Gundogan sets the tone as a revived City tear Cardiff apart
Pep Guardiola, cowering in the rain with his hood pulled up, left the swaggering to his players as normal service resumed for Manchester City.
There was no prowling, demonstrative return for the Spaniard, forced to watch from the stands in midweek as his side crumbled against Lyon.
Instead, it was his players who were back with a bang. Neil Warnock had told his side to expect a “kick in the backside” – it was exactly that, delivered with panache.
Two Riyad Mahrez goals from the bench, a dominant midfield display by Ilkay Gundogan and a relentlessly stylish performance proved it remains business as usual at Manchester City.
Yet Guardiola insisted his dugout return had no influence. “I don’t play, my friend,” he said afterwards. “The managers are there to be there when they have doubts; to support them.”
He was more keen to discuss a man of the match display from Gundogan, who scored and was heavily involved in three other goals. “The best this season,” said Guardiola of the midfielder’s display. “He always plays good too but today was excellent. Today the Gundogan we know came back.”
The poor, soggy home fans were barely given a moment to cheer as the heavens opened. Warnock had already poured cold water on their hopes by dismissing his side’s chances in his programme notes. “We know that results against the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City aren’t the results that will ultimately define our season,” he said.
Warnock said afterwards that the goals knocked the “stuffing out of us”. He added: “The quality was there for everybody to see. It’s not going to define our season but it’s just going to knock our chins down today.”
As Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane, his Afro hair heavy and sodden in the relentless rain, found their range with a couple of early efforts, the Manchester City opener became an inevitability as Gundogan imposed himself.
The breakthrough came on the halfhour mark as he notched a neat ball through to Bernardo Silva on the right of the box. Silva then fired across to Aguero, who slotted the opener away with ease.
City doubled their advantage just three minutes later, Gundogan finding Sane out on the right. His deflected cross was met at the near post by Silva, whose backwards looping header dropped into the far corner.
Gundogan, easily the star of the first half, saved his best for the third goal, shortly before half-time. He teased one-twos out of first Sane and then Raheem Sterling, before effortlessly squaring up his body and curling the ball beyond Neil Etheridge from 20 yards.
The second half was a canter for Guardiola’s side, particularly after Warnock was forced to withdraw Sane’s man-marker, Lee Peltier, who tumbled and appeared to dislocate a shoulder soon after the restart.
Mahrez, eager to impress, got in on the scoring just six minutes after being introduced for Aguero. His slotted away comfortably from close distance after Gundogan again provided, this time with a carefully weighted low cross from the left.
Mahrez then doubled his contribution in style, rifling home from distance after brilliantly creating space for himself with a swivel.
The last time these two teams met sparked a bitter war of words between Guardiola and Warnock over an ugly lunge by Cardiff full-back Joe Bennett on German winger Sane. Bennett was dropped for this game but there would be a new pantomime villain for the away fans to boo. Shortly before the break, Joe Ralls launched a late challenge on Gundogan, who was left writhing in pain as Ralls was booked.