Johnny On The Spot: #JOB DONE. Manchester City’s second of 13 matches inside a berserking 44 days has ended with a bizarrely concluded 7th consecutive Premier League victory. Crucial mid-season momentum has been maintained much to the delight of City’s boisterously loud travelling support despite a wholly unnecessary nervy finale…
Javi Gracia’s Watford, rugged up top and hard working shadow chasers at the back with mainly 11 men behind the ball had won only 2 of their last 10 matches going into this game and were facing league leaders who had beaten them on 8 successive occasions. Make that 9. Ludicrously, “just.” City’s controlled passing was superb throughout with Watford reduced to sporadic if spirited sorties forward. When they did enter the centurions danger zone, Ederson in nets was imperious until a final few daft minutes that saw Watford pull one back and the home crowd roused into pantomime season mode. Crazily, two minutes after Vincent Kompany succumbed to injury, The Blues repelled a grandstand finish with 3 central defenders. At the other end, Gracia will be indebted to Ben Foster for having stopped a rout that would have rendered the closing minutes irrelevant…The aspect that captured my attention tonight was how well drilled and combative Pep Guardiola’s men looked despite the stretched squad carrying so many injuries and sporting a completely changed back four from the wrestling bout with Bournemouth. As in that game, City showed a more robust approach defensively when it was called for tonight. JB’s and Gary Lineker’s Man of The Match is Riyad Mahrez who ran the Hornets defence ragged…Chelsea, YOU are next.
Vicarage Road Stadium
FA Premier League
12/04/2018 8:00 pm
Attendance: 20,389
Referee: Paul Tierney of Lancashire
| Watford | Manchester City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doucouré (85') | Sané (40'), Mahrez (51') | ||||||
| 26 Ben Foster | 31 Ederson | ||||||
| 21 Kiko Femenía | 2 Kyle Walker | ||||||
| 27 Christian Kabasele | 5 John Stones | ||||||
| 15 Craig Cathcart | 4 Vincent Kompany | Otamendi 83' | |||||
| 25 Jose Holebas | 18 Fabian Delph | ||||||
| 14 Nathaniel Chalobah | Deulofeu 63' | 20 Bernardo Silva | |||||
| 10 Isaac Success | Gray 75' | 25 Fernandinho | |||||
| 19 Will Hughes | Quina 52' | 21 David Silva | Gündogan 73' | ||||
| 16 Abdoulaye Doucouré | 26 Riyad Mahrez | ||||||
| 37 Roberto Pereyra | 33 Gabriel Jesus | Laporte 89' | |||||
| 9 Troy Deeney | 19 Leroy Sané | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 1 Heurelho Gomes | 3 Danilo | ||||||
| 6 Adrian Mariappa | 7 Raheem Sterling | ||||||
| 7 Gerard Deulofeu | 8 Ilkay Gündogan | ||||||
| 11 Adam Masina | 14 Aymeric Laporte | ||||||
| 18 Andre Gray | 30 Nicolas Otamendi | ||||||
| 20 Quina | 47 Philip Foden | ||||||
| 24 Ben Wilmot | 49 Aro Muric | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 15 |
| 7 | On Target | 7 |
| 3 | Corners | 11 |
| 4 | Fouls | 8 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 28 | % | 72 |