Silva & Sane fire City closer to more title glory
ground, the thought of upsetting their neighbours to hand Liverpool the title almost unthinkable for United fans, fear of failure eating at the away end.
But it was full-blooded, hightempo and end to end at times. Bernardo Silva forced a good stop from De Gea before Jesse Lingard launched a lightning counter attack to play in Marcus Rashford, who was denied by Ederson.
Just before the break David Silva linked up with Sergio Aguero to set up Sterling and he should have scored, De Gea blocking his close-range shot. Fernandinho went off injured early in the second half and Guardiola rejigged to play Ilkay Gundogan deeper and put sub Leroy Sane on the left, Sterling switching to the right.
It paid off, Sane opening up United’s defence and Gundogan being involved in Silva’s 54thminute opener. He strode forward and played in his teammate, who raced into the box, his low shot creeping inside De Gea’s near post to raise more questions about the keeper.
Aguero went close shortly afterwards with a shot that clipped the outside of a post.
The second goal was partly City brilliance, partly United mistakes. Fred gave the ball away, Vincent Kompany got a counterattack going for City and fed Sterling, whose lay-off found Sane on the edge of the box.
Sane cut inside and buried a low shot past De Gea, who again should have done better, trying to save with feet rather than hands. The keeper’s recent decline rather mirrors United’s own fall from grace. Manchester is well and truly blue all over. P W D L F A Pts Man City 35 29 2 4 89 22 89 Liverpool 35 27 7 1 79 20 88 Tottenham 35 23 1 11 65 35 70 Chelsea 35 20 7 8 59 38 67 Arsenal 35 20 6 9 69 46 66 Man Utd 35 19 7 9 63 50 64 Wolves 35 14 9 12 44 43 51 Watford 35 14 8 13 50 50 50 Everton 35 14 7 14 50 44 49 Leicester 35 14 6 15 48 47 48 West Ham 35 12 7 16 44 54 43 C Palace 35 12 6 17 43 48 42 Newcastle 35 11 8 16 35 44 41 Bournemouth 35 12 5 18 49 62 41 Burnley 35 11 7 17 44 62 40 Southampton 35 9 10 16 41 58 37 Brighton 35 9 7 19 32 54 34 Cardiff 35 9 4 22 30 65 31 Fulham (R) 35 6 5 24 33 76 23 Huddersfield (R) 35 3 5 27 20 69 14