PEP’S MAGIC 8 Sorry Flores: Future looked bleak after 30secs... af

QUIQUE FLORES almost certainly has Norwich to thank for this.

Seven days after Manchester City were stung by a first league defeat in eight months there was going to be a reaction.

And on a brutally one- sided afternoon it was the Watford manager’s misfortune that he and his shellshocked side walked straight into it.

With 18 minutes on the clock the Spaniard (right) stood hands deep in pockets, already five-down, with the eyes of a man watching a steamroller coming towards him.

You could almost see his hair going greyer from the stands.

Just two games into his second spell at

Sept 2017 - Prem Jan 2013 - FA Cup Watford 0 Man City 6 Man City 3 Watford 0 Total goals 2013–19 Watford 6 Man City 46 the club comes this thorough drubbing. Taking positives was nigh on impossible.

Only the freakish magnitude of the score offering Watford the chance to park it quick, and move on.

“We have to say sorry to the fans,” Flores said afterwards. “It was very difficult to be on the pitch today. After 30 seconds we thought it would be tough, after five minutes it was difficult. But after 15 minutes it was impossible.”

It was the fastest any team had ever raced to five goals in the Premier League and although Watford reached the break without further damage, three more arrived in the second half to deliver City’s biggest ever Premier League win.

It says something that Bernardo Silva bagged a hat-trick but was not the best player on the pitch. That accolade was grabbed with both hands by Kevin De Bruyne, who orchestrated the blizzard and provided a timely reminder to manager Pep Guardiola of the folly of not starting him at Carrow Road.

It was fitting he provided the final goal, hammering the ball high into Watford’s net on 85 minutes. nutes.

The visitors were ere reduced to a bickering ng rabble early on – the e inquests appearing more heated as the scoreboard ticked up.

Ben Foster said: “We let ourselves down. As s a goalkeeper coming to o

City and Liverpool, if you ou let in five in 20 minutes s you fear the worst. They are without do the best team I have ever played.

“We were poor and didn’t lay a gl on them, but at times it w breathtaking watching them.”

City were indeed breathtaking b Watford might actually have equali after three minutes m when Ger Deulofe Deulofeu had an effort tipp arou around the post by Eder af after skipping p N Nicolas Otamendi.

It was City’s l scare of the afterno

Guardiola describ the performance ““ruthless”, adding t it was “a lovely day in sun sunshine for the team a the f fans”. He said: “One