GONE IN 38 SECONDS
Sterling gets Pep off to hot start as leaders get back on winning ways and put Watford to sleep
RAHEEM STERLING scored the fastest Premier League goal of the season as quick-fire Manchester City got back in the winning groove.
Sterling needed just 38 seconds to prove that City’s goalless draw at Crystal Palace on New Year’s Eve was only a blip.
It was the England star’s 18th goal of the season. Christian Kabasele’s 13th-minute own goal put Pep Guardiola’s men in full control before Sergio Aguero completed
THEIR 18-match winning run in the league ended with their final game of 2017, but any hope Manchester City’s rivals had of them suffering a significant wobble were crushed with this clinical victory.
The worrying aspect for those with the seemingly futile task of trying to reel in Pep Guardiola’s majestic side is City did not even have to hit top gear to extend their lead at the top to 15 points.
They did enough to get the job done, aided by compliant opponents who have now lost six of their last seven league games and are on the slide after a bright start under Marco Silva.
With Watford so obliging and posing little attacking threat until Andre Gray’s 81st-minute consolation goal, the home side were able to play at the pace of a testimonial game at times.
It was not vintage City, but with such a commanding lead as they have they do not have to turn on the style each time they play, even if that is what is demanded by their perfectionist manager.
The Spaniard made five changes from the side that drew 0-0 at Crystal Palace on New Year’s Eve.
Sergio Aguero, Fabian Delph, John Stones, Raheem Sterling and David Silva came back in, while Kevin De Bruyne, expected to be out after a reckless challenge from Palace’s Jason Puncheon, also started.
Watford arrived having failed to score on their last four league visits to the Etihad Stadium, hardly a record to inspire confidence in Silva’s struggling side.
City beat the Hornets 5-0 in May and 6-0 in September, and were eyeing the start of another lengthy winning streak, having dropped points for the first time since August when held at Palace.
Silva, who missed four of the previous five games because of complications with his partner’s pregnancy – now said to be resolved – captained Guardiola’s side.
The hosts made the perfect start, scoring after just 38 seconds. Silva found Leroy Sane on the left, he picked out Raheem Sterling at the far post and the England winger converting for his 18th goal of the season
They should have been 2-0 up four minutes later with Stones, returning from a 12-game injury layoff, putting the ball over the bar from eight yards out after another fine delivery from Sane.
At the other end, Watford briefly broke City’s dominance when Gray found himself through on goal, but was swiftly thwarted by Ederson, who anticipated the danger and advanced to snuff it out.
It was 2-0 after 13 minutes, Silva again involved, threading the ball
through to De Bruyne, whose cross for Sergio Aguero was turned into his own net by Watford defender Christian Kabasele.
Watford were unable to cope with City’s pace, movement and guile and would have been 3-0 down inside 17 minutes had keeper Heurelho Gomes not tipped a goalbound free-kick from De Bruyne (left) onto the bar.
Even when they manage to breach the home defence, they were thwarted, Gray denied by Ederson, who blocked his angled effort in the 29th minute.
Thereafter it became a case of damage limitation for the visitors, who managed to stop themselves being buried under what seemed to be an inevitable avalanche of goals by getting to the break without conceding again.
Aguero, looking for his 16th goal of the season, had a glaring miss two minutes after the restart, somehow sending a free header wide of the target from a De Bruyne cross.
But he atoned for that in the 63rd minute, reacting quickest to prod the ball over the line after Gomes had spilled a De Bruyne cross.
Gray’s goal came when Kyle Walker’s slip allowed Andre Carrillo to square the ball, but it was a mere blip on a night when City took another step towards a title they are surely destined to wrap up long before the end of the season.
Watford felt they should have had a penalty in added time for a Nicolas Otamendi challenge on Roberto Pereyra, but referee Lee Mason disagreed.