Izuchukwu Okosi
It was a goal feast at the Etihad Stadium as the ruthless Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side defeated Leicester City 6-3 in a Premier League Boxing Day special.
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Kudos to Brendan Rodgers’ men for attempting a comeback from 4-0 down in the first half to score 3 goals in 10 minutes, but the Citizens quickly responded with two more goals to quench Leicester’s resolve for the mother of all comebacks.
Manchester City racked up four goals inside the opening 25 minutes to seemingly end the contest early, even if the Foxes were still a threat going forward. Maddison got them on the scoresheet in the 55th minute when he took advantage of an Aymeric Laporte slip near the halfway line before beating Dias too easily and exchanging passes with Kelechi Iheanacho and firing past Ederson.
After the nine-goal thriller, Pep Guardiola said that Ruben Dias didn’t want to risk a yellow card when he allowed James Maddison to beat him and get Leicester back into the game.
“They (Leicester) changed in the second half,” Guardiola said of way they played they didn’t play to press high. They were close. The game was so dangerous.
“We didn’t play bad[ly] in the second half. Ayme slipped and Ruben had one yellow to be suspended and was not aggressive enough. Then 4-1 and 4-2 and the mindset of the players changed. 4-3 the game was close to an equaliser.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admitted he took a fitness risk with Romelu Lukaku after the striker’s game-changing impact at Aston Villa.
The forward came off the bench at the break with the score locked at 1-1 to inspire the visitors to a 3-1 win on Sunday.
His first Premier League goal since September’s brace against Villa put Chelsea ahead and he then won an added-time penalty for Jorginho to score.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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