Manchester City's Centurions: How Guardiola's Side Reached 100 Points
32 wins, 106 goals, a 19-point margin and a winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time on the final day. The 2017-18 Centurions, record by record.
Manchester City's Centurions are Pep Guardiola's 2017-18 side, the first team in English top-flight history to finish a season on 100 points. They won 32 of 38 Premier League games, drew four, lost two, scored 106 goals and won the title by 19 points from Manchester United. The hundredth point came from a Gabriel Jesus goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time on the final day.
This page sets out how they did it: the numbers, the records, the team, the winning run, the two defeats and the last-minute goal that turned 98 into 100.
The season at a glance
| Manager | Pep Guardiola |
| League record | P38 W32 D4 L2 |
| Goals | 106 scored, 27 conceded, +79 |
| Points | 100 |
| Winning margin | 19 points over Manchester United |
| At home | W16 D2 L1, 61-14 |
| Away | W16 D2 L1, 45-13 |
| Title confirmed | 15 April 2018, with five games left |
| Top scorer | Sergio Agüero, 21 league goals, 30 in all competitions |
| Most assists | Kevin De Bruyne, 16 (most in the league) |
| Other trophies | League Cup, 3-0 v Arsenal at Wembley |
The final table
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester City | 38 | 32 | 4 | 2 | 106 | 27 | 100 |
| Manchester United | 38 | 25 | 6 | 7 | 68 | 28 | 81 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 23 | 8 | 7 | 74 | 36 | 77 |
| Liverpool | 38 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 84 | 38 | 75 |
| Chelsea | 38 | 21 | 7 | 10 | 62 | 38 | 70 |
The 19-point gap to second is as revealing as the 100. United's 81 points would have been enough to win the title in several seasons; Liverpool won it with 84 in 2024-25, and Leicester with 81 in 2015-16, according to the Premier League's list of winning totals. How the points and tie-breakers behind a table like this work is set out in how league tables and points work.
Every record the season set
City did not just pass 100. By the last day they held almost every team record a Premier League season can produce.
| Record | 2017-18 figure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Most points | 100 | First top-flight side in England to reach 100 |
| Most wins | 32 | Since matched by City in 2018-19 |
| Most goals | 106 | Passed Chelsea's 103 from 2009-10 |
| Best goal difference | +79 | Premier League record |
| Biggest title margin | 19 points | Over Manchester United |
| Most away wins | 16 | Out of 19 away games |
| Most away points | 50 | Matched by 50 at home |
| Longest winning run | 18 games | 26 August to 27 December 2017; since equalled by Liverpool |
The records fell in a rush at the end. The 3-1 home win over Brighton on 9 May took City to 97 points, past the 95 Chelsea set in 2004-05, gave them a 31st win, one more than Chelsea managed in 2016-17, and lifted them to 105 goals, beyond Chelsea's 103 in 2009-10, as the Premier League reported that night. The goal-difference, margin and winning-run marks are confirmed by Opta's Analyst, and Guinness World Records lists the 100 points, 106 goals and 32 wins as records too.
The team
City spent heavily in the summer of 2017. Goalkeeper Ederson arrived from Benfica for £34.9m, Kyle Walker from Tottenham for £45m, Benjamin Mendy from Monaco for £49.3m, Danilo from Real Madrid for £26.5m and Bernardo Silva from Monaco for £43m. Aymeric Laporte followed from Athletic Bilbao for £57m in January.
Mendy hobbled off in the 5-0 win over Crystal Palace on 23 September, and Fabian Delph volunteered to cover at left-back. That accident shaped the side. Delph did not overlap like a winger; he underlapped, moving inside into a narrower space behind Sané, close to the role described in full-back vs wing-back vs inverted full-back.
