The Guardian
Manchester City were ruthless, fell asleep, and then awoke to end finally a Leicester resistance that came in a sparkling second-half riposte to the champions, who were 4-0 up at the break. Yet the story might have ended differently if Brendan Rodgers’ men had been as ruthless as City.
When James Maddison slipped in Kelechi Iheanacho on 70 minutes, the Nigerian was stopped by a defiant Ederson from moving the visitors to only 5-4 behind and Marc Albrighton later spurned a headed chance to do the same. If either opening had been taken, who knows what the closing phase might have thrown up.
Pep Guardiola, then, is bound to hate a slipshod passage from City while surely marvelling at the opening 45 minutes. The bottom line is the champions have 17 goals in their past three games and remain leaders after completing half their 38 Premier League matches, having won their last nine.
Guardiola left Phil Foden and Jack Grealish on the bench again, as he plotted to continue a winning run against opponents who had Jamie Vardy among their substitutes. Whatever the thinking from Rodgers, this seemed to make the Foxes’s challenge even tougher as the No 9’s pace could have snared City on the counter, any quick ball likely to expose the hardly jet-heeled Rúben Dias and Aymeric Laporte.
The problem, as Guardiola explained in the buildup, is City’s ascendancy is predicated on their hogging of possession. Any defensive weaknesses are nullified if the opposition cannot get hold of the ball. A latest imperious illustration came only five minutes in. Fernandinho’s chip found Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva’s run along the blindside dragged out defenders and the Belgian’s sweet pirouette inside preceded a cannon of a strike that allowed Kasper Schmeichel zero chance.
The visitors had been overrun virtually from the opening whistle. Further disaster arrived when Riyad Mahrez swung in a corner and Youri Tielemans grappled with Dias. VAR called Chris Kavanagh to the pitchside monitor and, as usual when this occurs, he pointed to the spot. Mahrez blast his kick beyond Schmeichel.
Inside a quarter of an hour there was a strong temptation to deem this contest over but the response…
