Match report
From Jamie Jackson at the Etihad:
Full time: Manchester City 5-1 Leicester City
Peep peep! An easy win for City, who move 16 points clear at the top of the table. Sergio Aguero bashed four second-half goals, and resident genius Kevin de Bruyne produced a hat-trick of beautiful assists. Thanks for your company, goodnight!
90+1 min By their standards, City haven’t actually played that well today. They’re winning 5-1.
GOAL! Manchester City 5-1 Leicester (Aguero 90)
A-hem, as I was saying. Sergio Aguero gets his fourth goal with an utter screamer! He received the ball from Foden 22 yards out, moved it onto his right foot and whacked a vicious, dipping shot that went straight above Schmeichel’s head and in off the crossbar.
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90 min The official EA Sports Man of the Match is Sergio Aguero. Idiots. It should have been de Bruyne.
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89 min Harry Maguire is booked.
85 min De Bruyne shoots from 35 yards and almost belts it out of the ground. When you see standards slip like that, you have to ask: has Kevin de Bruyne taken Kevin de Bruyne as far as he can?
84 min This match could be used as a riddle. Which game included two hat-tricks and ended 4-1? Aguero’s three goals will go in the book but De Bruyne’s three assists are the thing we’ll remember about the game.
83 min Vardy and Laporte are booked after sticking their heads together off the ball.
81 min Another City change: Otamendi off, John Stones on.
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80 min A City substitution: Phil Foden replaces Fernandinho.
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GOAL! Manchester City 4-1 Leicester (Aguero 77)
Sergio Aguero gets another hat-trick! This time the assist goes to Kasper Schmeichel. He tried to pass the ball to Dragovic and instead gave it straight to Aguero on the edge of the area. He took a touch and chipped the ball teasingly over Schmeichel into the net. Schmeichel has had a bad day with his feet.
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76 min Otamendi’s deft chest-volley is held by Schmeichel, and at the other end Ederson hares from his line to just beat Vardy to a through ball. Good goalkeeping.
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74 min Leicester make a balls of a training ground free-kick.
73 min Laporte is robbed on the halfway line by Vardy, which allows Mahrez to move towards the penalty area. Gundogan brings him down 25 yards from goal and is booked.
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72 min Some people say De Bruyne has that rare, magical ability to play as if he has a bird’s eye view of the pitch. I don’t agree with that. He sees things that most of us wouldn’t spot if we had a bird’s eye view and the ability to freeze time.
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71 min Ndidi is booked for crunching Gundogan.
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70 min Bernardo Silva shuffles infield from the right and eases a lovely curling shot that drifts just past the far top corner.
68 min The match is starting to peter out, with City about to move 16 points clear.
66 min “De Bruyne is indeed one of the best passers of the ball that I’ve ever seen but the problem with him being the best in the world now is that there’s a left peg on a certain Argentinian who’s been doing that for a decade now,” says Paul Fitzgerald.
I think De Bruyne’s a better crosser than Messi, but you can make a reasonable argument for either.
65 min Danilo replaces the quietly impressive Oleksandra Zinchenko. That is probably because of the introduction of Mahrez, who will be cutting in on his left foot all the time. Danilo is right-footed, Zinchenko isn’t.
64 min After good play from Sterling and Gundogan, Aguero crunches the ball high and wide from a tight angle.
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63 min And now Iheanacho replaces Ben Chilwell.
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62 min Mahrez replaces Fousseni Diabate, who had a quiet game, and is cheered by both sets of fans.
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61 min Leicester are about to make a double change, with Manchester City players of the past and a parallel universe coming on: Kelechi Iheanacho and Riyad Mahrez.
60 min Here’s Ian Copestake. “Matt Loten (half-time chit-chat) puts into words how I feel about Karius at Liverpool.”
He’s redefining the position all right.
59 min De Bruyne’s outswinging corner is headed a few yards wide of the far post by Otamendi.
