Manchester City 5 - 0 Swansea City: City celebrate Premier League title success with crushing victory
Posted Monday, April 23, 2018 by PA
Manchester City celebrated their title success in style with a resounding 5-0 win over Swansea at the Etihad Stadium.
David Silva, Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Gabriel Jesus were all on target as City outclassed the Swans in their first match since being crowned Premier League champions.
It was a rampant display by Pep Guardiola’s side, who showed the pursuit of Premier League records for most wins, goals and points could well sustain them in the closing weeks of the campaign.
Their tallies now stand at 29, 98 and 90 respectively. The records, all held by Chelsea, stand at 30, 103 and 95.
Swansea welcomed the champions to the field with a guard of honour on the halfway line – and they remained similarly accommodating for much of the game. Their need for points to be sure of avoiding relegation had to be put on hold.
The hosts were allowed to ease into their stride and it took them just 12 minutes to open the scoring.
De Bruyne played Sterling behind the Swans defence and his low cross was flicked up and rifled into the bottom corner of the net by David Silva.
David Silva was involved again as City doubled their lead five minutes later, the Spaniard releasing Fabian Delph with a quick one-two, allowing the left-back to whip in another low ball. Sterling made no mistake from close range.
City continued to carve open the visitors with ease and Swansea had Lukasz Fabianski to thank for keeping the score down.
The Swans keeper plucked a curling effort from Bernardo Silva from the air and kept out further shots in quick succession from De Bruyne and Sterling. The Pole also denied Jesus while Sterling had a penalty appeal turned down following a challenge by Alfie Mawson.
Swansea struggled to get out of their own half but Martin Olsson was booked for diving on a rare attack and Mawson also shot straight at Ederson from distance.
City continued in the same dominant fashion after the break with De Bruyne lashing a shot into the side-netting.
That provided Swansea with a forewarning of what was to come with the Belgian scoring City’s third with a screaming long-range shot after 54 minutes.
The fourth was not long in coming as Sterling this time was awarded a penalty after a sliding challenge from Ki Sung-yueng. Fabianksi managed to tip Gabriel Jesus’ spot-kick onto the post but Bernardo Silva followed up to score on the rebound.
Swansea were lucky not to concede again moments later as Mawson diverted a David Silva corner onto his own woodwork.
City’s dominance allowed Pep Guardiola to give some game time to veteran Yaya Toure, teenager Phil Foden and fit-again Benjamin Mendy, who made his first appearance since suffering knee ligament damage in September.
Foden underlined his potential with a fine cross for Jesus but the Brazilian headed straight at Fabianski.
Jesus was not to be completely denied, however, heading home City’s fifth from a Toure pass late on.
Thousands of City’s jubilant fans invaded the pitch to celebrate after the final whistle.
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