With a wild 6:3 victory over Leicester, Manchester City extended their lead in the table for the time being on Boxing Day – but threatened to collapse in the meantime after leading 4:0.
Who is going to stop Manchester City on their way to defending their title? That question was not answered on Boxing Day 2021, but only made more pressing: Pep Guardiola’s side beat Leicester City 6-3 to celebrate their ninth Premier League win in a row at now 30-6 goals, but also showed weaknesses.
The “Foxes”, who were not exactly in good form anyway, were missing numerous players on Boxing Day, including the usual central defence (Evans and Söyüncü) and the goalscorers Vardy (on the bench with an injury) and Daka. That couldn’t really go well against the champions, and it didn’t go well at first.
Tielemans causes two penalties
De Bruyne had time and space to take the early lead after a Fernandinho pass (5th), which Mahrez extended from the spot – Tielemans had held Laporte illegally for a corner (14th). Shortly after Ederson had headed Maddison’s free-kick against the crossbar (18th), Gündogan added to his tally: the international dusted off his fourth goal of the season after Schmeichel had been able to deflect Joao Cancelo’s sharp cross forward (21st).
Sterling made it 4-0 at the break, converting a penalty as confidently as Mahrez had done earlier (25) – again from Tielemens. Leicester simply had no answers to the powerful, determined attacking play of the home side, who left further goals unanswered (including Sterling, 35th).
Rodgers make successful changes – Maddison and Iheanacho suddenly almost unstoppable
But because Brendan Rodgers successfully switched to a five-man backline at the break and ManCity suddenly allowed themselves plenty of sloppiness, the second half was by no means only about the amount of the victory: Maddison profited from Laporte’s slip and scored after a double pass with Iheanacho to make it 1:4 (55.), Lookman after Maddison won the ball against Gündogan and Iheanacho’s assist suddenly made it 2:4 (59.).
And at the other end, Amartey directed Fernandinho’s header onto the crossbar (64th), while Iheanacho scored a tap-in (65th) after Ederson had sent Maddison’s long-range shot against the crossbar. It was now a really crazy, open duel. Was ManCity really going to squander a 4-0 lead here?
The leaders didn’t let it get that far after all: Laporte, simply lost sight of by triple scorer Iheanacho, headed in after the umpteenth corner to make it 5:3 (69th) – and because Iheanacho missed the prompt 4:5 after a quickly taken Maddison free-kick (70th), City still brought the home victory home in a reasonably commanding manner. Sterling even dusted off a corner as Leicester looked poor again to make it 6-3 (87) and complete the highest-scoring game in the Premier League’s Boxing Day history.
With a six-point lead over match-free Liverpool FC, ManCity head into their final competitive game of 2021 at Brentford FC on Wednesday (9.15pm), before a top-of-the-table clash with a fit Arsenal FC on New Year’s Day (1.30pm).