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58 min Another poor clearance from Schmeichel goes to Sterling, who runs 30 yards down the left and into the area before slipping the ball back towards Gundogan. His first-time shot is crucially blocked by the diligent Albrighton and flies behind for a corner.
57 min “I do get what David Hopkins says but there is one thing we are forgetting,” says Andy. “He signed a contract which no doubt financially remunerated him exceptionally well. If he wants to break that by leaving earlier then the employer who, as far as I am aware haven’t treated him that badly, not as bad as dpd to their ‘self-employed’ employees, are perfectly within their rights to say yes...but on our own terms. You make a pact with the devil...well be prepared to accept there is a price.”
The argument against that is that the modern culture of football has made contracts almost irrelevant, and that therefore he was entitled to assume he’d get his move. I can see both sides.
54 min For a normal player that third assist would have been a gem; for De Bruyne it was almost mundane. I’m struggling to think of a better hat-trick of assists in one game.
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GOAL! Manchester City 3-1 Leicester (Aguero 53)
Goodnight. It’s a hat-trick of assists for De Bruyne. This was fairly simple by his standards, a precise angled pass from an inside-right position that Aguero took in his stride and smashed through Schmeichel at the near post. It came from a poor clearance by Schmeichel, which went straight to Fernandinho 35 yards from goal. He moved it to De Bruyne, who eased it through for Aguero to score.
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51 min Sterling runs square across the Leicester area, bounces off Albrighton and appeals for a penalty. There was nothing in that.
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GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Leicester (Aguero 48)
A genius is at work in Manchester tonight. De Bruyne, on the left, cuts infield and plays a simple pass to Sterling. He moves forward to meet the return pass on the left corner of the box and opens his body to caress a stunning inswinging cross between Maguire and Schmeichel. It reaches Aguero, who sidefoots into an open net from six yards. That was another ridiculous pass/cross from De Bruyne, again played first time into a perfect area. He isn’t just the best crosser in the world; he’s one of the best crossers of all time.
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48 min “Your observation about sleepwalking is even more interesting if you draw parallels to Guardiola’s seasons at Bayern Munich,” says Konstantin Sauer. “In his first season he (infamously) stated the “league was over” after winning the Bundesliga championship and started fielding teams entirely made from youth players, which finally led to a drop in tension and crashing defeats in the Champions League semis. Even if he learned from that mistake, Bayern’s superiority in the league would still make them vulnerable during the later stages in the Champions League the following seasons. I wonder what Guardiola will do this time to keep up the pace and prevent that same situation unfold again.”
Yeah, it’s really tricky. How do you retain a competitive edge without knackering your players before Easter? Goodness knows. It’s tricky at the moment because of injuries. I would start by giving Foden regular games and resting a different midfield player each week.
47 min It looks like Leicester have switched to a 4-5-1, with Chilwell and Diabate playing wide in midfield and Albrighton in the centre.
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46 min Peep peep! Leicester begin the second half. They have made a tactical change, with Adrien Silva replaced by Danny Simpson.
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Half-time chit-chat
“Can we not blank Sterling’s miss from our minds just yet?” says Ian Copestake. “It was his imitation of a four-year old throwing itself to the floor when it did not get what it wanted that I treasure most.”
“Can we all take a moment to appreciate how good a ‘keeper Ederson is,” says Matt Loten.. He’s effectively a third centre half with his high line, ability in possession, and eye for a pass. I’ve also never seen a goalie kick the ball from his hands and achieve such a low, direct trajectory with such accuracy. I genujnely think he is redefining his role, and any young goalkeeper looking to get ahead of the game’s development should be modelling themselves on him.”
And he makes saves too! He’s fantastic, the revelation of the season. His reflexes and elasticity remind me a bit of David De Gea, though he’s not yet in the same class.
“Can we not knock it?” writes Graham Taylor.
