Manchester City's relentless form under Pep Guardiola has seen the manager rewarded with another manager of the month award, but he'll need to stay at the Etihad Stadium a lot longer to catch up with Sir Alex Ferguson's tally.
A run of seven wins from seven in December allowed Guardiola's side to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table, and they have kept the run going with narrow victories over Arsenal and Chelsea in January.
Guardiola's reward was another monthly honour, his 11th since taking over from Manuel Pellegrini in the summer of 2016.
However, after firing a warning shot in Ferguson's direction, the Catalan coach was given a reminder of just how much more he needs to do in order to threaten the Scot's tally.
Can Pep Guardiola match Sir Alex Ferguson's manager of the month total? Have your say in the comments section
After being told only Arsene Wenger and Ferguson had more manager of the month awards than him, Guardiola laid down the gauntlet with a smile.
"Be careful, Sir Alex, Arsene... I'm coming!" the 50-year-old said.
He soon changed his tune when he discovered how far he was from the former Manchester United man's record, though, with Ferguson claiming the award 27 times before stepping away in 2013.
"How many?!" Guardiola asked incredulously, before saying "okay, it belongs to him".
"I will not chase him [down], for sure," he added.
Still, while Guardiola is less than halfway towards matching Ferguson's total, the Scot accumulated manager of the month awards at a slower rate than the reigning Premier League champion.
The City boss is midway through his sixth season in the competition, while Ferguson completed 21 campaigns, so if the former Barcelona boss was to stay in the Premier League for the same amount of time he could very easily make it to 27.
Ferguson ended 13 of his 21 Premier League seasons as a league champion, and was named manager of the year on 11 separate occasions.
Guardiola won the latter award after each of his three title victories, in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21, while his first manager of the month award came in February 2017 after his team won all three of their league games and scored eight times in the process.
He may find it easier to catch Wenger, who left Arsenal at the end of the 2017-18 season with his tally standing at 15.
City have just one more league game in January, away to Southampton on Saturday, and victory at St Mary's could put Guardiola in contention to pick up another manager of the month award while strengthening his team's hold on the title.
The champions sit 11 points clear of second-place Liverpool as they seek to claim a fourth title in five years, though Jurgen Klopp's team have a game in hand.
