Double for Stones due to Man City crush Palace to head out second
18 January, 2021
Manchester City steamed into second place found in the Premier League with defender John Stones scoring a great unlikely double in a good 4-0 demolition of viewing Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Central defender Stones, closing in about 100 Premier League appearances for City, headed his primary league goal for the club just after a sublime cross by Kevin de Bruyne in the 26th minute.
Ilkay Gundogan curled in a delightful second 11 minutes after the interval before Stones was in the right location to fire home a good loose ball along with his left foot found in the 68th minute.
Raheem Sterling crowned a exceptional second-half City display with an unstoppable no cost kick in to the top part late on.
The earlier 0-0 attract between leaders Manchester United and champions Liverpool was a pre-match boost for Pep Guardiola's side plus they capitalised with a fifth successive league win to go within two points of United and also have a match at hand.
They have 35 points from 17 game titles and are before Leicester City on target difference with Liverpool fourth on 34 points.
Palace remain in 13th put on 23 from 19 complements.
After a poor commence to the campaign, City are beginning to look like the side that received consecutive titles before Liverpool knocked them emphatically off their perch last season.
Since defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on Nov. 21 City have gone nine league game titles unbeaten, earning seven and conceding twice.
While that they had been praised because of their defensive solidity, their fluent attacking design in addition has returned and the goals are beginning to flow.
Yet few could have bet about England defender Stones scoring twice, especially mainly because his only previous goal in the Premier League came for Everton in the 2014-15 season.
"Another clean sheet, another gain, it will keep the momentum going and two goals for myself which includes been a long time," Stones said. "I set pressure on myself to contribute with a few goals and sometimes it generally does not click, but today it did."
Stones praised the contribution of Kevin De Bruyne for his opener. The Belgian quickly controlled Sterling's diagonal pass, in that case with his second touch nonchalantly curled in a cross with the outside of his right feet onto the head of Stones.
"It was something we are able to only imagine," Stones said.
City were held at bay for all of those other half by a good stubborn Palace but they came alive following the break.
Gundogan showed great control to engineer some space before finding out about and curling the ball beyond keeper Vicente Guaita.
Stones then showed a good striker's instinct to dispatch a minimal shot past Guaita who also had done good to save lots of Ruben Dias's header.
There was nonetheless time for Sterling, whose scoring has dry out this year, to whip a superb free kick past the unfortunate Palace keeper who stood no chance with the goals.
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