Tag: Manchester City

LONDON: Manchester City seized control of the Premier League title race as Kevin De Bruyne inspired a crucial 4-1 rout of crumbling leaders Arsenal on Wednesday.

De Bruyne scored twice and set up John Stones’ goal before Erling Haaland capped the demolition at the Etihad Stadium as City showed why they have been champions four times in the last five seasons.

Pep Guardiola’s side have trailed unexpected pace-setters Arsenal for much of the campaign, but the Gunners have choked over the last month while battle-hardened City show no signs of being affected by the pressure.

Second placed City are now just two points behind Arsenal with two games in hand.

City will become champions for a third successive season if they win six of their last seven matches.

Few would bet against them after a blistering run of seven consecutive league victories reeled in Arsenal.

Unbeaten in their last 16 games in all competitions, City have won 13 of their past 14 games as they chase a remarkable treble.

They booked an FA Cup final date with Manchester United last weekend and face Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals.

“The connection between Kevin and Erling is extraordinary, today we tried to use it as much as possible,” Guardiola said.

“I know the next three games are really important. The reality is today we are two points behind Arsenal, they are in front of us.”

While City eye a memorable end to the season, Arsenal, who were eight points clear at the start of April, have failed to win any of their last four league games.

Arsenal’s third defeat against City in 2023 could prove the final blow to their hopes of winning the title for the first time in 19 years.

Mikel Arteta’s young team have lost their nerve at the worst possible time, with three successive draws, featuring a pair of blown two-goal leads, followed by their first loss in 11 league games.

“The better team won. They were probably at their best in the first half and we weren’t at our level. In terms of the basics we didn’t do it,” Arteta said.

“There’s still five games to go. I’ve been in this country 22 years and things change a lot.”

De Bruyne started the demolition in the seventh minute when he took Haaland’s deft pass and surged towards the Arsenal area before smashing a low strike past Aaron Ramsdale from 20 yards.

Stones rewarded City’s incessant pressure on the stroke of half-time when he headed in De Bruyne’s free-kick, with the goal awarded by VAR after initially being disallowed for offside.

– Record-breaker Haaland –

Imperious City were in complete control and De Bruyne put the result beyond doubt with another clinical finish from Haaland’s pass in the 54th minute.

Rob Holding smashed home in the 86th minute, but the defender’s goal was no consolation for reeling Arsenal.

With virtually the last kick of the game, Haaland slotted under Ramsdale for his 49th goal in all competitions this term and his 33rd in the league, beating Mohamed Salah’s record for a single 38-game Premier League season.

Chelsea crashed to a fifth successive defeat under Frank Lampard as their west London neighbours Brentford won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.

In his second spell as Chelsea boss after replacing the sacked Graham Potter until the end of the season, Lampard has failed to spark a revival from his troubled team, who were booed off at full-time.

With former Paris Saint Germain and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino reportedly close to taking charge, Chelsea are enduring their worst run since 1993 after their winless streak extended to eight games.

Cesar Azpilicueta’s 37th minute own goal and Bryan Mbeumo’s 78th minute strike left 11th placed Chelsea in danger of finishing in the bottom half of the table for the first time since 1996.

“The fans feel down because they are used to success. We have to take it on the chin,” Lampard said.

Liverpool kept alive their slender hopes of a top four finish with a 2-1 win at West Ham.

The Hammers took a 12th-minute lead through Lucas Paqueta’s spectacular strike, only for Cody Gakpo to equalise from long-range five minutes later.

Joel Matip’s 67th minute header moved sixth placed Liverpool within six points of fourth placed Manchester United, who have two games in hand.

Nottingham Forest climbed out of the relegation zone as they beat Brighton 3-1 at the City Ground to win for the first time in 12 games.

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SOUTHAMPTON: Erling Haaland is fit to return for Saturday’s Premier League trip to Southampton, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola confirmed on Friday.

Haaland, who has scored 42 goals this season, missed City’s 4-1 hammering of Liverpool last weekend after pulling out of international duty with Norway due to a groin injury.

His return is a timely boost for City’s quest to win a treble of trophies in the final two months of the season.

“He trained the last two days really good,” said Guardiola. “He will be ready.”

City welcome Bayern Munich to the Etihad for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final just three days after their trip to St Mary’s.