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Half time: Manchester City 1-1 Leicester City
Peep peep! That was a strangely subdued half. Raheem Sterling gave City an early lead from a stunning Kevin de Bruyne cross, and for a while Leicester couldn’t get out of their third, never mind their half. But a typically decisive thrust from Jamie Vardy brought an equaliser, and since then the game has been a little more even. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
45 min Even by the standards of the Premier League, the atmosphere is funereal. It might be the crowd mics I suppose.
43 min The pressure is building on Leicester, who could really use half-time.
42 min “Can I offer an alternative view on Mahrez?” says David Hopkins. “He was offered the chance for an enhanced career move, then had it taken away. Those in other well-paid industries would be peeved, and might well ‘work from home’ for a few days. Why aren’t footballers extended the same courtesy?”
Yeah, I can see both sides. Personally I think it’s a bit more complex than saying he’s a spoilt brat. I suppose I have more sympathy because I went through something similar when the Guardian blocked my move to the Sunday Sport.
41 min The wonderful De Bruyne plays a cute angled pass into the area for Sterling, who goes round Schmeichel and flicks the ball towards goal from a tight angle. It would have gone in but for Dragovic, who slid in front of the near post to make a superb block.
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37 min It’s interesting how often teams who have effectively won the title by Christmas cannot help but sleepwalk through the second half of the season: Manchester United 2000-01, Chelsea 2005-06, Manchester United 2012-13, Chelsea 2014-15. City aren’t sleepwalking yet but nor are they playing at the awesome levels they reached earlier in the season.
36 min “So as both a journalist and a human you cannot take a position without knowing the facts?” says Ian Copestake. “How quaint.”
Realistically, I’m a throwback to better days. It’s not easy being mankind’s last serious hope of salvation, but I live with that responsibility as best I can.
34 min The replay suggests Mike Jones was right to ignore that City penalty appeal. It might have been a dive by Sterling, though it’s hard to be sure these days.
33 min De Bruyne, the only City player showing much urgency, wallops a low shot from the left of the box that is palmed behind at the near post by Schmeichel.
32 min Sterling, just inside the penalty area on the left, goes down after a challenge from Silva. Mike Jones ignores it. We haven’t seen a replay yet but I think it was the right decision.
31 min Either Sky have the crowd mics turned down or the atmosphere is terribly subdued at the Etihad. They’re watching probably the most magical team in City’s history!
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30 min “Re Andy at 6 minutes and it being fashionable to knock today’s players .... I’d like to give great credit to Mesut Ozil among others for having the good sense to take the money and run,” says Gene Salorio. “Every profession has members who over-rate themselves and think they should be top dog -- the character actor who thinks he should be a star, members of rock groups who insist on disastrous solo careers, Michael Gove etc. -- and it’s refreshing to see football players who recognize that a good deal beats yet more ego gratification.”
I thought the problem with Ozil was that he didn’t run? Honk! Ho-honk!
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29 min Bernardo Silva twists Fuchs inside out on the right of the box before curving a crosshot from a very tight angle that is beaten away by Schmeichel. Moments later, Fernandinho’s deflected 20-yard shot is held to his left by Schmeichel.
26 min Gundogan’s long-range curler is comfortably held by Schmeichel.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Leicester (Vardy 24)
Leicester score on the counter-counter-attack. A loose square pass from Otamendi just inside his own half went to Vardy, who rode a couple of tackles and hared straight towards the penalty area as the last man Laporte backpedalled. Once he was into the box Vardy shifted the ball to the side and hit a low shot that nicked off Laporte and past Ederson.
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23 min Leicester’s first decent attack leads to a corner on the left. It’s headed away and City break four on three. Sterling plays a good angled pass to Aguero, who is unusually indecisive in the box and loses the ball to Fuchs. He clips the ball back towards the halfway line, and then...
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21 min Aguero moves into the box on the left after some smooth one-touch play, but Maguire makes a good interception. This is, as Jamie Carragher has just said on Sky, a training session. Attack and defence, invasion and repulsion.
18 min I genuinely can’t remember the last time Leicester crossed the halfway line. It’s not their fault.
