Centurion Belgian is perfect leader for Guardiola’s troops
HARDLY a week goes by, it seems, without Kevin De Bruyne demonstrating his importance to Manchester City.
Here, on his 100th appearance for the club, De Bruyne was a class apart in a stunning demolition of poor Stoke, helping to set up four goals.
Is there a better player in the Premier League right now? Not according to Mark Hughes, the Stoke manager who had to stand and admire a masterclass from the Belgian. ‘He is head and shoulders above any player in the Premier League in my view, because of the way he can dictate and affect the game,’ said Hughes.
‘At 3-2, we had a chance but he grabbed the initiative and decided it wasn’t acceptable for the game to be that close.’
In the last 18 Premier League games he has scored three — including that stunning winner at Chelsea a fortnight ago — and made 14 assists. It’s a remarkable record and one that does not take into account all of the facts.
The cold statistics will say Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling scored City’s first two goals here. They will tell you that the assists were provided by Kyle Walker and Leroy Sane.
What the facts will not convey, however, is the masterful touches applied to
both moves by De Bruyne. They were every bit as important as his two assists later in proceedings.
The first was beautiful in its simplicity. Walker intercepted a stray pass and played the ball straight to De Bruyne before breaking forward.
The Belgian set off down the right and looked for all the world as if he would swing a cross into the box. Stoke’s defence certainly thought so but instead he weighted a perfect pass into the path of Walker. He then had time to pick out Jesus’s run to the near post.
The second, two minutes later, was pure genius. Stoke were still clearing their heads when Sane played the ball back to De Bruyne on the edge of the box.
Again, the Potters expected him to play a different pass, and De Bruyne’s glance to his right suggested he would do just that. Now, though, he slipped the ball in the other direction, back to Sane who was unmarked. It had taken two Stoke defenders out of the game and, once again, gave City the time they needed to apply the killer blow.
De Bruyne set up the fourth and sixth goals. Both owed much to his hunger and determination to win the ball in the first place. In the 56th minute, he stole in to take the ball off substitute Bruno Martins Indi. De Bruyne hardly looked up, knowing Jesus would be making a run to the far post.
The cross was perfect, the finish emphatic.
And the former Chelsea man later made another timely interception before swinging an exquisite pass for Sane to score.
Jesus said: ‘I’m really happy and pleased to be playing with high-level players like him.
‘We all feel lucky to have him.’