The skies suddenly turned a heavenly shade of sky blue to herald an exquisite weekend for a happy Pep Guardiola and Manchester City. Their unmistakable 4-1 trouncing of a totally outclassed Southampton, that came with a blitzkrieg of an Erling Haaland cracker, topped off serendipitously with Arsenal dropping valuable points at an indomitable Anfield. What more could the Cityzens ask for?
Although admittedly having to undergo an initially underwhelming 44 minutes, City blazed into furious action when Haaland rose to supersonically blast home Kevin De Bruyne’s cross, making the Belgian the fastest player to reach 100 Premier League assists,in just 237 games.
Jack Grealish then pounced gleefully into action and scored back-to-back for the first time in his City career when adding a second before Haaland characteristically stole the show (again!!) with a trademark daredevil acrobatic finish to take his tally for the season to 30 Premier League goals and 44 in all competitions. In other words, Viking Haaland is just five goals away from breaking Andy Cole (93/94) and Alan Shearer’s (94/95) Premier League record of 34 goals in a single season.
Sekou Mara creditably put the hapless Saints on the board with a neat finish but City was just unstoppable as they promptly restored the three-goal cushion only a minute later when Julian Alvarez scored from the spot after De Bruyne had been fouled.
Unsurprising, Erling Haaland then conjured up another brace in the form of a spectacular bicycle kick to earn Manchester City a convincing win at Southampton.
With the Gunners facing a trip to Anfield on Sunday afternoon, it was vital that City claimed the three points at the home of relegation-threatened Saints. The memory of City’s inept performance in January at St Mary’s must have played on the minds of the supporters as the blues continue to track Arsenal. In the end, any fears were unfounded as City romped to a second consecutive 4-1 victory to stay on the heels of the leaders.
While many coaches would struggle to handle the pressures of competing in the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, and FA Cup at this stage of the season, Guardiola admits that it makes him the happiest man on the planet.
Speaking after the victory on the south coast, Guardiola stressed however that there is no room for error. “Like I said many times, we lose a game and we lose the Premier League (title). In September, October you cannot have that feeling. You say, ‘Okay, we drop points, or whatever’.
“After you have seasons like Liverpool were unstoppable, and right now Arsenal are unstoppable and make a lot of points. Now I have the feeling, like everyone knows, if we lose or drop points today (against Southampton), or Leicester, or of course against Arsenal, we won’t have a chance. But still we are there, many games to play, and what is important is that still we are alive, and in three competitions.”