The Kevin De Bruyne-Erling Haaland combination rules the roost for Manchester City
Manchester City thrashed Arsenal 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium in a Premier League match on Wednesday (April 26) to take a giant step towards securing their fifth league title in six seasons.
Pep Guardiola’s monopolization of the Premier League thus continues, as Arsenal have now failed to win any of their last four league matches.
The Cityzens also continued to make merry in what seemed to be a demanding month of April a few weeks ago. Almost every player contributed for them, but it was the lethal combination of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland that cut Arsenal to ribbons.
De Bruyne, the 31-year-old midfield maestro, and Haaland, the 22-year-old goal machine, made a mockery of Arsenal’s defense twice to help their team cut Arsenal’s advantage down to two points. The fact that Manchester City have two matches in hand makes them the favorites to win the title.
Role reversal for Manchester City
There was a role reversal of sorts on Wednesday night, as Haaland registered a couple of assists to help De Bruyne score. Normally, the Belgian midfielder was supposed to play the role of the provider to help the Norwegian striker improve his tally, but the reverse happened.
However, Guardiola will not be complaining as his side have once again demonstrated Arsenal’s defensive frailties while playing with a high defensive line. First, there was a neat through pass from Haaland that helped de Bruyne break through the Arsenal defensive line from a swift counter-attack.
The Norwegian striker then got the ball from a faulty backpass and played it to de Bruyne once again for the latter to score. It almost seemed like Manchester City were playing with a 4-4-2 with their two strikers exchanging passes for fun. However, in between, De Bruyne almost returned the favor by playing a through pass to Haaland, but the latter's shot was saved by Aaron Ramsdale.
Rob Holding tried in vain to deal with Haaland’s physical presence just before the first goal was scored. On both occasions, De Bruyne’s finishing and well-timed runs were something to cheer about, as he now has nine goals to his credit this season.
To make matters worse for Arsenal, they also failed to deal with aerial balls as John Stones headed home Manchester City’s second goal from a free-kick curled in by De Bruyne himself.
Erling Haaland breaks Mohamed Salah’s record
Haaland then proceeded to score his 49th goal of the season, also his 33rd in the Premier League, in the dying minutes of the match. He thereby broke Salah’s record of 32 Premier League goals in 2017-18 with seven matches still remaining. At this rate, that does not seem to be the only record Haaland is going to break.
Quite surprisingly, the incredible youngster now has eight assists this season, which is quite a high number for such a prolific striker.
Manchester City supporters and football-lovers in general will be happy at the prospect of enjoying Haaland’s performances for a long period to come, as more records wait to tumble. With this kind of form, Haaland can definitely help Manchester City move towards a coveted treble this season.