But Guardiola said he was fully focused on chasing down Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.

The Gunners have an eight-point lead, but City have a game in hand on Mikel Arteta’s men and host Arsenal at the Etihad later this month.

“Bayern is our last thought,” said the City boss. “It’s Southampton — the Premier League is every day, every week.”

Southampton are bottom of the table but shocked City when the sides last met, dumping the English champions out of the League Cup.

City have only won twice in their past five visits to St Mary’s and Guardiola is expecting another tough test.

“Now every team is playing for something,” he said. “Every game has its own characteristics and you have to be ready, Southampton have always been so tough.

“Always it’s been a tough, tough game. Tomorrow won’t be an exception.”

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MANCHESTER: Manchester City have condemned criminal damage to Liverpool’s team bus following Saturday’s clash between the Premier League rivals.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed they have opened an investigation over the incident which took place after City’s 4-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.

No injuries were suffered and the Liverpool bus was able to continue its journey back to Merseyside.

“Manchester City FC has been made aware that Liverpool FC’s coach sustained damage on its return journey,” City said in a statement.

“We understand an object was thrown towards the coach in a residential area.

“Incidents of this kind are totally unacceptable, and we strongly condemn the actions of the individual(s) responsible.”

City also said they were disappointed by chanting from the home fans that made reference to the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, which led to the death of 97 Liverpool fans.

“The club is disappointed to have heard inappropriate chants from home fans during the game,” City added in a statement.

“We regret any offence these chants may have caused and will continue to work with supporter groups and officials from both clubs to eradicate hateful chanting from this fixture.”

Clashes between City and Liverpool have become heated in recent years as they have consistently gone head-to-head for major honours.

City’s bus was damaged by thrown bottles on its approach to Anfield ahead of a Champions League clash between the sides in 2018.

In December, a 15-year-old girl suffered a head injury after a plastic cup filled with coins was thrown from the Liverpool support into the City end during a League Cup tie at the Etihad.

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MANCHESTER: Erling Haaland equalled a Champions League record with a five-goal haul to ease Manchester City into the quarter-finals at RB Leipzig’s expense with a 7-0 win on Tuesday. 

Haaland also set a new club record for goals in a season of 39 in the process as Pep Guardiola’s men reached the last eight for the sixth consecutive season with an 8-1 aggregate victory.

“My super strength is scoring goals,” said Haaland. “A lot of it is being quick in the mind and trying to put it where the goalkeeper is not.”

Abu Dhabi-owned City are yet to go all the way in the Champions League, but they have never had a striker of Haaland’s quality to make the difference in the latter stages before.

At just 22 he now has 33 goals in 25 appearances in Europe’s premier club competition.

“Firstly, I’m proud to play in this competition, I love it,” added Haaland. “Five goals! To win 7-0 is amazing.”

The snowy weather was more akin to Haaland’s homeland, but City did not freeze under the pressure and kept their Champions League dreams alive.

The tie was delicately balanced after a 1-1 draw in eastern Germany three weeks ago, but a Leipzig side depleted by injury never looked like a match for their star-studded opponents.

“That was an incredible performance,” said Leipzig coach Marco Rose.

“They didn’t allow us to control the game at all, at no stage of the game. The bottom line is disappointing for us but they really deserved it.”

Guardiola had kept Kevin De Bruyne in reserve for City’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the weekend and on his return to the starting line-up, the Belgian was back to his best.

Ilkay Gundogan should have opened the scoring after just three minutes from De Bruyne’s inviting cross.

There was some fortune surrounding City’s opener as VAR spotted a handball against Benjamin Henrichs that led to a penalty that neither the City players nor the crowd even noticed.

– Denied record chance –

Haaland fired low to Janis Blaswich’s left to maintain his perfect record from the spot for City with his sixth penalty of the season.

Two minutes later it was 2-0 as Haaland teed up De Bruyne, who smashed a shot against the bar, and then showed his speed and strength to power home a header from the rebound.

Haaland had three before half-time as Ruben Dias rose highest to head Jack Grealish’s corner onto the post and Amadou Haidara’s attempted clearance ricocheted off City’s number nine into the net.

Gundogan’s classy finish into the far corner four minutes into the second half rubbed more salt into Leipzig’s wounds before Haaland started rewriting the record books.

Firstly, he hammered home at the second attempt after Blaswich parried his initial header to match Tommy Johnson’s record of 38 goals for City in the 1928-29 season.

Haaland set a new mark with still three months of the campaign to go when he snaffled up another rebound after Blaswich saved from Manuel Akanji.

In the process, he moved level with Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano’s record of scoring five goals in a Champions League game.

But Guardiola denied his star striker the chance of another record as he replaced him with Julian Alvarez with 25 minutes remaining.

“If he achieves all these milestones at 22 his life would be boring,” joked Guardiola on making the change.

Instead, it was left to De Bruyne to have the final say as he curled a superb strike into the top corner in stoppage time.

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LONDON: Manchester City have been referred to an independent commission by the Premier League over alleged breaches of its financial rules, the English top flight announced on Monday.

The alleged breaches span a period from the 2009/10 season to the 2017/18 campaign.

The defending champions are alleged to have breached league rules requiring provision “in utmost good faith” of “accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position”.

The Premier League said the accurate financial information required related to “revenue (including sponsorship revenue), its related parties and its operating costs”.

The second set of breaches listed refers to alleged breaking of rules “requiring a member club to include full details of manager remuneration in its relevant contracts with its manager” related to seasons 2009/10 to 2012/13 inclusive

The club’s manager between December 2009 and May 2013 was current Italy boss Roberto Mancini.

The second set of alleged breaches also refers to requirements for a club to “include full details of player remuneration within the relevant contracts”.

The third section deals with alleged breaches of Premier League rules requiring clubs to comply with UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations.

City were banned from UEFA competitions for two years by European football’s governing body for alleged breaches of its FFP regulations in February 2020, but the sanction was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July of the same year.

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MANCHESTER: Pep Guardiola was left fuming by the controversial VAR decision to allow a Bruno Fernandes goal that sparked Manchester United’s thrilling fightback in their 2-1 win over Manchester City on Saturday.

City were leading through Jack Grealish’s second-half header at Old Trafford when United snatched their dubious 78th-minute equaliser.

Marcus Rashford was clearly offside when he ran onto a through ball but Fernandes ran past him to fire home.

Although the goal was initially disallowed, it was eventually allowed to stand after a VAR check because Rashford didn’t touch the ball before Fernandes scored.

With Guardiola and his players furious that VAR ignored Rashford’s presence as a clear distraction to keeper Ederson, United took advantage of the champions’ loss of focus to grab a late winner through Rashford’s close-range finish.

“Marcus Rashford is offside, Bruno Fernandes is not. Rashford distracted our keeper and centre defenders,” Guardiola said.

“It is what it is. We know where we play. It is difficult for the referees in these stadiums.”

Even United manager Erik ten Hag conceded he could understand Guardiola’s frustration with such a debatable decision.

“I can see that from the other side as well – of course it’s a confusing moment but when you follow the rules he didn’t touch the ball, he was not interfering and it’s a goal,” Ten Hag said.

Third-placed United are now just one point behind City after extending their winning streak to nine games in all competitions.

“We were happy at half-time but after half-time it changed, we were not proactive any more and just before I wanted to change it, they score,” he said.

“But then the spirit in the team is so huge, the belief is there that this game is 90 minutes, and we can fight back, and they believed they could turn it around.”

Second-placed City could be eight points behind leaders Arsenal if the Gunners win at Tottenham on Sunday.

With spluttering City losing their momentum in the title race, Guardiola added: “It was a fantastic game. We were close and we have to improve when we concede the goal, be more stable, the gap between the first and second goal is too close.

“In general I have no regrets. I don’t care if we don’t win the Carabao Cup or the Premier League, we’ll try. I don’t care when a team performs how we play. It was quite similar to the many, many years we’ve been here.”

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WISCONSIN: Erling Haaland impressed on his debut for Manchester City as his 12th-minute strike put his side ahead of the German giant Bayern Munich in a friendly match, here at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, USA. 

The 22-year-old, who missed the first game of City’s US tour against Mexico’s Club America, soared on his first appearance in the sky blue jersey after he netted the ball from close range to score the lone goal of the game.

