Man City 6-3 Leicester (De Bruyne 5′, Mahrez pen 14′, Gundogan 21′, Sterling pen 25‘, 87′, Laporte 69′ | Maddison 55′, Lookman 59′, Iheanacho 65′)
Pep Guardiola may hate the fixture congestion that plagues the Premier League but, as Manchester City moved six points clear at the top, few could question the entertainment value served up at the Etihad.
The defending champions raced into a four-goal lead inside 25 minutes, only for Brendan Rodgers’ injury-ravaged visitors to hit back with three goals in 10 minutes early after the restart.
It was almost as if City players had heeded Guardiola’s advice of last week and gone on strike as a protest against the demands being placed on them by the current fixture calendar.
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Boxing Day football thrown into chaos as Covid leads to Premier League and EFL postponements26 December, 2021Aymeric Laporte steadied City nerves when he headed in Riyad Mahrez’s 69th minute corner to make it 5-3 before Raheem Sterling put the full stop on a thrilling afternoon when he swept in a Ruben Dias knockdown from an 88th minute corner.
This was a fixture that showed City at their irrepressible best but also, for once, showed some frailties and maybe even a glimmer of hope for their title challengers.
But when they were good – as they were over the opening part of the contest – they were unplayable, racing into a 4-0 lead that meant they had scored 15 goals in their last 196 minutes of Premier League football.
No team had ever won more than 33 top flight games in a calendar year in the game’s history but City were on their way to win number 35 from the moment Kevin De Bruyne handed them a fifth minute lead.
It was arguably the pick of the day too, as the Belgian skilfully controlled Fernandinho’s long, high ball into the Leicester area and had space and time to guide an unstoppable shot into the corner of Kasper Schmeichel’s goal.
If Jannik Verstergaard’s defending was poor for that goal, his team-mate Youri Tielemans was a far bigger culprit, giving away two penalties in the space of 10 first half minutes.
The first, after 14 minutes, saw him wrestle with Laporte at a City corner, dragging the defender to the ground, an offence easily picked up by VAR.
Former Leicester winger Mahrez struck an immaculate penalty into the top right-hand corner despite Schmeichel diving the correct way.
Tielemans had not finished his exercise in self-destruction. After 24 minutes, the lively Sterling waved his way into the Leicester area before being unceremoniously tripped by the Belgian.
Sterling took over the spot kick duties, mindful of the chance to score for a fourth consecutive game, and placed his effort into almost exactly the same place as Mahrez.
In between the two penalties, Schmeichel had ruined a strong first half performance when he failed to deal properly with a low Joao Cancelo cross which he could only palm out into his six-yard box.
Ilkay Gundogan was lurking and in no mood to miss in front of the open Leicester net.
Schmeichel was far more impressive in making blinding reflex saves to deny a Sterling volley and a Gundogan shot from the edge of the area after a well-worked free-kick.
And Leicester gave a taste of things to come, at 2-0, when a brilliant James Maddison free-kick drew an equally expert save from Ederson, who turned it onto his bar.
Maddison remained a threat and, with City guilty of relaxing, led the charge in the three-goal spell that started in the 55th minute.
Laporte slipped just inside the opposition half, presenting Leicester with a three-on-one attack which ended with Kelechi Iheanacho squaring for Maddison to beat Ederson.
Four minutes later, Maddison launched another counter-attack which ended with Iheanacho finding Ademola Lookman who had the poise to beat Ederson.
And the deficit was down to a single goal, with 25 minutes still to play, when a superb Maddison strike was turned onto the bar by Ederson and Iheanacho was on hand to convert the rebound into an open net.
Player ratings
Man City
- Ederson 7
- Cancelo 6
- Dias 6
- Laporte 7
- Zinchenko 5
- De Bruyne 8
- Fernandinho 6
- Gundogan 6
- Mahrez 7
- Silva 7
- Sterling 7
Subs:
- Foden 6
Leicester
- Schmeichel 6
- Albrighton 6
- Amartey 6
- Vestergaard 5
- Thomas 5
- Tielemans 4
- Dewsbury-Hall 7
- Perez 5
- Maddison 9
- Lookman 7
- Iheanacho 8
Subs:
- Choudhury 6
- Castagne 7
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3Etc6cm
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