Manchester City took care of business on a night when a 22nd league win of their ever-more dazzling campaign took them to 101 goals in all competitions.
Once more Pep Guardiola’s side dominated, making West Brom appear the Championship team they may become, as they returned home still rooted to the bottom. At the close
http://www.officialauthenticbearstore.com/Nike-William-Perry-Jersey.html the City manager was again unhappy at a challenge meted out to one
Zack Martin Youth jersey of his players, Brahim Díaz. Matt Phillips was the offender, catching the Spaniard late and high as the final whistle neared. Kevin De Bruyne had also been caught by James McClean, in the buildup to his goal.
All of this followed Leroy Sané suffering ankle ligament damage thanks to Cardiff City’s Ryan Bennett on Saturday. Of the challenge by Phillips, Guardiola, who was visibly unhappy on the touchline, said: “We spoke with Kevin [Friend], the fourth official. They [match officials] have an opinion, I have another one, they’re the bosses, I accept that. Today we were lucky, three or four days ago we were unlucky with Leroy [Sané]. The image speaks for itself. I could repeat what I said after the last game but it’s not necessary.”
Yet Alan Pardew pointed to Fernandinho, who may have stamped on Grzegorz Krychowiak in the first half, the Pole having to be replaced. “It was a poor challenge, make no mistake about that,” said West Brom’s manager of Phillips. “Fernandinho made a similar one in the middle of the pitch. I’m not sure if the referee saw it. I thought Pep’s comments at the weekend affected the crowd. Every challenge they were saying: ‘You’re not protecting our players, referee.’ There were a few songs sung about him [Robert Madley] but I actually thought he had a decent game. His calls were correct and it was a yellow card for Phillips no doubt. Gregorz struggled after that but I haven’t seen it. He didn’t think it was particularly great.”
On a frantic day in which City ended their interest in Riyad Mahrez due to Leicester’s £95m valuation, Aymeric Laporte – who on Tuesday became City’s
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The Frenchman was one of two changes from City’s last league outing 11 days ago, along with Bernardo Silva, who came in for Sané. While Laporte’s selection may have been due to a John Stones illness, West Brom’s bench featured Daniel Sturridge, who joined on loan from Liverpool on Tuesday. Pardew made five changes from the previous league fixture.
City were a blue blur throughout, their opener arriving via Fernandinho, who made a schemer’s run to finish a supreme De Bruyne ball. As the interval neared this had become akin to a shooting practice session for the Belgian. One chance featured a one-two with Sergio Agüero, then Ben Foster had to fling himself high to keep the deficit at one. The half ended with David Silva having to be replaced by Ilkay Gündogan due to what looked like a back problem.
Guardiola’s instructions to his men for the second half may have been to keep on probing and more goals would surely follow. From the kick-off City were again in Baggies territory, making life uncomfortable for them. Gündogan immediately displayed his ability. A shimmy
Eric Dickerson Authentic Jersey was followed by a
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Now came some of Guardiola’s particular man-management. After Claudio Yacob felled Gündogan, Sterling was frantically waved over by his manager. When the No 7 reached Guardiola he was rewarded with a warm embrace that included a smacker on his cheek, to console him for the miss.
“When you ask me what can he improve – it is that [finishing],” said the Catalan. “When he can he’ll be a top-class player.” De Bruyne did, finally, score in a move he also started, finishing from Sterling’s pass as McClean’s challenge brought boos, and he was booked. Agüero made it 3-0, moments after the challenge from Phillips on Díaz, for which he received only a booking.
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