Four-goal City hero Zen-sational
Thrown to Wolves: De Bruyne salutes Haaland with celebration as Guardiola’s team put one hand on EPL title
With his four-goal burst and “Zen” celebration, Kevin De Bruyne did his best impersonation of a future Manchester City teammate yesterday at Molineux.
Erling Haaland is joining City next season as one of the most soughtafter strikers in world football and even he would be hard-pressed to produce the kind of finishing demonstrated by De Bruyne in a 5-1 rout of Wolverhampton to maintain City’s Premier League title charge.
After the Belgium midfielder completed his hat-trick — his first for City — by the 24th minute, he celebrated with the “Zen” pose made famous by Haaland in recent years at Borussia Dortmund.
De Bruyne said it wasn’t necessarily a nod to Haaland — “I just did it because I’d scored three,” he said — but they already
appear to be on the same wavelength.
That is for the future, though. The short term is all about retaining the title, and City restored their three-point lead over Liverpool with the win at Molineux.
Manager Pep Guardiola’s team need four points from their final two games — against West Ham and Aston Villa — to guarantee first place but their goal difference of seven might mean three points is enough.
City might be running out of defenders, however, after Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho — a midfielder who filled in at centre back — came off with what Guardiola described as “problems”. Centre backs Ruben Dias and John Stones as well as right back Kyle Walker are already out for the rest of the season because of injury.
Guardiola does, though, have De Bruyne in sublime form.
“In the second part of the league, he has been beyond perfect,” Guardiola said. “He was always a guy who is so generous and has the sense to make an assist, but I think this season he has the sense to be prolific and score goals.”
De Bruyne, who also struck a shot against the post late in the second half, said the title race with Liverpool was “crazy”.
“The standard we both set, you can only respect it,” De Bruyne said. “Both teams have the ultimate respect. We play hard, it’s the only thing we can do.”
It was also a big night at the bottom of the standings, with 10-man Leeds losing 3-0 to Chelsea to remain in the relegation zone in third-to-last place and Everton drawing 0-0 at Watford to move two points clear of the drop zone.
Just like in their 2-1 loss at Arsenal on Sunday, Leeds were hampered by another first-half red card because of a reckless tackle — this time by winger
Dan James.
Already trailing from Mason Mount’s fourth-minute goal, Leeds were reduced to 10 men in the 24th when James made a wild lunge on the ankle of Mateo Kovacic.
Leeds manager Jesse Marsch couldn’t hide his frustration on the sidelines and Chelsea made his team pay, with Christian Pulisic and Romelu Lukaku adding second-half goals.
“We have to be aggressive against the ball,” Marsch said. “We have to try to win balls and sometimes we’ve been a little too aggressive in certain situations and that has cost us.”
Leeds are behind Burnley on goal difference having played one game more, with their remaining two games against Brighton and Brentford.
Jamie Vardy scored twice to help Leicester beat last-place Norwich 3-0. Leicester snapped a seven-game winless run in all competitions and moved into 10th place. Norwich have already been relegated along with Watford.
He was always a guy who is so generous and has the sense to make
an assist, but I think this season he has the sense to be prolific and score
goals. Pep Guardiola on Kevin De Bruyne