The month of August will close with Manchester City flying and hardly wanting the impending international break. Four wins, four clean sheets, 10 goals scored, a club record 10th consecutive league win, and 12 points accrued is one story of their start. The other is a ripping yarn of sublime football in all departments, from defence, midfield and attack, which is shredding teams at will and is particularly entertaining to watch.
Raheem Sterling has made a telling difference to this Manuel Pellegrini side. Yet he is the sole summer recruit to have started any of the team’s matches. So what the manager has done to a band of elite yet seasoned footballers who appeared short of ideas and steam in the second half of last season must be applauded.
The XI who started on Saturday were unchanged for a third consecutive outing. Pellegrini has so far made only one change, standing down Wilfried Bony for Sergio Agüero following the opening match, a 3-0 victory at West Bromwich Albion.
Kevin De Bruyne will become City’s fifth major signing imminently. He will complete a highly successful window of trading for Pellegrini. Yet the Belgian may struggle for a place given how City are performing. Fabian Delph, who cost £8m and made his debut as a late replacement, may also wonder how he will establish himself in the team.
In last Sunday’s 2-0 victory at Everton, City required an hour before scoring, via Aleksandar Kolarov. This time, 47 minutes had ticked by. The player who did the trick was Sterling. This maiden strike for his new club was also his first since Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Newcastle United on 13 April.
City had been the dominant side and deserved the lead. A string of passes led to Bacary Sagna down the right. Along with the rest of his team-mates, the Frenchman has begun the campaign as if reborn, and the cross he put in was a delight, landing plum on Sterling’s right boot. Delightful, too, was the run that took the forward into space near Heurelho Gomes’s goal.
A light and clinically directed volley followed that gave the Brazilian no chance and the sense was that a goal glut may ensue.
At the break Pellegrini brought on Samir Nasri for Jesús Navas and afterwards the manager indicated he had been in a patient mood. “It was not frustrating in the first half,” he said. “You can’t expect to win the game inside 45 minutes against a team who defend well.”
Of the strike from Sterling, who cost £49m, Pellegrini said: “Raheem played very well. He worked very hard and I’m sure he’ll score more goals. He’s not just a scoring player, he works a lot in the game and is good at one-v-ones which is something we perhaps needed to improve on. He’s demonstrating that he’s not an expensive player, he’s a good player.”
Nine minutes after that finish City had their second. Yaya Touré had thus far been quietly efficient, turning up the gears at will. From around 25 yards the midfielder pummelled a free-kick into the Watford wall. This rebounded to David Silva and on the half-turn he rolled a slick pass to Fernandinho.
It removed the Watford rearguard, it gave the midfielder a clear shooting chance. This was on the angle, to the right of goal. What followed was a rocket that zoomed past Gomes and City were two ahead.
Those Watford fans who arrived hoping for a damage limitation exercise at the Etihad Stadium would have been heartened by the start to the match. City hogged possession as was to be expected, yet when Quique Flores’ team had the ball there was a zip and confidence to the promoted side’s one-touch, pass-and-move style of football that convinced.
In José Holebas, José Manuel Jurado, Étienne Capoue and Valon Behrami, Flores has a quartet of players from the continent whose experience and technical excellence meant they nor their team were intimidated at a venue where Chelsea had been beaten 3-0 in the home side’s previous outing.
On 22 minutes City moved on to the differing plane they can occupy. Touré took charge, barrelling at the heart of Watford. He was stopped, though it required two Watford players to repel him. The ball squirted to Navas and when Fernandinho received possession he swept a majestic pass out to the left. The move broke down but Watford were warned.
They may have wanted to take heed but they could not materially do so. It is proving tough for all opposition against this City incarnation. In the ensuing minutes Sterling twice cursed his luck at not opening his account.
Each time he was in on Gomes and a corner was the result. The goalkeeper made a particularly impressive save from the second chance, smothering the shot to turn the ball out.
At the close Kelechi Iheanacho made a first City appearance, the 18-year-old coming on for Sterling. As with all of his colleagues, the latter had been supreme. And with Chelsea losing to Crystal Palace – the champions now trailing by eight points – this was close to a perfect day for City.
