English Premier League), we find that Manchester City’s current winning streak represents the 40th time that a team has succeeded in winning its first 5 matches of the season. Of the previous 39 cases, only 14 teams eventually succeeded in winning the league title (36 percent).

The average points scored by the Premier League champions in the first five matches over the past thirty-four seasons is 11.3 points. This rate exceeds the total points collected by Arsenal last season. Arsenal scored 10 points from its first five matches. He wasted points by losing to Liverpool and drawing with Manchester City at home.

On the other hand, Arsenal, led by Spanish coach Mikel Arteta, made a better start this season. It scored 12 points out of a possible 15, and the only stumble was the sudden defeat by 3 unanswered goals against Brighton.

The lowest number of points scored by the team that subsequently won the English Premier League title was recorded in the first five matches during the 1992-1993 season. Manchester United scored only 7 points from its first five matches (two wins, a draw, and two defeats). However, the team, led by legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson, remedied the situation and succeeded in ending the season 10 points behind runner-up Aston Villa, in a season that extended to 42 matches.

No team has ever won the Premier League title in seasons consisting of 38 matches after scoring less than 8 points in the first five matches. Manchester United won the title 4 times after scoring exactly 8 points in its five opening matches (in the 1998-1999, 2002-2003, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 seasons), and Manchester City repeated this achievement in the 2020-2021 season.

The conclusion we would like to deliver to the fans of Hull City and Newcastle is: it is still possible.

As for the most amazing transformations, it is represented by the achievement achieved by Sunderland in the 1912-1913 season as one of the most prominent achievements of the title winners. The team failed to win any of its first seven matches, settling for draws in two matches and losses in the other five matches, but it ultimately succeeded in winning the first division title. Although the point calculation system at the time awarded only two points for a win - which made it relatively easier for teams to recover from a series of negative results - this return remains a tremendous and exceptional achievement.

* The Guardian service