HAAL HANDS Erling leads from front as the ON DECK big guns get job done
JUDGING by his team sheet, Pep Guardiola thought this fixture was a banana skin.
If that was the hidden message, his players noticed it – and then didn’t so much walk around the problem as stamp on it.
Heroes in midweek against Bayern Munich they may have been, but for the likes of Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish and Kevin de Bruyne, it was back to work.
They were relentless, ruthless – and, at times, ridiculously good.
Let’s face it, the Premier League title is still up for grabs.
And this was all over, barring a Lazarus-like recovery from the relegation-threatened Foxes, within 10 minutes. By the halfhour mark it was a question of how many and how much – goals and pain – in that order the treble-chasers were going to inflict. The answer? More than enough. It all worked out beautifully for Manchester City’s boss. The heavy lifting that was done in the opening 45 minutes allowed his players to relax before the trip to Germany.
The history books will show that John Stones set the ball rolling before Erling Haaland (two) joined the party, establishing a three-goal lead inside the first third of the match.
You have to credit Guardiola’s men for their focus.
After all the excitement and praise generated by the triumph over Thomas Tuchel and the Bavarians, it would have been easy to take their foot off the pedal.
But Manchester City haven’t become a trophy-winning machine by doing that.
Why take your foot off the pedal when you can place it upon your opponent’s throat instead?
Talk about a welcome back for interim Foxes boss Dean Smith.
He had to be hauled out of Augusta last week to answer the survival call that went out from the King Power Stadium.
From watching one Masters to another.
But if Smith genuinely thought his gameplan of sitting back and maintaining a shape was a good idea, then maybe he’s not the man for the job.
There’s never been a good time to play Guardiola’s City. Never.
But not at the moment, when Haaland is ripping up the record books and what was a very good team before he arrived is now
playing at its peak. Less than five minutes had gone when the breakthrough arrived.
A corner was half-cleared, Grealish headed it back into the danger zone, and Leicester could only scuff the ball out to the edge of the area where Stones waited and hit a shot inside Daniel Iversen’s post.
A few minutes later, Grealish drove into the area and his cross struck Wilfred Ndidi on the arm.
There was a huge roar from behind Iversen’s goal and referee Darren England was encouraged to look at the incident on the pitchside monitor.
The outcome appeared inevitable.
Both that there would be a penalty and that Haaland would score it.
Finally, Leicester twigged that sitting back would invite trouble but they didn’t cotton on to the fact that misplaced passes could too.
It was one of those from Kiernan Dewsbury-hall that was picked up by De Bruyne.
The Belgian drove forward and Haaland’s run enabled him to collect the inch-perfect pass and lift the ball into the net for the third.
Those goals gave Guardiola the breathing space he needed to swap and change.
Kelechi Iheanacho (right) pounced from close range to make it 3-1 then James Maddison missed a good chance.
But the comeback never looked on and a dramatic title race continues at pace.