CHELSEA

THERE had been a feeling that the final match of what looked a defining week for Manchester City’s title challenge would present the litmus test of their hopes of retaining their Premier League crown.

Despite Chelsea failing to lay a glove on their hosts – brushed aside like dead leaves in a stiff wind as Sergio Aguero led a goalfest with his second hat-trick in eight days – that theory might still hold true.

Liverpool regained top spot in the table with a restorative victory over Bournemouth at Anfield on Saturday, but City responded here with a statement victory, destroying Chelsea with a win so emphatic you could almost hear the knives being sharpened for manager Maurizio Sarri.

Seven days after his hat-trick against Arsenal, Aguero posted a second, taking his goal tally to 17 for the league season (level with Liverpool’s Mo Salah) and equalling Alan Shearer’s Premier League record of 11 hat-tricks.

If Aguero was on fire he was far from alone. Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling all threatened to blow the top off the thermometer at times.

Indeed, there was a point, midway through the first half, when it appeared touch and go who might put more on the board, City here at the Etihad or England against France at Twickenham. After despatching Arsenal here last Sunday and edging past Everton on a nervy night at Goodison Park in midweek, this turned out to be the easiest of the lot. And it is no exaggeration to say it might have been double figures.

City are making a habit of emerging from the traps at pace and they were ahead after just four minutes, Sterling finishing a move of startling simplicity and staggering ineptitude from Chelsea after De Bruyne’s free-kick found Bernardo Silva in acres of space, left alone by Marcos Alonso on the right. His cross was hammered home by Sterling.

Aguero could have put City two up after eight minutes after Silva wriggled through the box unchecked and crossed only for the striker to miss the simplest of tap-ins at the far post.

The Argentinian made amends in emphatic fashion five minutes later, hitting a brilliant shot inside the top right corner from 25 yards to double City’s lead. He doubled his tally after 19 minutes when an already limping Chelsea