CITY TWO WINS FROM TITLE
Spain star’s double sinks Stoke
Hero: David Silva was on the double for City last night as his side beat Stoke
MANCHESTER City will not only win the Premier League but it seems they will do it without any semblance of fuss.
Pep Guardiola’s team will be champions if they beat Manchester United on April 7 — and they win at Everton on March 31.
City eased Stoke City aside last night. Guardiola will not admit it but, apart from a 10-minute spell before half time, it looked simple.
David Silva scored a super team goal in the 10th minute of the first half and then added another five minutes into the second. There were at least half a dozen other good chances.
What matters is that City were in control. Always in control. Champions by early April. Champions by a country mile.
Silva, playing against a background of personal difficulty at the moment, was his team’s best player. He so often is. But an understanding of team play and of the need for hard work ran through this team once again here and it is hard to think there will be much new for Guardiola to tell them as they arrive in the middle east for some warm weather work today.
Stoke’s game plan was clear from the start and it was familiar, too. Lambert’s team sat off City in the hope they could squeeze the space inside their own half and keep their opponents’ opportunities to a minimum.
It was easy to understand Lambert’s logic. Teams who try to press City further up the field run the risk of being picked off.
However, a goal changes everything and here City only had to wait 10 minutes.
There had been no explosive start from the league leaders. Guardiola fielded a strong team but they were not immediately into their stride. The problem for Stoke was that when City did find a gear it was the top one and it was enough to ease them ahead.
Strangely, it was a relatively poor touch from Gabriel Jesus that started things off.
Receiving the ball with his back to goal 40 yards out, the Brazilian did not control it as he would have liked. But his second touch was superb as he swivelled and played the ball inside the full back to the advancing Raheem Sterling in one movement. Once Sterling was away, Stoke were in trouble and when the England forward looked to his left he could see Silva arriving between defenders. His low cross needed to be pretty much perfect to pick the Spaniard out and it was.
Silva buried the ball with his left foot past Jack Butland in the Stoke goal without breaking stride.
So early in the game, things looked ominous for Stoke. Soon after the opener, a move that started with goalkeeper Ederson swept City up the field and within seconds a combination of Kyle Walker, Kevin de Bruyne and Silva had set Leroy Sane free. That time a shot on goal didn’t follow but it was another sign of what City are capable of doing.
Forced now to chase the game, Stoke had to be a little braver and it was clear their best outlet was the scampering Swiss forward Xherdan Shaqiri.
The right-sided player clearly fancied his duel with young City left back Oleksandr Zinchenko and when he pushed the ball through his legs and pulled it back in the 21st minute, Badou Ndiaye’s low shot was deflected wide by City midfielder Fernandinho.
There were other half -chances for City as the half wore on — a header missed at the near post by Jesus and a volley across goal by Sane — but to Stoke’s credit the champions-elect didn’t have things all their own way.
Indeed, City central defender Vincent Kompany was fooled by a long clearance by Butland before half time and when Walker stuck a foot out to try and dispossess the breaking Jese, the ball looped towards the top corner, forcing Ederson to back-pedal and touch it over the bar.
Stoke had ended the half well. Shame, then, that they couldn’t take that momentum into the
second period. Within five minutes City had doubled their lead. Once again the interplay from Guardiola’s team was impressive as Sterling robbed Ndiaye and watched as a quick interchange between Ferdnandino and Jesus allowed Silva to steal in to score.
As Jesus lifted the ball across the penalty area towards Silva, Butland seemed caught in two minds. Had he stayed on his line he would have been hard to beat but instead he chose to advance and as a result it was a touch easier for Silva to nudge the ball past him.
On the touchline, Lambert exhorted his players to give him more effort.
Already, though, it seemed a long way back for Stoke and Fernandinho strode in to a huge gap down the left just before the hour and shot in to the side netting when he could have scored the third. Sterling then bamboozled Kostas Stafylidis and Geoff Cameron to bring a save from Butland before Zinchenko stung the goalkeeper’s hands from 30 yards. What had been a reasonably competitive game at half time was threatening to become a walkover.
Bruno Martins Indi had a chance to interrupt the flow when the ball dropped to him after a free-kick but the Dutch defender hooked it over from six yards. STOKE CITY (4-3-3): Butland 5; Bauer 7, Zouma 5.5, Martins Indi 5.5, Stafylidis 6; Ndiaye 6, Cameron 5.5 (Sobhi 88min), Allen 6; Shaqiri 7, Jese 5.5 (Crouch 63, 6), ChoupoMoting 6.5. Subs not used: Haugaard, Adam, Johnson, Shawcross, Fletcher. Booked: Allen. Manager: Paul Lambert 6. MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Ederson 7; Walker 7, Kompany 6.5, Otamendi 7, Zinchenko 6.5; Fernandinho 7, D SILVA 9, De Bruyne 7; Sterling 8 (B Silva 85), Jesus 8 (Gundogan 90), Sane 7. Subs not used: Bravo, Danilo, Stones, Laporte, Toure. Scorers: D Silva 10, 50. Manager: Pep Guardiola 7. Referee: Jon Moss 6.5. Attendance: 29,138.