Man City thrash Palace to go third
Manchester City strengthened their Premier League top-four aspirations with a 5-0 thrashing of a woeful Crystal Palace side at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
City never looked back after David Silva’s 50th goal for the club in the second minute although it was not until the second half that Vincent Kompany, Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi found the net.
Victory moved City into third place with 69 points, above Liverpool on goal difference. Fifthplaced Manchester United, who play sixth-placed Arsenal on Sunday, have 65.
“Our performance was high level. I’m pleased for our people we can finally enjoy a lot of goals here,” Man City manager Pep Guardiola said. “We have four teams fighting for two places. Hopefully United can focus on the Europa League and next season we shall see five English teams in Europe which would be amazing,” he said of former rival Jose Mourinho’s side which plays its Europa League semifinal next week. Riyad Mahrez scored on his 100th Premier League appearance to help Leicester City to a comfortable 3-0 win over Watford that moved the champions into the top half of the table.
Despite a miserable start to the season, Leicester can still finish as high as eighth under Craig Sheakespeare — who replaced Claudio Ranieri — and victory at the King Power Stadium leaves them ninth and also mathematically ensures they cannot be relegated. Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were on target as Borussia Dortmund beat Hoffenheim 2-1 in a dramatic encounter to steal a march on their rivals in the race for automatic Champions League qualification.
The two sides have been jostling over third place in the Bundesliga, which guarantees entry into the Champions League group stages, for much of the season and this was a typically action-packed affair for Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel’s men at Signal Iduna Park. Dortmund’s CEO admits his relationship with the coach is strained over the decision to play a day after a bomb attack on their team bus. UEFA, in agreement with the two clubs, postponed the game to the day after. Tuchel complained that he had not been involved in the decision.
Asked if there was a clear difference in his and Tuchel’s version of events, Watzke said: “Yes, there is. It was too serious a matter for us to make a decision above the heads of everyone.