London, December 26 (BUS): Manchester City are not short on goals in defending the title, and the champions have found a way to inadvertently make it more entertaining against Leicester, according to the Associated Press.
The 6-3 win – featuring a Raheem Sterling double – put City six points ahead in the Premier League halfway on Sunday, with second-placed Liverpool facing a game in hand.
It was a convincing second half on Boxing Day when Leicester looked completely out of sight after City scored four goals in the first 25 minutes.
Three goals in 10 minutes of the second half gave Leicester a glimmer of hope in the comeback that Aymeric Laporte’s header and second Sterling had stopped.
Pep Guardiola’s side achieved their ninth win in a row, with their last three goals seeing 17 goals scored by City.
And while title contenders Chelsea and Liverpool are busy with the League Cup semi-finals back and forth at the start of January, the end of City’s defense of that title gives some time to recover after a busy Christmas and New Year’s schedule.
It was a high ball over the top from Fernandinho that reached Kevin De Bruyne, who had room to maneuver the ball around Leicester territory before scoring the first goal five minutes later.
A mistake by Yuri Tillmans on Laporte led to a penalty kick converted by Riyad Mahrez.
It was Bernardo Silva’s ability to get past Leicester’s players that created the opener for the third, with Joao Cancelo boxing Ilkay Gundogan into the net from close range.
Leicester were struggling to contain the threat and conceded another penalty when they passed Tillmans Sterling, who fired into the top corner in the 25th minute.
Life returned to the match, which seemed to have ended 10 minutes after the start of the second half, when Laporte’s slip allowed Leicester to launch a counterattack that ended with the formation of Kelechi Iheanacho for James Madison.
The midfielder switched to a provider in the 59th minute when he made his way past the City players before slipping the ball to Iheanacho, who contributed to Ademola Lookman’s through ball.
Leicester’s third goal came in the 65th minute after Madison’s shot hit the crossbar by Ederson and the ball fell to Lehenacho to send it over the line to reduce City’s lead to 4-3.
It took Laporte just four minutes to restore City’s two-goal lead as the eighth different scorer of the match.
Sterling had the final say with a shot from close range after Ruben Dias headed home from a corner kick.