When even Benjamin Mendy is scoring, it’s a sign of just how well the quadruple chase is going for Manchester City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the international break over, the runaway leaders started the Premier League title run-in with a 2-0 victory over Leicester, started by Mendy breaking the deadlock on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Riyad Mahrez’s shot was punched clear by Kasper Schmeichel, Mendy eventually received the ball to curl in a low shot past the Leicester goalkeeper in the 58th minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After not scoring in his opening 39 league games for City, the third-choice left back now has two in his last six as Pep Guardiola’s side closes in on a third title in four seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He’s a special person, the way he lives,” Guardiola said. “He has an incredible heart and when a player is honest like he is, the people love him so much.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a more familiar name on the score sheet for the second in the 74th minute and a familiar creator of the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Quite good, huh?” Guardiola said of Kevin De Bruyne. “It’s not the first time he has done it so now to score goals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a defense-splitting throughball from De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus passed to Raheem Sterling, who returned the ball for the forward to finish rather than shooting himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the week when City looked to the future with Sergio Aguero’s end-of-season departure announced, this was a fourth goal in as many league games for Gabriel Jesus on the Brazilian’s 24th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sterling had come on in the second half for Aguero after starting three times for England in World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With center back John Stones and left back Joao Cancelo unused substitutes at the King Power Stadium, this was a lineup showing the depth of quality available as City moved 17 points ahead of Manchester United with seven games remaining, having played two games more than its neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“All the managers we think the same after the international break, how the players will be back, and the head will be there and mentally will be there,” Guardiola said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Again these players prove again how consistent they are in every single game.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A fifth title since 2012 will surely be sealed long before the final week of the season when supporters are due to be finally allowed back into Premier League grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As this pandemic-condensed season nears an end, Guardiola will be needing to make use of the squad with City also pursuing glory in the Champions League with a quarterfinal against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, in the FA Cup with a semifinal against Chelsea in two weeks, and a quicker shot at a title with this month’s League Cup final against Tottenham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leicester could yet meet City in the FA Cup final. It plays Southampton in the semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More valuable than a trophy for Leicester will be returning to the Champions League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leicester missed a chance to dislodge United from second but was helped out by fourth-place Chelsea losing to West Bromwich Albion as the 2016 champions pursue qualification for the Champions League for the first time since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If you can get me 500 million pounds then we probably won’t be too far off (City),” Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They are a fantastic team. You see the likes of Raheem coming into the game, he’s a world class player. and the changes they can make.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When even Benjamin Mendy is scoring, it’s a sign of just how well the quadruple chase is going for Manchester City. With the international break over, the runaway leaders started the Premier League title run-in with a 2-0 victory over Leicester, started by Mendy breaking the deadlock on Saturday. After Riyad Mahrez’s shot was punched clear by Kasper Schmeichel, Mendy eventually received the ball to curl in a low shot past the Leicester goalkeeper in the 58th minute. After not scoring in his opening 39 league games for City, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29895,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29893\/revisions\/29895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}