PL roundup: City batter Hornets, while Blades and Burnley both win
While there may have only been three 3 o’clock kick-offs, there were plenty of goals. Unfortunately for Watford, most of them ended up in their own net, with Manchester City running them ragged all afternoon and getting their biggest ever Premier League win, beating the Hornets 8-0.
Elsewhere, Burnley comfortably beat Norwich 2-0 at Turf Moor, while Sheffield United got a brilliant away win at Goodison Park by the same scoreline.
First up, the Etihad. Pep Guardiola made four changes to the side that lost to Norwich. John Stones, Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan and Oleksandr Zinchenko all made way for Kevin De Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Fernandinho and Benjamin Mendy
Watford brought in Adrian Mariappa and Dimitri Foulquier for Andre Gray and Christian Kabasele.
It took the home side less than a minute to open the scoring, with Kevin De Bruyne’s gorgeous cross from the right finding David Silva to score from five yards out. By seven minutes the lead doubled, with Ben Foster bringing Riyad Mahrez down in the box and Sergio Aguero slamming home the resulting penalty home.
By 12 mins, it was three. From a free-kick on the edge of the box, Mahrez' strike came off Tom Cleverley to to beat Foster. Three minutes later and three became four, with Nicolas Otamendi flicking on a corner to Bernardo Silva to tap home. Incredibly, it got even worse soon after.
A quickly taken free-kick found Sergio Aguero in space who fired the ball across the six-yard box for Otamendi to slide the ball into an empty net. Just 18 minutes gone and City had a 5-0 lead. When De Bruyne slid in Aguero on 25 minutes it looked set to be six, but the Argentinian's chip fell just wide. Two minutes later and he hit the post. The most ridiculous thing about the game was at half-time 5-0 really flattered Watford, it could easily have been double that.
Unsurprisingly, the second half started like the first. Less than five minutes had gone before David Silva chipped the ball to his namesake Bernardo, who turned Craig Dawson and slotted home to make it six.
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Aguero went close from a Mahrez cut-back from the right, and then again from an Angelino chip from the left, before Bernardo Silva grabbed his hat-trick from a De Bruyne cross.
Six minutes from time, De Bruyne finally got the goal his performance deserved. Mahrez switched play to find him just inside the box on the left hand side. He took one touch to get the ball out of his feet and then thundered in a brutal strike into the roof of the net.
Although Guardiola’s men were in sumptuous form new Watford boss Quique Sánchez Flores has got a huge amount of work on his hands and may just be regretting returning to Vicarage Road.
Staying in the north-west, Burnley made one change from the team that drew at Brighton, bringing in Jeff Hendrick for Aaron Lennon. Norwich boss Daniel Farke, unsurprisingly, made no changes from the side that beat Manchester City last Saturday.
In truth, Burnley were comfortable throughout. After just 10 minutes Ashley Westwood curled in a corner to the grateful Chris Wood, who headed home from two yards out. Just four minutes afterwards they doubled their lead, Wood finds himself all alone to convert Dwight McNeil’s cross.
Sean Dyche’s men controlled the game from then on and cruised to a straightforward win to move them up to joint seventh.
On Merseyside, Everton brought in Moise Kean and Bernard, for Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Alex Iwobi, while Callum Robinson replaces David McGoldrick for Sheffield United.
Patient play from Everton lead to the bright Lucas Digne delivering a good cross which Dean Henderson just managed to push away, while Richarlison’s scissor kick moments later went over the bar. But that was a sign of things to come, with chances going wide and failing to produce quality end product.
With half-time looming a mixup at the back gave the away side the lead as Yerry Mina put the ball into his own net, compounding the defensive mistakes from last week’s defeat to Bournemouth.
Marco Silva’s side were extremely disappointing all afternoon. With a lack of firepower up front and extremely suspect at set-pieces, they never really looked like overturning the deficit, even with the vast majority of possession. With the away side soaking up the pressure they sprung a counter attack and doubled their lead.
John Lundstram played a brilliant ball down the left hand touchline to Lys Mousset, putting him in on goal. The substitute cooly nutmegged Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal from a tight angle to secure the win for his side.
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