The match witnessed a delayed start for 15 minutes after a thunderstorm and following Haaland’s goal the play was suspended until further notice. Officials then reduced the game to 80 minutes.

 

“I’ve been watching a lot of City games in the last years, and in the last years it has been without a striker, so of course, I’ve been seeing myself in these situations today, so I’m not surprised,” said Haaland after the game.

Manchester City will now return to England, where they will face Liverpool in the Community Shield on Saturday at Leicester’s King Power Stadium.

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MADRID: The Spanish League LaLiga has filed a complaint to UEFA against Paris Saint-Germain for the breach of financial fair play rules adding to a similar complaint it had filed earlier against Manchester City, it announced on Wednesday.

LaLiga believed that the French Club have broken the financial fair play regulations when it offered a new multi-million pounds contract to its striker Kylian Mbappe, which convinced him to decline the offer of the Spanish club Real Madrid.

The Spanish League has already filed a similar complaint against Manchester City in April, objecting that club has continuously failed to comply with the rules.

Since then, the Premier League club has also confirmed the signing of Erling Haaland for £51.2m from the German club Borussia Dortmund. Real Madrid was also interested in signing Haaland.

“LaLiga considers that these practices alter the ecosystem and the sustainability of football, harm all European clubs and leagues, and only serve to artificially inflate the market with money not generated in soccer itself,” the Spanish league said in a statement.

LaLiga further alleged that the irregular financing of both the clubs was carried out either through direct money injection or through sponsorship or other contracts that did not correspond to market conditions or made economic sense.

The Spanish league had already tried to sanction PSG and Man City by UEFA in the past. In 2017 and 2018, it also filed charges against them for violating financial fair play guidelines.

UEFA sanctioned Man City a two-year ban from the Champions League in 2020 for “serious breaches” of FFP rules following an investigation. However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban.

Meanwhile, UEFA closed another financial fair play investigation against PSG in 2018 without imposing any sanctions. In 2014, both Man City and PSG were fined 20 million euros by the football’s governing body following the FFP breaches.

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MANCHESTER: Manchester City marked an exceptional comeback in their match against Aston Villa on the final day of the season to win their fourth Premier League title in the last four years.

The home side of City took the field with a point advantage and a better goal difference by six over the second-placed Liverpool and soon experienced a scare in the form of Aston Villa’s brilliant start.

The home side, however, held their nerves calm and kept their title hunt on the line by moving from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Aston Villa.

It was not just the Aston Villa, whom the City had to tackle to lift the trophy but they had to keep an eye on the Liverpool-Wolves clash at the Anfield.

The reigning world champions started their day with some early good news Pedro Neto put Wolves 1-0 up against Liverpool. The joy, however, was short-lived as Sadio Mane struck for the home side.

It then got even worse for the City as Matty Cash stunned the home side at Etihad Stadium to put Villa 1-0 ahead. Philippe Coutinho then also added to the misery of the City as he netted one to extend Villa’s lead to 2-0.

The home side City then produced an astonishing comeback to clinch the victory from Villa’s jaws by 3-2. Liverpool, on the other hand, thumped Wolves 3-1, which, however, did not prove enough for the title victory.

It is apropos to mention here that it is the second time that City have won back-to-back titles under Pep Guardiola. Whereas, Chelsea and City are the only two teams to have achieved this feat.

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LONDON: Manchester City made a timely come back after two goals down to draw the match and earn a point against West Ham, here on Sunday. The draw however made the side wait to lift the Premier League.

City’s grip on the Premier League seemed doubtful in the first half as the Hammers led 2-0 following Jarrod Bowen’s well-taken double.

However, four minutes after the restart, Jack Grealish made the first strike for the visitors, and Vladmir Coufal headed Riyad Mahrez’s free-kick into his own net as City escaped loss in a top-flight match.

The side then also got a chance to win after Craig Dawson fouled Gabriel Jesus which earned the side a vital penalty strike but Mahrez’s failure to avail the opportunity barred the side from lifting the title.

The City are still four points ahead of the second-placed Liverpool, with one match to go. The side can clinch the Premier League by defeating Aston Villa on the final day.

Liverpool, on the other hand, potentially got a chance to level with the City by winning their remaining two matches if the latter lose their match against Aston Villa.

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