City show their champions pedigree with five-goal thrashing of Swansea

Anna Woodberry 6 years ago 2.8k
Silva opened the scoring for City. AFP

Manchester City showed why they are runaway champions of the Premier League this season, thrashing Swansea City 5-0 at the Etihad in one of the most one-sided matches in the league's history.

Pep Guardiola urged his players to finish the season strongly, starting with their home league fixture against relegation strugglers Swansea City on Sunday.

However, the head coach need not have worried as the 'Sky Blues' came out the blocks in stereotypically dominant fashion and would go on to control the game for the whole 90 minutes.

The opening stages lacked any clear-cut opportunities but it wouldn't be long after the 10-minute mark that City would break the deadlock.

Kevin De Bruyne found Raheem Sterling in the box who proceeded to play through David Silva. The Spaniard flung his first-touch of the ball into the air but then comfortably fired it past opposing goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski to make it 1-0.

Swansea's woes would be compounded just four minutes later when Sterling doubled City's advantage.

Fabian Delph and David Silva linked up seemlessly with a brilliant one-two on the left wing to give the Englishman space to fire in a cross to his compatriot in the box. It was easy from there for Sterling who steered the ball into an empty goal.

Fabianski would be kept busy all game and was forced into a double save in the 32nd minute.

De Bruyne's curling shot required a full-stretch save but the Polish goalkeeper could only parry the ball into the path of Sterling. Thankfully, Fabianski was over quick to guard his near post from another shot but the offside flag meant that it wouldn't have counted regardless.

The game was so one-sided that Swansea had to wait until just before the break to have their first crack on goal, although Alfie Mawson's long-range effort barely troubled Ederson, who could have spent the half in the stands.

Despite their dominace, illustrated through 86 per cent possession and 582 completed passes, City would only go into half-time with a two-goal lead. Though they would soon extend that in the second 45 minutes. 

 

 

From there, City continued their dominance and Jesus would finally score just before the end as he directed a perfectly-dinked ball by Yaya Toure into the far corner with his head, finishing off the champion's masterclass performance.

As the full-time whistle rang out in Manchester, the home crowd invaded the pitch, surrounding Mendy as they finally celebrated their Premier League title with the players.

The win moves City onto 90 points with four games remaining whilst Swansea languish one place above the drop zone as the relegation battle heats up in England's top division. 

Mentioned in the news story

Gabriel Jesus
K. De Bruyne
Bernardo Silva
David Silva
R. Sterling
Manchester City
Swansea City
Premier League