Sterling hat-trick as five-star City thrash Brighton

Raheem Sterling is enjoying his best season in front of goal after his hat-trick inspired Manchester City to a 5-0 victory at Brighton.

The England forward got Pep Guardiola’s side up and running in the 21st minute, curling an effort beyond the dive of Mat Ryan before Gabriel Jesus added City’s second just before half-time (44).

Sterling then scored two headers – the second in bizarre fashion – either side of Bernardo Silva’s tap-in to take his personal goal tally to 27 for the season, his best campaign for goals in his career.

The 25-year-old has now scored six goals in his last six Premier League games as City, who continued to warm-up for their bid to add the Champions League and FA Cup to their Carabao Cup success earlier in the season, sealed their second 5-0 victory in the space of four days following their home victory over Newcastle.

Meanwhile, a disappointing night for Brighton, who can still mathematically be relegated, leaves them eight points above the relegation places with three games left to play this season.

How City eased to victory on the south coast

Manchester City got into top gear pretty quickly and they were ahead in the 21st minute through Sterling.

The England international picked out the bottom-right corner with a curled effort from the edge of the box after the ball was nodded into his path by Jesus following Riyad Mahrez’s clipped pass forward.

Jesus then saw an effort hit the crossbar after taking a deflection off Lewis Dunk, but it did not take long for the Brazilian to get on the scoresheet when the visitors doubled their advantage to 2-0 two minutes before the break.

Kevin De Bruyne’s outswinging corner was flicked on by Rodri at the near post, which created a simple tap-in for Jesus at the back post for his 20th goal of the season.

City picked up in the second half where they left off in the first and De Bruyne was inches away from making it three when his powerful free-kick rattled the post.

It was three moments later, though, as Sterling claimed his second of the night, heading in an inch-perfect cross from Mahrez from close range.

Brighton had no answer to City’s free-flowing football and it was 4-0 minutes later when Bernardo Silva tucked away a simple finish on the rebound after Ryan failed to hold on to the Portugal international’s initial effort.

Sterling rounded off City’s evening, completing his hat-trick with 10 minutes to go. He latched on to a long ball forward before an attempted defensive header from Adam Webster looped up and struck him on the head before rolling into the net, despite the efforts of Dan Burn on the goaline.

Opta stats – Man City hit five again

• Manchester City have won their last two Premier League games by 5+ goals, the first time this has happened in the Premier League since City themselves did so in three consecutive games in September 2017.
• Brighton suffered their worst home Premier League defeat since losing 5-0 to Bournemouth in April 2019. Brighton have lost all six of their Premier League matches against Man City, scoring just two goals and shipping 20.
• This was Graham Potter’s heaviest ever home defeat as a manager and his joint-heaviest overall, also losing 5-0 in May 2016 as Östersunds FK manager away at GIF Sundsvall in the Swedish Allsvenskan.
• Gabriel Jesus has scored in 32 Premier League games for Man City – they have won 31 of those games and drew the other. City have now won their last 29 Premier League games when Jesus has scored.

What’s next?

Manchester City are back in action on Wednesday when they host relegation-threatened Bournemouth at 6pm, live on Sky Sports Premier League, before Brighton travel to Southampton on Thursday at 8.15pm.

read the full story about Sterling hat-trick as five-star City thrash Brighton

#theheadlines #breakingnews #headlinenews #newstoday #latestnews #aajtak #ndtv #timesofindia #indiannews