Manchester City turned on the style in their first match since being confirmed Premier League champions, as Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne led the way<\/p>\n
in a 5-0win over Swansea City.<\/p>\n
Having already wrapped up the title, motivation had been highlighted as a potential problem for City at the EtihadStadiumon Sunday, butPep Guardiola\u2019s men<\/p>\n
produced a professional display befitting of their remarkable campaign, sweeping Swansea aside in straightforward fashion.<\/p>\n
Although a 2-0 lead famously proved inadequate recently against Manchester United, City never looked like throwing victory away against a far inferior Swansea<\/p>\n
side.<\/p>\n
Sterling played a key role in those two early goals, helping set up David Silva\u2019s opener before finding the net himself soon after, as City found themselves two<\/p>\n
up after just 16 minutes.<\/p>\n
READ\u2009|\u2009Olivier GIroud, Alvaro Morata guide Chelsea FC to FA\u2009Cup 2018 final<\/p>\n
Swansea initially managed to tighten things up toprevent City from adding to their lead, but the in-form De Bruyneblasted in the hosts\u2019 third from 30 yards early in<\/p>\n
the second half.<\/p>\n
Bernardo Silva convertedfrom close range after Gabriel Jesus saw a penalty saved, with City\u2019s comfort allowing a late cameo for Benjamin Mendy after seven<\/p>\n
months out with a knee injury, and therout was capped as Jesus atoned for his failure from the spot.<\/p>\n
Any questions about potential City complacency were quickly and emphatically answered, as the champions roared into a commanding lead.<\/p>\n
City carved their visitors open for the first, as they patiently probed before Sterling was found onthe left side of the area and, although his pull back was initially<\/p>\n
cut out by Alfie Mawson, David Silva pounced and rifled into the bottom-right corner.<\/p>\n
Silva also played a crucial role for the second, releasing Fabian Delph in behind Kyle Naughton, the City left-back squaringacross the face of goal to tee Sterling<\/p>\n
up for an easy finish.<\/p>\n
READ\u2009|\u2009Arsene Wenger\u2019s Arsenal swansong starts with Premier League win vs West Ham<\/p>\n
The hosts\u2019 relentless start cooled somewhat soon after their second goal, though Lukasz Fabianski still had to be at his best to deny De Bruyne in the 33rd<\/p>\n
minute, getting down to his right to keep the Belgian\u2019s left-footed drive out of the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
De Bruyne was then the first to threaten in the second half, cutting in from the left and blasting a right-footed effort into the side-netting.<\/p>\n
But he found his range nine minutes after the restart, putting City 3-0 up in spectacular fashion, as he unleashed a ferocious 30-yard drive thatfound the top-left<\/p>\n
corner.<\/p>\n
And 10 minutes laterCity had a fourth after Federico Fernandez tripped Sterling in the area – Bernardo Silva slotting in from just a few yards out after Fabianski<\/p>\n
tipped Jesus\u2019 penalty on to the post.<\/p>\n
Guardiola introduced Mendy 15 minutes from time for his first appearance since suffering a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester City turned on the style in their first match since being confirmed Premier League champions, as Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne led the way in a 5-0win over Swansea City. Having already wrapped up the title, motivation had been highlighted as a potential problem for City at the EtihadStadiumon Sunday, butPep Guardiola\u2019s men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28885,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28883\/revisions\/28885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}