Norwich City 0, Manchester City 4
Raheem Sterling scored a perfect hat trick as Manchester City brushed aside Norwich City after a difficult first half.
Embed from Getty ImagesVictory restored their 12 point gap at the top of the Premier League and City could afford to bring on youngsters James McAtee, Liam Delap, and Kayky – who made his Premier League bow – in the second half with a game at Sporting Lisbon next week.
It was a fifth Premier League hat trick for City for the winger who is in a rich vein of form at the moment having taken his City goal tally to 12 for the season.
City boss Pep Guardiola was delighted with the result, which justified his reshuffle with the Champions League game against Sporting Lisbon next Tuesday.
Guardiola made five changes to the team that beat Brentford on Wednesday.
John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Joao Cancelo, Kevin De Bruyne, and Rodri were rested while Kyle Walker, Nathan Ake, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ilkay Gundogan, and Fernandinho were brought into the side.
The squad players he brought in fully justified their selection and Guardiola praised their contribution.
He said: “We played a good game overall. From the first minute we created two or three chances in the first 10 minutes.
“We’ve played incredible all these years, and they proved it again.
“For many years they have done it. When Oleks [Zinchenko] isn’t playing it’s because Joao is in top form – they accept it.
“Everyone is involved because we are in so many competitions.
“We needed fresh legs today and these guys proved they can play.”
And Guardiola further expanded on the contribution of Raheem Sterling, who kept the match ball with a hat trick, heaping praise on him.
He said: “He made a brilliant first goal, for the second he was there.
“He’s a guy who always creates something.”
But while the win kept closest title rivals Liverpool at bay – restoring the 12 point gap – Guardiola signalled that caution was still required.
He declared: “We know which rivals we have and I know they [Liverpool] won’t drop many points for the squad they have.
“We have to win a lot of games.
“We needed to win – we did our job.”
Raheem Sterling hits perfect hat trick against Norwich City
Norwich made the game difficult for City in the first half hour with both Bernardo Silva and Grant Hanley hitting the post early on but Sterling broke the deadlock after 31 minutes when he reacted first to a poor clearance.
Max Aarons tried to clear Kyle Walker’s cross but the ball only bounced to Sterling who reacted quickly and his deflected ball looped up off Aarons, who tried to recover his mistake, and beyond the reach of Angus Gunn into the back of his net.
Phil Foden deflated their hosts with a close range finish at the second attempt after his first attempt to convert Ilkay Gundogan’s cut back was blocked by Gunn and the second was almost cleared off the line by Hanley.
Sterling made sure of the points with 20 minutes to go when Ruben Dias unselfishly headed a cross back into the six yard box giving the England winger, who had anticipated a chance, an easy unmarked header from close range.
And in injury time Liam Delap won a penalty after he was taken out by Hanley.
Sterling stepped up in the 90th minute but Gunn guessed correctly and made the save to his left only for the rebound to fall nicely at Sterling’s left boot which allowed him to complete his hat trick.
MATCH STATS – Norwich City 0, Manchester City 4
Norwich City: Gunn, Aarons (Byram 63), Hanley, Gibson, Williams, Gilmour, Lees-Melou (Normann 63), McLean, Sargent (Dowell 87), Pukki, Rashica
Norwich City subs not used: McGovern, Zimmerman, Placheta, Tzolis, Giannoulis, Rowe
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Ruben Dias, Ake, Zinchenko, Bernardo Silva (McAtee 75), Fernandinho, Gundogan, Mahrez (Kayky 84), Foden (Delap 82), Sterling
Man City subs not used: Carson, Stones, Laporte, Rodri, De Bruyne, Cancelo
Booked: Dias, Sterling
Goals: Sterling 31, 70, 90; Foden 48
Referee: Andre Marriner