StatsBomb's analysis of the 7-2 win over Stoke in October describes the structure. Fernandinho held the middle so that De Bruyne, on the right of the midfield three, and David Silva, on the left, could play as two free eights in the half-spaces. Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling stayed as wide as possible, and Walker on the right swapped positions with Sterling. The typical goal followed one pattern: Silva or De Bruyne picked the ball up just outside the box, slid it out to a winger, and the winger cut it back low for a tap-in. Sergio Agüero and Gabriel Jesus shared the centre-forward role. The base shape is explained in more depth in the 4-3-3 formation explained.
Who scored the 106
| Player | League goals |
|---|---|
| Sergio Agüero | 21 |
| Raheem Sterling | 18 |
| Gabriel Jesus | 13 |
| Leroy Sané | 10 |
| David Silva | 9 |
| Kevin De Bruyne | 8 |
| Bernardo Silva | 6 |
| Fernandinho | 5 |
| İlkay Gündoğan | 4 |
| Nicolás Otamendi | 4 |
| Danilo | 3 |
| Vincent Kompany | 1 |
| Fabian Delph | 1 |
| Own goals | 3 |
Thirteen different City players scored in the league. Agüero was third in the scoring chart, behind Mohamed Salah's 32 and Harry Kane's 30, with Sterling fifth on 18.
The 18-game winning run
City dropped points only once before 31 December. After a 1-1 home draw with Everton on 21 August, they won every league game from 26 August, a 2-1 win at Bournemouth, to 27 December, a 1-0 win at Newcastle: 18 in a row, a Premier League record.
Along the way they beat Liverpool 5-0, Watford 6-0 away, Crystal Palace 5-0 and Stoke 7-2, won 1-0 at Chelsea and 2-1 at Old Trafford, and needed a 96th-minute Sterling winner to beat Southampton 2-1 at home in November. Guardiola was named Premier League Manager of the Month for September, October, November and December.
The run ended at Selhurst Park on 31 December with a 0-0 draw that nearly became a defeat. Sky Sports reported that Palace were given a 90th-minute penalty when Sterling fouled Wilfried Zaha, and that Ederson saved Luka Milivojević's kick with his legs. Gabriel Jesus went off injured in the first half and De Bruyne was stretchered off in stoppage time. A 19th straight win would have matched the European record of Guardiola's own Bayern Munich side.
The two defeats and the four draws
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug 2017 | City v Everton | Drew 1-1 |
| 31 Dec 2017 | Crystal Palace v City | Drew 0-0 |
| 14 Jan 2018 | Liverpool v City | Lost 4-3 |
| 3 Feb 2018 | Burnley v City | Drew 1-1 |
| 7 Apr 2018 | City v Manchester United | Lost 3-2 |
| 6 May 2018 | City v Huddersfield | Drew 0-0 |
Liverpool 4-3 City, 14 January. The first league defeat came at Anfield, in City's 23rd game. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored in the ninth minute and Leroy Sané equalised before half-time, then Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah scored in a nine-minute spell for 4-1. Late goals from Bernardo Silva and İlkay Gündoğan made the final score close but not level.
City 2-3 Manchester United, 7 April. A win would have clinched the title against their neighbours. Vincent Kompany scored in the 25th minute and Gündoğan made it 2-0 by half-time, but Paul Pogba scored twice early in the second half and Chris Smalling won it, as the Premier League's report records.
Champions without kicking a ball
The title came a week later. City won 3-1 at Tottenham on 14 April, and the next day West Brom, bottom of the table, won 1-0 at Old Trafford through a Jay Rodriguez goal. That left United 16 points behind with five matches to play, and City were champions for the third time in the Premier League era.
With nothing left to win, the question became whether they could reach 100. After the Brighton win, Guardiola set the target in plain terms: "Now we want 100 points and finish this almost perfect season in the Premier League." He went on to name the great sides that came before, from Liverpool in the 1980s to Sir Alex Ferguson's United and Arsène Wenger's Invincibles, and added: "I am not saying we are better because we need more years of success, but in one season we were better."
