{"id":5157,"date":"2024-04-26T03:35:18","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=5157"},"modified":"2024-04-26T03:35:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:35:18","slug":"epl-manchester-city-breeze-past-brighton-to-maintain-title-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=5157","title":{"rendered":"EPL: Manchester City breeze past Brighton to maintain title chase"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 48 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Manchester City moved smoothly to within one point of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a game in hand after a routine victory over Brighton at the Amex Stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What threatened to be a dangerous fixture was effectively over by the interval as City romped into a three-goal lead, moving ahead of Liverpool into second place and closing ominously on Arsenal.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kevin de Bruyne\u2019s first header in his 68 Premier League goals, a magnificent flying effort into the top corner, set City on their way before Phil Foden controversially doubled the advantage nine minutes layer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Referee Jarred Gillett awarded City a free-kick despite Foden only appearing to slip, Brighton seeing insult added to injury as his resulting set-piece strike took a deflection off Pascal Gross to wrong-foot keeper Jason Steele.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any hope of a Brighton comeback was extinguished after 34 minutes by a smooth Foden finish into the bottom corner, after the Seagulls had been caught in possession trying to play out from the back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Julian Alvarez Photo Courtesy: The Independent<\/p>\n

It was then simply a case of damage limitation for Roberto de Zerbi\u2019s side but City extended their lead just after the hour when the ball ran away from Steele as he went into a challenge with Kyle Walker and Julian Alvarez was on hand to pounce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin De Bruyne Photo Courtesy: All Football<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s recent decline continued as they were beaten by Everton in the Merseyside derby but Arsenal are not going away, with a win at Wolverhampton Wanderers followed by the 5-0 thrashing of Chelsea at Emirates Stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n

This did not have any impact on City, who have been through this tension before, as what was pitched as a tricky trip to the south coast turned into a formality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Phil Foden Photo Courtesy: Getty Images<\/p>\n

It had all the hallmarks of a City performance close to the Premier League finishing line \u2013 calm and ruthless with flashes of brilliance from those who can change any game for manager Pep Guardiola.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such was their comfort that Guardiola was even able to give De Bruyne and Foden a breather by substituting them before the end. <\/span><\/p>

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester City moved smoothly to within one point of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a game in hand after a routine victory over Brighton at the Amex Stadium. What threatened… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}