She didn’t even have to… fire her engines to full blast Manchester City to step firmly into her 2nd position Premier League and find a breath from the top! The Citizens continued faithful to the rails of their race for the title and with… a comfortable back four in – hit by injuries – Brighton (4-0) they overtook Liverpool and reduced their gap to the leader Arsenal to one point, still having a match in hand. Pep’s team essentially cleaned up from halftime, which also did maintenance of forces in view of the continuation.
See here the goals and the best highlights of the match
The low tempo of the start was broken by a “painting” by Kevin De Bruyne. The visitors had not threatened until that point, however in the 17th minute the Belgian ran into the empty space and after Walker’s cross with a terrific header from the edge of the area opened the scoring. The Seagulls had a chance to reduce but two minutes later Dunk all alone from the area failed to send the ball into the net after Barko’s corner and the… punishment came in a harsh way.
In the 26th minute, Foden took the free-kick from the edge of the area and the ball went against Gross to surprise Steele and end up in the net. Even 2-0 was not enough for the completely dominant Citizens who found another goal in the 34th minute. Foden said “thank you” to Barco’s mistake-assist and made it 3-0 with a perfect spot.
The Seagulls tried to fight back but were unable to at any point in the match and the champions made sure to quickly “kill” any wild dreams of getting back into the game. Alvarez warned twice at the start of the second half and in the 62nd minute in an empty net he sent the ball into the net after Walker’s effort from the right.
The Citizens shut the game down after 4-0, the changes didn’t help the tempo and Guardiola took the opportunity to do a complete overhaul to keep the squad as fresh as possible for the rest of the league.
Brighton: Steele, Feltman (46′ Ofaia), Van Hecke, Dunk, Barko, Baleba, Gross, Moder (56′ Igor), Lallana (46′ Andingra), Joao Pedro, Welbeck (75′ O’Mahony)
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker(78′ Lewis), Ake, Akanji, Guardiol, Rodri (78’Sergio Gomet), Kovacic, Foden (72′ Nunes), Silva (78′ Doku), De Bruyne (72’Grills), Alvarez
In the postponed matches of the 29th matchday of the Premier League, the results were noted:
Burnley-Bradford 2-1
Luton-Nottingham Forest 1-1
Fulham-Tottenham 3-0
West Ham-Aston Villa 1-1
