Manchester City feasted, Manchester City feasted but Manchester City had a difficult digestion on Boxing Day. But the Mancuniens, who led 4-0 before being raised to 4-3, finally avoided the liver crisis on Sunday, December 26. during a truncated boxing day. First irresistible, the Cityzens then clearly sinned by pride by disregarding the rules of a game that they had yet sublimated during a first dream period.
At times, it looked like the great Barça. The one from ten years ago, the one who walked over Europe with an almost unreal game, it seemed so easy. It is obviously no coincidence that we find the same man behind these two projects. Another time, other customs, but Guardiola’s Manchester City has necessarily recalled its prestigious predecessor. In any case for 45 minutes.
Counter-pressing, fluid circulation, permanent availability, all the precepts of the Spanish mentor were applied in a sort of ballet in which Leicester was placed on the balcony to attend. But this collective demonstration would not have been so perfect without the individual talent of its authors, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Sterling, Silva … Everyone enjoyed it. Especially during a first half hour of total, relentless, almost unimaginable football. 4-0 in 25 minutes and a feeling of being on a surf spot as the blue waves crashed with regularity and power over Leicester’s defense.
De Bruyne opened the scoring (5th) after an oriented control for which he patented, Tielemans offered his gift a day late by tackling his opponent in the box, causing the penalty converted by Mahrez (13th), Gündogan a scored the third goal by recovering a ball poorly released by Schmeichel (21st) after a new school movement from the Skyblues, and Sterling, again after a new fault from a Tielemans decidedly on the street, also got his penalty (25th).
7-0 against Leeds, 4-0 against Newcastle in City’s last two games, one wondered, coming back from the locker room, how many Leicester was going to take. If Brendan Rodgers’ men finally cracked late in the match, they mostly showed that Manchester could also be crumbly. Quiet, too quiet, on resumption, the leaders of the Premier League have forgotten the first principle: respect the opponent. The latter bravely took advantage of the too great mansuétude Mancunienne to return, in the space of 10 minutes of madness, to a single goal behind (4-3, 65th).
From then on, everything could have happened. But City also knows how to win without necessarily developing a dream game. When you have to go to putty to snatch victory, Guardiola’s players also know how to score from set pieces. It’s less glamorous, but it’s also effective. They will therefore have to thank the head of Aymeric Laporte, the neo international Spanish saving the homeland when it began to collapse on all sides (69th). The warning had passed. No charge this time.
Sterling, in the last minutes, was certainly responsible for bringing the score to 6-3 but, behind the tennis score, Manchester City will have to remember that he was very hot. For now, the Mancuniens can breathe while savoring, the toes in a fan, this 9th victory in a row. A victory which allows them to take respectively 6 and 9 points ahead of Liverpool (whose match was postponed because of Covid) and Chelsea who go to Aston Villa later in the evening.
9 – Man City v Leicester is the first ever @premierleague game on Boxing Day to see as many as nine goals, and the highest scoring match in the top-flight overall on Boxing Day since Oldham 3-6 Man Utd in 1991. Feast.
– OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 26, 2021