17 min Sterling does superbly to keep an overhit pass in play before whipping a cross to the near post that is pushed away unconvincingly by Schmeichel. A second City goal is in the post.
15 min Leicester can’t lay a finger on City at the moment. City don’t get enough credit for an exceptional defensive record this season - they’ve conceded only 19 goals in the league, the second best behind Manchester United.
13 min That was Sterling’s 20th goal of the season. His previous best was 11. It’s so good for England to have five or six players working under Pep Guardiola.
12 min The only good thing for Leicester is that they will still be playing on the counter-attack, even at 1-0 down. At the moment, the ball in behind for Vardy seems to cover Plans A-F. You can’t blame them for that, especially after the success he had against City last season.
10 min Leicester pump a long ball in behind for Vardy. He gets away from Laporte but the impressive Ederson comes out of his box to clear.
6 min “I know it is fashionable to knock today’s players in a financially bloated industry but here goes,” says Andy. “Mahrez and his like should go to reality-check classes to realize just how lucky they are to be doing something they love. Most are not so lucky and a lot are really struggling in an increasingly self-interested society.”
4 min That was suich a good cross from De Bruyne. As with so many of his balls into the box, it brought to mind the greatest crosser who has ever lived, David Beckham.
3 min There was a degree of catharsis in that goal for Sterling, who missed embarrassingly from a very similar position at Burnley last weekend.
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Leicester City (Sterling 3)
That didn’t take long. Kevin de Bruyne, in a narrow position on the right, curls a glorious first-time cross into the corridor or uncertainty between defenders and goalkeeper. It bounces up at the far post, where Sterling gets in front of Albrighton and taps into an open net from four yards.
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1 min Peep peep! City, in sky blue, kick off from left to right. Leicester are in their black away kit.
Sky have resolved their technical problems and the match is about to begin. Let’s get it on.
I was expecting to see Manchester City v Leicester City on Sky Sports, but at the moment there seems to be a never-ending montage of the 2014-15 season. If it carries on much longer I’ll have to start liveblogging it.
The soft sell Like old football? Then it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that might like this!
An email! “Hi Rob,” says Jill O’Donnell. “Do you think the fact that Slimani has gone has only added to Mahrez’s ennui?”
I suspect his ennui levels were already at maximum. I have a fair bit of sympathy for Mahrez though, as always with these things, it’s hard to play judge and jury when you don’t have all the facts.
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The 3pm kick-offs are into the last 15 minutes. You can get the latest news with Interpol’s most wanted, Will Unwin.
Team news
Riyad Mahrez is on the bench for Leicester. Yep, Manchester City do have seven substitutes today.
Manchester City (1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1) Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Zinchenko; Fernandinho; De Bruyne, Gundogan; B Silva, Aguero, Sterling.
Substitutes: Bravo, Danilo, Kompany, Stones, Diaz, Nmecha, Foden.
Leicester City (3-5-1-1) Schmeichel; Dragovic, Maguire, Fuchs; Albrighton, James, Ndidi, A Silva, Chilwell; Diabate; Vardy.
Substitutes: Jakupovic, Simpson, Benalouane, Gray, Iborra, Mahrez, Iheanacho.
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Preamble
Hello. Manchester City’s away form may have gone to pieces in recent weeks but they remain invincible at home. They have won the last 12 league games at the Etihad Stadium, scoring 123219 goals in that time, and a comfortable win is the likeliest outcome of today’s match against Leicester.
That said, it’s not beyond the realms that Leicester could pull off a shock draw. City, who are 13 points clear and can afford a slip-up or four, should have one eye on their Champions League match in Basel on Tuesday. And Leicester have the counter-attacking game to test City’s largely untested defence.
There will be plenty of talk about Riyad Mahrez, but then there usually is in this fixture. Two years ago, his sparkling goal made the country realise Leicester really could win the title; last season, his penalty was disallowed when he slipped and kicked the ball twice. We don’t expect him to play today, but we’ll be ready to go into BREAKING NEWS mode if he does.
Kick off is at 5.30pm.
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