STERLING SHOWS HIS WORTH FOR SIX-GUN CITY
Winger torments sorry Saints as champions’ form begins to look ominous for title rivals
MANCHESTER CITY were toying with Southampton long before the end of this electrifying evisceration.
There were 10 minutes of the first half still to go when City, already 3-1 up and seemingly hell-bent on finding a way to walk the ball into the net, decided to start playing their own game of rondo within a 10-yard space in Southampton’s penalty area that was more congested than the M25 at rush hour. By the final count, there were nine Southampton bodies to five City players, all getting increasingly dizzy on a passing carousel interspersed with a feast of feints, back-heels and nutmegs.
A jubilant home crowd were denied a glorious finish to that particular carnival but, all the same, it provided a vivid, highly entertaining snapshot of the unerring control and conviction Pep Guardiola’s team exert. Manchester United are up next at the Etihad and if their recent first-half struggles continue on Sunday and City start as they did here, it could be a long afternoon for Jose Mourinho and his players.
The previous time Mark Hughes visited the Etihad Stadium 13 months ago, it did not end well either. His Stoke team were battered 7-2 and Hughes left declaring that, in his opinion, Kevin De Bruyne was by far the best player in the Premier League. There was no De Bruyne for City here and the scary thing is that it did not matter.
This was the 11th time City have won by five goals or more since Guardiola became manager and, although they were unable to inflict a defeat heavy enough to trouble the competition’s biggest winning margins, the scoreline, if anything, was incredibly kind to a punchdrunk Southampton.
Thorn
City needed a dramatic goal deep in added time from Raheem Sterling to beat Southampton at the Etihad last season, but the only similarity on this occasion was that the England forward was again the biggest thorn in their side. Sterling verbally agreed a new five-year contract last week and responded with a pair of goals and assists.
Sergio Aguero was not half bad either, with two assists, and his 150th goal in the Premier League in 217 appearances. Only Alan Shearer has reached the milestone quicker.
This was such a swashbuckling team performance, in which every player seemed so perfectly in sync with each other, that it somehow felt wrong to single out individuals.
What is more, Guardiola still was not entirely happy, the Catalan dismayed Danny Ings was able to win and score a penalty, and with some of the chances Southampton created, arguing that his team are still not defensively stable enough.
That concern may become a factor in bigger matches this season, but Southampton’s game plan went, in the words of Hughes, “out of the window” inside 18 minutes when they found themselves three goals down. Wesley Hoedt got the ball rolling when he turned Leroy Sane’s cross-shot into his own net.
Sterling then showed Hoedt a clean pair of heels and had the strength to hold off Ryan Bertrand before crossing for Aguero, who was quicker to react in the six-yard area than two flatfooted defenders. Two became three when Sterling, from Bernardo Silva’s pass, crossed. Sane challenged for a header and David Silva fired home the loose ball.
It was such one-way traffic that it was a shock when Ederson brought down Ings, who converted the resultant penalty, but City restored their three-goal advantage on the stroke of half-time. Aguero’s work off the ball has improved no end under Guardiola and he did brilliantly to dispossess Cedric Soares on the left and cross for Sterling who, at the second attempt, scored.
Southampton’s best spell in the game came in the early stages of the second half, but it left them vulnerable on the break and Sterling’s second was the culmination of a lovely move. Aymeric Laporte’s pass was dummied by Bernardo into Sterling, who laid off the ball to Fernandinho before wheeling away and setting off for goal. Fernandinho found Aguero who, with Sterling overlapping on his right, passed to his team-mate to fire through Alex McCarthy’s legs. They could have claimed at least two or three more, notably when Sane crashed a stunning drive against a post, before the Germany winger finally got his goal in stoppage time from Sterling’s pass. In this form, City are unstoppable. (© Daily Telegraph, London)