Man City just one step from title
LIVERPOOL: Manchester City will be crowned Premier League champion if it wins this week’s Manchester derby after it delivered one of its most impressive displays of the season to beat Everton 31 at Goodison Park yesterday.
Pep Guardiola’s side, which returns to Merseyside to play Liverpool in their Champions League quarterfinal on Thursday, blew Everton away in a devastating opening half in which it scored three goals.
‘‘We were clinical, especially in the first half. Everybody committed to win the game. Now it is one more game and we will be champions,’’ Guardiola told reporters.
City is 16 points clear of secondplaced United with seven games remaining and has the chance to clinch the title against its neighbour before focusing on the European campaign.
The attacking intent — and the ability to deliver on it — was clear from the outset as City grabbed the lead in the fourth minute through Leroy Sane’s sizzling volley from a tight angle at the back post.
French defender Aymeric Laporte, playing at left back for the first time, produced a clever exchange with David Silva and the Spaniard’s pinpoint cross was superbly converted by Sane.
Everton beat City 40 in this fixture last season but 15 months on from his heaviest defeat in the Premier League, Guardiola has created a very different team and it was in a different class to Sam Allardyce’s modest side.
Still, Everton should have got level when Yannick Bolasie missed a clear chance as he headed over the bar with the goal at his mercy but having received that letoff, City responded in ruthless fashion.
Sane swung the ball out wide to Kevin De Bruyne, who did well to get above a high bouncing ball and find Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus who confidently headed home the cross.
City was utterly dominant and Silva was again the provider for the third goal, in the 37th minute, when he slipped the ball across the area and Raheem Sterling drove past Jordan Pickford.
The visitors went in at the break with a threegoal advantage and the scoreline could have been even more emphatic.
Inevitably the edge went out of City’s play after the break and Everton gained encouragement in the 63rd minute when Bolasie’s low drive from the edge of the area flew in off the inside of the post.
Guardiola’s men understandably preserved energy for the remainder of the game, their minds already on a week in which they face two local rivals and could end with the title in their hands.
Sections of the Everton fans showed their appreciation by applauding City off the field and Allardyce was also quick to praise his side’s opponents.
‘‘Manchester City are a topquality team, you have to admire a team that especially in the first half were too good for you,’’ he said.
‘‘As much as the lads tried it was something we couldn’t cope with.’’
Manchester United quickly regained second place in the Premier League with a routine 20 home win over Swansea City yesterday, hours after Liverpool deposed it with a 21 victory at Crystal Palace.
Romelu Lukaku reached 100 league goals by scoring in the first five minutes as United dominated a Swansea side which has been revitalised under manager Carlos Carvalhal.
Alexis Sanchez struck before the interval, the Chilean forward’s second goal for United, and the host comfortably saw out the victory at Old Trafford.
Liverpool came from behind to win at Palace in manager Juergen Klopp’s 100th league game in England and move five points ahead of fourthplaced Tottenham Hotspur.
AMohamed Salah scored its late winner, his 37th of the season in all competitions, after the equaliser by Sadio Mane. Palace’s Serbian penalty expert Luka Milivojevic had converted his seventh spotkick out of eight this season to put the home side in front early on.
Palace remained in trouble, only two points above the relegation zone.
‘‘It is a bit of a groundhog day playing against these top teams,’’ its manager Roy Hodgson said.
West Ham jumped above its London rivals with a comprehensive 30 home victory over a poor Southampton side, which was three goals down at halftime in manager Mark Hughes’s first league game in charge and stayed in the bottom three.
Marko Arnautovic, who fell out with Hughes after leaving Stoke City for West Ham in the closeseason, scored two of the goals.
Huddersfield Town remained in trouble, three points above relegation, after losing 10 at Newcastle United to a goal by Ayoze Perez.
Bottom club West Bromwich Albion, which has won only one league game out of 30 since beating Burnley in August, lost to the same opponent 21 at The Hawthorns.
Ashley Barnes, with a spectacular bicycle kick, and New Zealand forward Chris Wood against his former club were the scorers before Salomon Rondon grabbed a late consolation for West Brom.
Brighton was beaten 20 by Leicester City in a dramatic finish after Glenn Murray had his penalty saved by Kasper Schmeichel and Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi was sent off.
In the other midtable game, Jermain Defoe’s equaliser in stoppage time earned Bournemouth a 22 draw at Watford. — Reuters