15 IN A ROW FOR PEP SHOW
Suffering Swansea not good enough to stop City juggernaut
NO SPILT milk on the floor, just the carcass of a Swan that took an almighty bludgeoning by a team in no mood to wait around in this Premier League race.
Manchester City can play their music as loud as they want if they keep this absurd run of form going. This was City’s 15th straight win, making a top-flight record, and who will end it? Who could possibly get in the way of such an unstoppable force?
It is premature to add this vintage to the discussion of the division’s all-time finest because the job is not yet done. But it will be soon enough at this rate and when it is, they will have to be prominent in the reckoning.
This was by no means their best performance. But even that is telling, given the width of this scoreline and the fact City might have had seven had they bothered to really try.
Instead, they just coasted with a half-strength team and still battered Swansea for four, with David Silva delivering two exquisite finishes either side of a Kevin de Bruyne free-kick. Sergio Aguero added the fourth five minutes from time.
But the job was made easier by Swansea, because just as City seem set for a certain fate this season, so do their Welsh opponents. They received no mercy here, though.
Of course, the scale of disparity between these clubs is huge.
Silly, really. Never mind the table and that this was the best against the worst, one of the most glaring signifiers of the inequality came in the team adjustments from the weekend.
In recalling Danilo, Eliaquim Mangala, Aguero and Bernardo Silva in place of Kyle Walker, Vincent Kompany, Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane, Guardiola was able to lay his hands on £143million worth of back-up boys who probably wouldn’t be in his first choice XI.
Staggering if you have those options for long away days and cold nights in other countries. Certainly, Swansea live on a different planet in those terms and just about any other.
They always have in this division, but the kicker over the past six years was they somehow, through force of will or clever signings or a defined style of playing, managed to kick the big clubs in the crotch from time to time.
March 2012, and a 1-0 win in this very fixture, for instance.
But those days seem so long ago. Now they have no discernible style and depend on a squad that is by a large margin the worst they have had in their Premier League era.
The differences showed themselves here almost immediately.
Aguero slalomed through three challenges and shot into the sidenetting, before Raheem Sterling was blocked just as he appeared to be going clean through.
A volley from Fernandinho also necessitated a full-length dive across the line from Lukasz Fabianski. All that inside six minutes.
There was then a pair of Aguero headers over the bar and Danilo was a better touch away from going one-on-one with Fabianski.
When Fabianski flapped at a Bernardo Silva cross, Nicolas Otamendi contrived to sky his volley at the far post. That kind of night? Not at all.
The opener, on 27 minutes, was as much down to Swansea’s bungling as Silva’s ingenuity.
In the first instance, it was Roque Mesa who made a hash of a short pass, putting it out of the reach of Tom Carroll on the edge of his area, and from there Bernardo Silva took possession, checked back onto his left foot and dropped a cross over Mike van der Hoorn’s head.
David Silva contorted his body in flight and flicked out a boot to nudge past Fabiasnki. Seven minutes later and it was effectively game over, this time thanks to De Bruyne’s free-kick from the lefthand angle of the box.
The strike was low, took a bounce around the six-yard line and made it all the way through. A cross in likelihood, but good enough for a goal against this defence.
And the Swansea attack? No better, and probably worse.
They offered nothing, barring a low skidder from Jordan Ayew that Ederson collected without any great anxiety. That was it for Swansea’s first half, the sum total of their efforts after having only 23 per cent of the possession. That is what City can do to teams, even when they are wasting chances and mucking about in the low revs of third gear.
The second half was no less of a mauling. Inside the first 45 seconds, David Silva went clean through on Fabianski only to push his shot wide, before the keeper saved well from Aguero.
But Fabianski couldn’t keep this lot out on his own, though the third goal was probably the best of the bunch and not much could have been done about it. David Silva was key in the early part with a pass to Sterling, who then played him back in.
Silva had Mesa nipping at his heels but still had the calmness of mind to wait for Fabianski to go to ground before scooping over him. Delightful.
When Swansea did have a chance, with Mesa’s shot striking Fabian Delph and changing direction, Ederson pulled off a brilliant reflex save. From there, more suffering, with Aguero taking possession from Yaya Toure and running away from two challenges before finishing across Fabianski.
Four goals and cruising. There is something distinctly ominous about this City team.