WELCOME TO THE DAVID SILVA SHOW

Stoke sunk by a masterclass from City’s Spanish entertainer

FORGET looking back on this as any sort of contest, look back on it as an evening with David Silva.

An evening with one of the most seductively talented footballers to have graced the Premier League.

The visiting supporters bowed as one when Silva sauntered over to take one second-half corner.

No wonder.

Silva spent all night cooing into the ball’s ear, coaxing it into areas of maximum threat, persuading it to instil danger and, for good measure, sending it over the goalline twice.

Even for a man who specialises in masterclasses, this was a minor work of art.

Bear in mind, Silva is producing form such as this at a time when he still shuttles to Spain to be with his family after the very premature birth of his son in December.

And it is some form.

These were Silva’s seventh and eighth Premier League goal of the campaign, not an eyewatering tally but tack it on to his creative brilliance and you have a player of unrivalled influence.

There would be few dissenters if you classed Silva as possibly the most talented player to ever sport Manchester City colours.

Just before half-time, he sent Gabriel Jesus clear with a pass that travelled no more than two yards but every inch was genius.

Appropriately, though, his first goal was a product of a peachy team move, one of their prettiest even by Manchester City’s standards.

Throughout the ranks, the ball-striking is so crisp it actually makes a distinctive sound, an emphatic thud of certainty.

So it was when Fernandinho, Jesus and Raheem Sterling wove a beautifully-angled pattern of passes that rendered Stoke’s defence pointless.

Silva scurried down a deserted avenue, opened his body and with the nonchalance he normally reserves for his distribution, applied a firsttime, left-footed finish.

In such a casual win, Silva was probably one of few operating at the peak of powers.

His team enjoyed predictable dominance, in terms of possession and territory, but occasionally looked a little casual.

None more so than Oleksandr Zinchenko, guilty of a string of errors, one of which led to a rare Stoke opening, Badou Ndiaye’s strike taken the wrong side of the post – from a Potters viewpoint – by Fernandinho’s heel. There was also a hint of panic when Jack Butland’s launched pass led to Kyle Walker giving Ederson some back-pedalling exercise and that must have nudged manager Paul Lambert in the direction of the long-ball route.

The problem, of course, was getting possession of the football but Stoke City could not be faulted for application that tried manfully to defy inferiority.

That they kept it respectable was testament to their commitment and to some wastefulness from the champions-elect, whose sole second half success was when Silva pinged a pass to Jesus before dashing and volleying home the return lob.

Amid closing defenders and the onrushing Butland, he was probably not meant to get to the high, bouncing ball. That he did, somehow summed him up.

Small in stature, tall in talent.