EPL: Manchester City win another match to maintain lead at the top

Manchester City scored their 34th win of 2021 scoring two goals in each half that secured a 40 victory that ensured the defending champions are on top of the table during the festival period in the Premier League Their eighth successive win also set a new record for victories 34 in a calendar yearRuben Dias Joao Cancelo Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling were all on target in a game where the home side put up a good fightWith this win City maintained their position atop the table with 44 points from 18 matches with Liverpool secondChelsea who had a chance of narrowing the gap but could not take three points after being held goalless by Wolverhampton Wanderers are third with 38 points and Arsenal are fourth with 32 points from 18 gamesCity got off to a dream start after just five minutes with a goal in which home goalkeeper Martin Dubravka had a big roleFirst the Magpies keeper tried to play a short pass that went out for a corner and then from the resulting setpiece a clever pass by Oleks Zinchenko picked out the run of Joao Cancelo and the Portugueses hooked cross was left on the near post by Ciaran Clark and Dubravka leaving Dias the simplest jobs of heading into the empty netThe next 20 minutes or so werent Citys best with possession uncharacteristically given away on a number of occasions Newcastles aggressive tackling during this period left Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva nursing knocks after overzealous challengesCity went 20 up in the 28th minute with a beautiful goal from Cancelo who received a pass on the right before drifting inside past Joe Willock cutting back inside another challenge before planting a rising shot into the top left corner from 20 yardsIt completed the firsthalf scoring and put the Blues in a strong positionNewcastle began the second half with more high pressing forcing one or two misplaced passes But the first big chance of the second period came Citys way hen Gabriel Jesus pointblank header was pushed over by Dubravka on 53 minutesTen minutes later Riyad Mahrez did put the ball in the back of the net with a sweet closerange volley from Zinchenkos excellent cross Though the assistant referee flagged it for offside VAR confirmed the Algerian had timed his run to perfectionIt was also Mahrezs 50th goal for the Club in all competitions and his 11th of the seasonThere were more chances to increase the margin of victory and in the 86thminute City scored their fourth goal when Jesus ran around Murphy on the left before finding Raheem Sterling who tapped home at the far post to cap a wonderful week for CityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever