WEST BROM 2, MANCHESTER CITY 3
Manchester City continued their push for goals at the top of the Premier League with an outstanding seventh Premier League win in a row after beating West Brom 3-2 at the Hawthorns – collecting 28 points from a possible 30.
Goals by Leroy Sane, Fernandinho and Raheem Sterling handed the points to City but there must surely be an element of concern as Jay Rodriguez and Matt Phillips were able to reply although there was little danger of an upset.
Victory meant that City remained five points ahead of Manchester United after they beat Spurs at Old Trafford earlier today.
Gabriel Jesus came in for Sergio Aguero as the only change from the side that beat Burnley last weekend – a very strong lineup against a side that hadn’t beaten City in 15 attempts.
City inevitably dominated possession but were wasteful of the chances that came their way against the packed Baggies defence with David Silva missing a gilt-edged header in the first half and a close range shot in the second half while Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus had an off day by their own standards.
Leroy Sane opened the scoring after just 10 minutes after a crossfield pass by David Silva but City were pegged back just three minutes later by Jay Rodriguez after he ghosted past John Stones to reach a Gareth Barry lofted ball although Salomon Rondon appeared to be offside during the move.
Fernandinho restored City’s lead very shortly after with a 25 yard shot that pinballed off Barry and Ahmed Hegazi and in after Sane had casually passed the ball back to him.
The Baggies wasted chances by Salomon Rondon and Grzegorz Kychowiak to level the scores but City finally scored another in the 64th minute when Raheem Sterling converted a superb move as he met Kyle Walker’s cross.
Sterling’s two-goal cushion came in useful as Nicolas Otamendi suffered an injury time blip in concentration while deciding to chest a looping ball back to Ederson unaware that Matt Phillips was lurking on his blind side to lift the ball past Ederson.
It was too late for City to worry too much about any potential shocks as they brought the three points home but they will need to be more alert when they visit Italy to play Napoli on Wednesday.