Mangala uses stats to defend his time at Manchester City

Eliaquim Mangala, a man widely regarded as a Manchester City flop, has used stats to defend his record with the Premier League club.

The Frenchman cost around £35m but failed to establish himself as a regular under Manuel Pellegrini and clearly doesn’t figure in Pep Guardiola’s long-term thinking after being loaned out to Valencia this summer.

However, City’s record under him – particularly in his first season – is impressive.

City won 73% of the games Mangala started in 2014/15 and won only 29% of the games he missed.

Mangala, effectively pushed out of the reckoning at City by the signing of John Stones, told Marca: “City was different, the English championship is different. The team did not work well, but statistics said that more games were won when I played than when not playing.

“The only thing I missed was winning a title. But I also got to play a semi-final of the Champions League.

“I talked with Pep, but there were many players and he told me that he understood that I wanted to play and had no problems.”