Manchester: Manchester City narrowed the gap to Premier League leaders Liverpool to six points with a comfortable 3-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion at Eastlands on Monday.
Pablo Zabaleta, Sergio Aguero and Martin Demichelis all scored for City as three different Argentinian players netted in a Premier League match for the first time.
West Brom showed brief moments of skills and had pulled the score back to 2-1 through Graham Dorrans, but ultimately City had too much quality.
City will close further on Liverpool should they win their game in hand, although they still need the Merseyside club to drop points in their remaining three games if they are to take the title themselves.
“Job done and we had some very good starts in the game, so we’ll take the positives out of it and take it with us into the next four games,” City captain Vincent Kompany told Sky Sports.
And the Belgian defender said City had it in them to repeat their form of two seasons ago, when they won the title in the closing minutes of the season.
“I’m as motivated as anyone,” he said. We can still remember what happened for us two years ago, so it’s kind of something where we take motivation out of it.”
Manuel Pellegrini, the City manager, responded to his side’s 2-2 draw with Sunderland with three changes as Gael Clichy, David Silva and Edin Dzeko came in for Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner and Alvaro Negredo respectively.
The hosts were also still without influential midfielder Yaya Toure, who is recovering from a groin injury, while West Brom recalled Craig Dawson and Billy Jones to their defence.
Pellegrini said he hoped an ankle injury sustained by midfielder Silva was not serious.
Silva, who returned to the side after he missed City’s 2-2 draw with Sunderland, will be assessed by the club’s medical staff in the next 24 hours.
“He has played the last three games with some pain in his ankle,” Pellegrini said. “We don’t know if that pain has increased or if it is another problem.
“We will see with the doctor what happened with David. Hopefully, it will be a short term injury. (AFP)
