City close the gap to four points with victory over Wolves

Week 22 of the English Premier League ends with Manchester City closing the gap to four points with a comfortable victory over ten-man Wolves at The Etihad.

After murdering Rotherham 7-0, and mutilating Burton Albion 9-0, I imagine Wolves had an inkling that Man City would give them a good hiding when they howled underneath the Blue Moon of The Etihad, and that’s exactly what happened.

Nuno Espírito Santo’s side was the first to stop City taking all three points from an English Premier League (EPL) game when they held them to a 1-1 draw at Molineux in August, but after the first 20-minutes of the rematch, you knew there was Bob Hope of a repeat.

This season, City have been the masters at scoring early, and within ten minutes, they were ahead with a greyhound of a goal. Aymeric Laporte started the move with a defence-splitting daisy-cutter from the back, Leroy Sané was onto it like a whippet, and Gabriel Jesus bundled his laser-like low cross into the back of the net.

Game over.

City hasn’t lost in any of the 20 EPL games that the Brazilian had scored in, winning 19 and drawing one, including winning the past 17 on the tamp. If that record wasn’t enough to cut the head off Wolves, then Wily Boly’s 19th-minute dismissal was.

Bernardo Silva ducked and dived in the centre of midfield until the ball run too far from him. The Portuguese star attempted to retrieve the ball, but only found the studs of Wily Boly, whom the referee gave a straight red.

Wolves heads should have dropped at that point, but instead, they nearly levelled with Jonny failing to get on the end of a Diogo Jota through ball six-yards from goal. Then City moved up the field and immediately won a penalty when Ryan Bennett tripped Raheem Sterling. Jesus put the ball away for his 15th goal of the season in all competitions, and his eighth in his last 12 appearances at The Etihad.

Only one goal arrived in the second half.

Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench to sting the hands of the Wolves keeper. The Belgian swung in the resultant short corner into the box, and it ended up in the back of the net courtesy of an OG from Conor Coady.

The win sees Pep Guardiola’s men move within four points of the leaders Liverpool, who incredibly, has now spent more time on the top of the EPL (75 days) than their Manchester rivals (74).

Wolves, who have been in excellent form of late, will want to forget this one, putting together 271 passes versus 870 from City, and failing to have a single shot on target.

Here are the weekend’s results in full:

Results in Full

West Ham 1 v 0 Arsenal
Burnley 2 v 1 Fulham
Crystal Palace 1 v 2 Watford
Cardiff 0 v 0 Huddersfield
Brighton 0 v 1 Liverpool
Leicester 1 v 2 Southampton
Chelsea 2 v 1 Newcastle
Everton 2 v 0 Bournemouth
Spurs 0 v 1 Man Utd
Man City 3 v 0 Wolves

Premier League Table

1. Liverpool – 57 points
2. Man City – 53
3. Spurs – 48
4. Chelsea – 47
5. Arsenal – 41
6. Man Utd – 41
7. Watford – 32
8. Leicester – 31
9. West Ham – 31
10. Everton – 30
11. Wolves – 29
12. Bournemouth – 27
13. Brighton – 26
14. Crystal Palace – 22
15. Burnley – 21
16. Southampton – 19
17. Cardiff – 19
18. Newcastle – 18
19. Fulham – 14
20. Huddersfield – 11