KEV MAKES IT A 4 GONE CONCLUSION
Brilliant Belgian helps City close in on Prem title
THEY say it is the most competitive league in the world, the toughest, the fastest, the most physical – a brutal battleground.
Well how come Kevin de Bruyne makes everything look so downright easy?
How come he is never less than one smooth step ahead of everyone else?
The Belgian helped put one Manchester City foot on to the Premier League winners’ podium. Three clinical finishes inside 24 minutes, game over, only four points needed from fixtures against West Ham and Aston Villa to guarantee a fourth title in five years.
And no one has contributed more to City’s dominance than de Bruyne. Or, to give him his full name, Kevin de Bruyne man of the match.
Pep Guardiola was full of praise for his four-goal hero.
The City boss said: “We played really well. Kevin has played the last two or three months, especially in the Premier League, outstanding.
“He has been our key man in this part of the season.
“It is not just what he creates and the goals but everything. He helps us a lot.”
Quite frankly, the first 10 minutes of this match were too easy for de Bruyne and his City team-mates.
Perhaps Wolves were trying the old false sense of security trick. Maybe waving de Bruyne down a boulevard through the centre of defence was part of 1 the scheme. Whatever, he happily bought into it, gliding on to a Bernardo Silva pass and casually popping a left-foot finish beyond Jose Sa.
But then came the sucker punch, a counter attack involving Raul Jimenez and Pedro Neto finished clinically by Leander Dendoncker.
Sanity was soon restored. And no prizes for guessing who brought order back. De Bruyne’s dinked pass towards Raheem Sterling forced a Sa wobble and the Belgian followed up to net his second before completing a hat-trick with a beauty.
This time it was a cut inside from the right and the purest of hits from the edge of the penalty area.
But the strange thing is that Guardiola needed de Bruyne to be inspired because if Liverpool want to clutch at straws, they could hope West Ham or Villa punish a makeshift City defence that looked all at sea almost every time Wolves sprung forward.
Still, it does not matter how vulnerable City are when de Bruyne is in this mood. He stroked home the fourth before thundering a shot against the Wolves post.
A few minutes before that, Sterling had bundled home at the far post to complete the scoring and put City within touching distance of the title.