Preston North End 0-3 Manchester City: 3 talking points | EFL Cup 2019/20
Fresh off their convincing 8-0 Premier League victory over Watford at the weekend, Manchester City travelled to Deepdale to take on Preston North End in the Third Round of the EFL Cup.
In what was another first half blitz, City raced to a 3-goal lead inside the first 45 minutes, with goals from Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and a Ryan Ledson own goal enough to put them in a commanding position at the break.
As expected, City settled into cruise control in the second half, and progressed to the fourth round with minimum fuss.
In this piece, we shall be highlighting three talking points from the fixture.
#3 Raheem Sterling back among the goals
Raheem Sterling has grown leaps and bounds from the young speedster at Liverpool into an efficient goal machine at Manchester City.
Last season, the England international was one of the stars, scoring 25 goals from 52 appearances in all competitions to help Manchester City to an unprecedented domestic treble.
This season, he started the campaign like a house on fire, scoring the only goal for Manchester City in the Community Shield win over Liverpool, and followed that up with a hat-trick in the opening day 5-0 win over West Ham.
He scored in consecutive Premier League matches, before drawing blanks in subsequent games against Brighton and Norwich, as well as the Champions League fixture with Shakhtar Donestk.
The 24-year-old was rested for the clash with Watford, and this must have been jarring for him, as his teammates ran riot in his absence, but he got a chance to regain his scoring touch when he was one of only a few first team regulars to start against Preston.
It took just 19 minutes for Sterling to open the scoring, while he also played a major part in the two other goals.
Having gotten back among the goals, Raheem Sterling would fancy his chances in the coming weeks, and City's opponents would do well to watch him starting against Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday.
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