The hundredth point
City went to St Mary's on 13 May on 97 points. Southampton, in 17th, were fighting to stay up, and for 90 minutes they held out. Sterling hit the woodwork for City; at the other end Wesley Hoedt headed against the crossbar and Fernandinho cleared a Dušan Tadić shot off the line.
Guardiola sent on Gabriel Jesus. In the fourth minute of stoppage time De Bruyne hit a long pass over the Southampton defence, his 16th assist of the league season, and Jesus ran on to it and lifted the ball over goalkeeper Alex McCarthy. The Premier League's match report confirmed City as the first top-flight team to reach 100 points and the first to win 32 games in a season, and Southampton stayed up anyway because Swansea lost to Stoke.
The cups
The league was the only part of the season City dominated. They won the League Cup, Guardiola's first trophy at the club, by beating Arsenal 3-0 at Wembley on 25 February, with Kompany named man of the match. They went out of the FA Cup in the fifth round, and Liverpool knocked them out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals, 5-1 on aggregate. For a side that did win everything in one season, compare Manchester United's 1999 treble.
The individual awards
| Award | Winner |
|---|---|
| Premier League Manager of the Season | Pep Guardiola |
| PFA Young Player of the Year | Leroy Sané |
| Premier League Playmaker of the Season | Kevin De Bruyne, 16 assists |
| PFA Team of the Year | Walker, Otamendi, David Silva, De Bruyne, Agüero |
Phil Foden also became the youngest player to win the Premier League, at 17 years and 350 days.
Has anyone come close since?
Nobody has matched it. These are the highest points totals in Premier League history, from Opta's Analyst:
| Points | Team | Season |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | Manchester City | 2017-18 |
| 99 | Liverpool | 2019-20 |
| 98 | Manchester City | 2018-19 |
| 97 | Liverpool | 2018-19 |
| 95 | Chelsea | 2004-05 |
| 93 | Chelsea | 2016-17 |
| 93 | Manchester City | 2021-22 |
The four highest totals all came in the three seasons from 2017-18 to 2019-20, as City and Liverpool pushed each other to levels the league had never seen. The closest any side has come is Liverpool's 99, one point short, and when the Premier League updated its list of winning totals before the 2025-26 season, City's 2017-18 team was still the only one to have reached 100.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Manchester City's 2017-18 team called the Centurions?
Because they finished the 2017-18 Premier League season on 100 points, the first time any side in England's top flight had reached three figures. They won 32 of their 38 games, drew four and lost two.
How did Manchester City reach 100 points?
With a 1-0 win at Southampton on the final day, 13 May 2018. Gabriel Jesus came off the bench and scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time, lifting Kevin De Bruyne's long pass over goalkeeper Alex McCarthy. A draw would have left City on 98.
Who beat Manchester City in the 100-point season?
Two teams. Liverpool won 4-3 at Anfield on 14 January 2018, the first league defeat of City's season, and Manchester United came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at the Etihad on 7 April 2018, a result that delayed City's title by a week.
What records did Manchester City set in 2017-18?
Most points (100), most wins (32), most goals (106), the best goal difference (+79), the biggest title margin (19 points), the most away wins (16), the most away points (50) and the longest winning run (18 league games) in a Premier League season.
Has any team beaten Manchester City's 100 points?
No. The Premier League's list of winning totals, updated in August 2025, still has City's 2017-18 side as the only team to reach 100 points. The closest anyone has come is Liverpool's 99 in 2019-20, followed by City's own 98 in 2018-19.
When did Manchester City win the 2017-18 title?
On 15 April 2018, without playing. West Brom won 1-0 at Old Trafford through a Jay Rodriguez goal, which left Manchester United 16 points behind City with five matches left, a gap they could no longer close.
Who scored the most goals for Manchester City in 2017-18?
Sergio Agüero, with 21 Premier League goals and 30 in all competitions. Raheem Sterling scored 18 in the league and Gabriel Jesus 13, and Kevin De Bruyne led the league with 16 assists.