The statistics suggest that Pep Guardiola has never faced a greater challenge than with Manchester City in the Premier League

The statistics suggest that Pep Guardiola has never faced a greater challenge than with Manchester City in the Premier League

"I hear a lot of times about the intensity of the Premier League, when none of you have been in La Liga or the Bundesliga to know how it is," Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said after the 1-1 draw with Everton in October.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager continually insists that City is not the hardest job he has ever had in football. But that draw with Everton was near the start of a run that has seen his side pick up just 12 points from their past nine games to leave them trailing leaders Chelsea by seven points.

Since Champions League progression was secured with a 1-1 draw at Borussia Monchengladbach last month, City have pieced together a scrappy 2-1 win at newly promoted Burnley, been beaten 3-1 at home by Chelsea and been embarrassed 4-2 at Leicester City, who had won just one of their nine previous matches.

Here are some statistics to suggest that Guardiola never had it as tough in his previous jobs, despite his insistence that his time in Spain and Germany was just as hard.

Worse start to a season

Guardiola has never had a worse start to a league campaign. City have taken 30 points from their first 15 games. His previous worst tally at this stage was in his final season at Barcelona, when he had 34 points. Never in his previous seven seasons of management had his side lost three games after just 15 games. On four occasions his team had lost once; three times they were still unbeaten.

Coming from behind

In five of his previous seven seasons of management, Guardiola's side were top of the table at this stage and were destined to remain there for the rest of the season. In 2009-10, Barcelona led after 15 matches but were briefly knocked off the top by Manuel Pellegrini's Real Madrid before going on to win the title. Two seasons later, Jose Mourinho's Madrid won La Liga -- the only time Guardiola has not finished top. He has never been lower than second at this stage.

Clean sheets

"After four minutes 2-0 against a team, it was complicated," Guardiola said after the humbling 4-2 defeat to Leicester on Saturday. His side have kept just two clean sheets this season, which is in stark contrast to his times at Barca and Bayern. His previous worst record for clean sheets from the first 15 games was in his first season at the Nou Camp, when Barca didn't concede in seven of their opening matches. In his second season at Bayern, they managed 12 clean sheets from their first 15 games; indeed they only conceded 18 goals that entire season -- one fewer than City have let in already this campaign.

Winning record

Guardiola's winning record in the Premier League stands at 53.33 percent, which is way down on his 76.32 percent average with Barcelona and 80.39 percent with Bayern. But it's not just in the Premier League where he is having problems. City's fourth-round exit from the EFL Cup was only the second time he had exited a cup competition before the semifinals as a manager -- the previous time was the defeat to Sevilla in the Copa del Rey round of 16 in 2010. In the Champions League, it was the first time a Guardiola side had not finished top of their group and just the second time they won only three of their six group games.

Discipline problems

Players being sent off and suspended has been a bigger problem at the Etihad than at any other time in Guardiola's managerial career. City have had five players sent off this season in all competitions, while Sergio Aguero was also given a retrospective red card for an elbow on West Ham defender Winston Reid. In his entire three years at Bayern, they only picked up seven red cards; while his worst season for discipline at Barcelona, in 2008-09, they had seven players sent off from 62 games. Guardiola can also ill afford to have Aguero banned for seven games. Before he began his latest suspension against Leicester, he had scored exactly a third of City's Premier League goals: 10 of 30.

Goalkeeping concerns

Much has been made of the decision to sign Claudio Bravo for his footballing skills, but his goalkeeping is not what Guardiola is used to. The Chile international has conceded 21 goals this season and made just 35 saves, giving him a save percentage of 62.5 percent. At Bayern, Germany keeper Manuel Neuer averaged a save percentage of 79.6 in his final season; his worst season, in 2014-15, included an average of 74.4 percent. Even in Guardiola's final season at the Camp Nou, when Victor Valdes conceded 39 goals, his save percentage was 67.8.

Goal ratio

"In all those three games, we were much, much better than our opponents. Now we have to talk and analyse, and it is a problem in the box, but we will improve," Guardiola said after the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough on Nov. 5 -- a third successive home draw at the Etihad. The statistics concur they have a problem, with City creating 296 chances this season for their 52 goals, at an average of a goal every 5.7 chances. That's worse than any season, apart from his last with Bayern -- 6.3 chances per goal -- but he at least had the consolation of seeing his side creating more chances than any other campaign and scoring 122 goals