City supreme but not slick
IT SAYS something about Manchester City’s imperious form of late that a comfortable victory in which they passed 100 goals for the season was met with queries about a belowpar performance.
But by the standards Pep Guardiola’s men have set so far in an unbeaten 2019, it is fast becoming that par starts at three goals.
Certainly this was a comfortable victory which once again reset the gap between pacesetters Liverpool and the reigning Premier League champions at four points.
Yet it was a far from fluent display against a Huddersfield side who defended deep and with no little spirit under the temporary charge of Mark Hudson, six days after the departure of David Wagner.
A heavily deflected strike from Danilo and second-half goals from Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane settled the issue and took City to 102 goals in all competitions. It could have been complicated, though, had the Terriers made best use of at least three decent chances themselves.
City arrived in fine form, unbeaten in five matches, whereas for Huddersfield the only thing not in flux about them – Borussia Dortmund second-team coach Jan Siewert looks poised to take over this week – has been their position anchored to the bottom of the table.
If Siewert does arrive he will inherit quite a job, with the Terriers having taken a solitary point from their last 10 league matches. Minutes before kick-off Huddersfield had planned to show a ‘personal message’ of support from their former manager on the big screen only for the sound to fail.
The stadium announcer apologised for the glitch, suggesting they might show it at half-time instead. In a match-up between the league’s leading scorers and its least potent attack it always seemed those words of encouragement might have been a little too late. City have been in irresistible form of late, scoring 20 goals without reply since conceding against Liverpool on January 3, but they lacked cohesion here. Fernandinho was out of sorts, Kevin De Bruyne even more so.
City should have had a penalty after 13 minutes when Sterling, racing onto a through ball from De Bruyne, was hacked by Terence Kongolo.
In the past Sterling has gone down in a stiff breeze, which may have counted against him, but on this occasion he had his left leg hooked from underneath him just as he was preparing to pull the trigger. The only mitigation for referee Andre Marriner was that he
must have thought the defender had taken the ball. Replays confirmed he did not.
City soon put things right even if Huddersfield had a big hand in it, backing off Danilo as he advanced towards the area from the left and inviting a shot which Chris Schindler’s attempted header succeeded in deflecting inside the far post.
For all that they led at halftime, Guardiola had been demonstrative on the edge of his dugout, berating his players for their mistakes, and he must have hurled a few tea cups during the interval.
After it City, who had been “woken up” according to Sane, improved enough to put the game to bed within four minutes.
Their second came through a familiar route with De Bruyne finding Sane – half-a-yard offside but not given – with a ball between centre-half and right-back, and the forward whipping a centre which was met with a diving header by Sterling.
The third came from a loose cross-field ball from Jason Puncheon picked off by Danilo, whose forward pass was nodded down by Sergio Aguero into the path of Sane. The German took the ball on his