Just how good has Bristol City's start been?

While this season is still in its infancy, the signs are that Bristol City coach Gerhard Struber is playing a brand of football that is in stark contrast to that served up by predecessor Liam Manning throughout most of his 18 months at the club.

Manning did get City to the play-offs with a tremendous run of home form since the turn of the year, but on the road they were a consistent disappointment for travelling fans with only two wins in the last six months leading up to the season's end.

In stark contrast, Struber has won two on the road from the five which make up the unbeaten sequence and City have scored three or more goals already compared with just achieving that four times over the whole of last season.

So just how good is the start to the season compared to years gone by?

This is City's 11th successive season in the Championship and their best start [first five games] since the lockdown season 2020-21 when they won the opening four and would have made it five had Callum O'Dowda not conceded a last minute penalty away at Barnsley.

That start probably saved City from relegation as the spring brought a six-game losing run which led to the sacking of Dean Holden and by the end of the season the drop was avoided by only seven points.

Going back further, only 2007-08 and 2014-15 match results this season of three wins and two draws.

The latter was in League One under Steve Cotterill and end up with promotion, the latter Championship with Gary Johnson at the helm, and compared with both, our goal difference is better this time around.

Roll the clock back 50 years to the 1975-76 season, which ended in promotion to the top flight, and the season began with two wins, two defeats and a draw so it really is too early to draw any conclusions.

When will that first defeat come? One would hope it won't be this weekend at home to Oxford on Sunday afternoon but then this is Bristol City who have an annoying habit of lifting your hopes only to dash them when form says they should not.

You can hear more from David Pottier on the Forever Bristol City podcast.