Manchester City restored their 12-point lead over Manchester United, after defeating Newcastle United 3-1, with Sergio Aguero netting a hat-trick.
In the earlier games, Chelsea hammered Brighton 4-0, Arsenal claimed their first win of the year with a 4-1 victory over Crystal Palace and Manchester United beat Burnley 1-0.
Manquillo replaced the more attack-minded DeAndre Yedlin at right wing-back, but it was actually Newcastle that created the game’s first half-chance in the second minute, with Clark scuffing a shot at Ederson after a cross fell into his path.
Guardiola, whose table-toppers play Newcastle on Saturday, has spent heavily in reshaping City’s squad since his arrival from Bayern in July 2016. Arsenal and Manchester United were both reported as interested in the playmaker, but Arsenal want more established players, and United have probably secured Alexis Sanchez.
For Newcastle, whose few positive moments mostly came around Jacob Murphy’s single goal in response, this defeat ended an acrimonious week on a sour note.
“We reacted really well after dropping points”.
City’s Sergio Aguero (+500) and the aforementioned Sterling (+2000) are four and five goals behind Kane respectively, but they could cancel each other out and also get spotted in league games if City continues advancing in the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup competitions. Rafa Benitez was meant to guide them to Premier League stability with consistently solid coaching and results, but the only thing consistent for Newcastle this season has been just how incredibly inconsistent they’ve been under the decorated Spaniard. “I’m going to try to do my best if I have the luck to play, and then we’ll see what happens”. The Premier League is practically wrapped up, but any City fan dreaming of an outrageous quadruple at the end of the campaign needs to wake up.
The 24-year-old hitman has been in sensational form this season, scoring 28 goals in as many games thus far, and it doesn’t bare thinking about quite where Spurs would be without him. We dropped two points against Palace and got it back against Watford.
Manchester City were favourites to sign the wantaway forward not so long ago, but the club baulked at the Chilean’s transfer fee and wage demands and have since pulled out of the deal. Manchester City is favored by 2.5 goals, unchanged from the open.
City’s all-time record goalscorer showed similar striker’s instincts for his second, immediately taking the ball shortly after the hour mark when Sterling was awarded a soft penalty. Before his first goal, he didn’t touch the ball.
“We have a young team and maybe it can be good for the future”.
They didn’t look scarred by the loss to Liverpool.