About a week ago, Manchester City humbled newly crowned champions Liverpool 4-0 at the Etihad shortly after giving the champions the guard of honour. A few days later, City fell surprisingly fell at Southampton and many wondered if it was the same team that played against Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola and his boys have once again silenced critics on Wednesday night as they were devastating against Newcastle United.
Veteran playmaker, David Silva, who would be moving on from the Etihad at the end of the season, was the star of the game. He scored once and provided two assists as Manchester City thrashed Newcastle United 5-0.
Silva provided the assist for Gabriel Jesus’ opener inside the first 10 minutes before Riyad Mahrez doubled the advantage and an unfortunate Federico Fernandez’s own goal in the second half put City firmly in control.
Silva then provided the moment of the match with a sublime free-kick, scoring and providing an assist in a Premier League game for the first time since January 2016.
City wrapped up the points courtesy of another Silva assist to take his tally in the Premier League to 92 assists when Raheem Sterling tapped home in the final minutes of the match.
Related: Premier League Week 33 roundup: Saints beat City; Liverpool’s quest for records continue
With four games remaining in this year’s campaign, City looked to have strengthened their claim to second place, moving nine points clear of Chelsea, while Newcastle drops to 13th.
If there’s any takeaway from the match tonight, Manchester city is showing that despite dropping 33 points this season, three more than in their previous two campaigns combined, they are very much capable of mounting a title challenge next season.
Stats and facts from the match
- Manchester City have won 11 consecutive top-flight home games against a single opponent for the very first time in the club’s history.
- Newcastle boss Steve Bruce has failed to win any of his 23 Premier League away games in Manchester (D4 L19), with this his ninth such defeat against City (10 v United).
- Thanks to Riyad Mahrez’s strike, Manchester City are the first English top-flight side to have five different players score at least 10 league goals in a single season since Everton in 1984-85 (Sterling, De Bruyne, Aguero, Jesus, Mahrez).
- Having also suffered a 5-0 defeat at Leicester earlier in the season, Newcastle have lost by at least five goals on more than one occasion in the same Premier League season for the very first time.
- Manchester City completed 787 of their 840 passes this evening against Newcastle, recording a pass completion rate of 93.7% – the highest passing accuracy we have on record in the Premier League since 2003-04.
- Manchester City have scored 4+ goals in three straight home Premier League games for only the second time, also doing so between September and October 2017 under Pep Guardiola.
- Kevin De Bruyne has assisted 18 Premier League goals this season for Manchester City, the most by any player in a season in the division since the Belgian himself also set up 18 in 2016-17.
- David Silva has now reached 10+ assists in all competitions in all 10 of his seasons with Manchester City, with his second in this game his 121st in total for the club.
- Manchester City have now won 30 of the 31 Premier League matches when Gabriel Jesus has scored, drawing the other.
Other results…
Sheffield United 1 – 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Sheffield United, who have never qualified for a major European competition, scored a late winner to move up to seventh position from ninth. They are now one point and one place behind Wolves, who lost for the second time in five days.
When the Blades began this season, their first in the top flight since 2007, they were joint-favorites to be relegated.
But Chris Wilder’s side continue to prove doubters wrong and picked up their 13th league win of the campaign.
They looked to be fading as they picked up only one point from three games when the Premier League resumed in June after three months on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But the Blades have since beaten Tottenham and Wolves and drawn at Burnley and, with four games of the season left, European competition remains very much a possibility.
John Egan’s 93rd-minute winner earned Sheffield United a crucial 1-0 victory that kept their European dream alive and dented Wolves’ in the process.
West Ham United 0 – 1 Burnley FC
With several injuries surfacing, the departure of out-of-contract players, and with Premier League status safe, Burnley could have been forgiven for easing their way to the end of the season.
Instead, Sean Dyche’s side are one of the division’s most in-form teams, eyeing a Europa League spot that seemed out of their reach before Christmas.
Burnley have lost just once in 12 top-flight games and a clean sheet at London Stadium means they now have a league-high 14 to their name this term.
Jay Rodriguez scored the winner in the first-half but Burnley had goalkeeper Pope to thank for the three points as the England international made a number of smart saves
This team is likely gonna win the Premier League next season.