December 15, (THEWILL) – Manchester City reinforced their Premier League leadership by thrashing a despondent Leeds team 7-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.
Pep Guardiola’s team got off to a flying start, scoring two goals in the first 13 minutes. City’s first goal came from Phil Foden, who calmly slotted home a deflected Illan Meslier save, before Jack Grealish emphatically nodded home Riyad Mahrez’s cross to double his side’s advantage.
After latching on to Rodri’s through ball, the hosts definitely tripled the score just after the half-hour mark when Kevin De Bruyne smashed the ball home to give City effective command of the first half.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side had a promising start to the second period, but they were quickly dragged back down to earth as City scored their fourth goal just before the five-minute mark. A sweeping play was swiftly followed by Mahrez’s deflected effort which struck the back of the net off Junior Firpo.
The hosts held off a period of brief Leeds pressure – during which Stuart Dallas saw a piledriver strike the post – and City thought they had scored a fifth via Foden, but an offside call in the 62nd minute denied the Englishman a brace.
Yet, Manchester City was undeterred and scored seconds later when De Bruyne netted his second goal with an unbelievable scorcher into the top corner that nearly took the net off.
With around 15 minutes left, defender John Stones got in on the act as well, capitalising on two fine Meslier stops to bash the ball into the roof of the net. Just a few minutes later, the home fans were in seventh heaven as Nathan Ake headed home Foden’s corner kick.
After goal number seven, the intensity seemed to drop a little before the referee put an end to Leeds’ anguish and blew the end of the one-sided encounter. The result puts City four points clear at the top of the table, while Leeds slipped to 16th.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
