Sweet 16 for Man City

Manchester, December 17 

Advertisement

Kevin De Bruyne produced another virtuoso performance as Manchester City crushed Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 to register a record-extending 16th consecutive Premier League victory.

The Belgian maestro scored City’s second goal, after Ilkay Gundogan had opened the scoring, and Raheem Sterling added two more in the thumping win.

Victory embellished the record for consecutive English league wins City had set in Wednesday’s 4-0 win at Swansea City and the breathtaking manner of it was further evidence of their apparent invincibility.

Coach Pep Guardiola, who also saw substitute Gabriel Jesus miss a penalty, has equalled the run of 16 straight league wins he engineered with the great Barcelona team that won a La Liga and Champions League double in 2011. 

He is now three wins short of his own record for Europe’s five major leagues, which he set with Bayern Munich in 2013-14. 

Spurs were left to lick their wounds after a fifth defeat of the campaign — one more than in the entirety of last season — which sent them slithering down the table to seventh. It could have been even worse for Mauricio Pochettino’s men, who replied through Christian Eriksen, had referee Craig Pawson not shown only yellow cards to Harry Kane and Dele Alli for two ugly second-half fouls.

The absence of David Silva due to what City described as “personal reasons” opened the door for Gundogan and the Germany midfielder seized the opportunity by scoring his first goal of the season in the 14th minute.

Pochettino had opted for a midfield diamond in a bid to deny City space in the middle of the pitch, but De Bruyne still found room to spring his team forwards with trademark piercing passes.

Lukaku, Lingard lift nervy United past West Brom

Manchester United survived a tense finale to beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at the Hawthorns on Sunday and close to within 11 points of leaders Manchester City.

United’s former West Brom striker Romelu Lukaku scored his 15th goal of the season in the 27th minute by heading home Marcus Rashford’s left-wing cross.

Midfielder Jesse Lingard doubled the lead with a deflected shot from the edge of the penalty area eight minutes later. United appeared to be on course for a comfortable win, but West Brom set up a nervous finish for Jose Mourinho’s side when substitute Gareth Barry poked home from close range following a corner in the 77th minute. United hung on, however, to restore their three-point advantage over Chelsea. 

Liverpool hit four

Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah scored fine individual goals as Liverpool moved back into the top four of the Premier League with a ruthless 4-0 win over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium. — AFP, Reuters