carried by a great Erling Haaland, Manchester City slaps Wolverhampton, Leeds and Brentford leave each other good friends

With the reception of Wolverhampton this afternoon, Manchester City had to take the three points at all costs in their den of the Etihad Stadium and thus put pressure on Arsenal, leaders of the championship with a five-point lead before this weekend. , which hosts Manchester United (5:30 p.m., match to follow on our live commentary). Pep Guardiola still relied on Rico Lewis on the right, at the expense of Kyle Walker, while Erling Haaland lined up up front alongside Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez. On the side of Wolves, Matheus Cunha and Pablo Sarabia, both arrived this winter, were on the bench of Julen Lopetegui at kick-off.

As usual, the Skyblues put their foot on the ball very quickly and forced their afternoon opponent to retreat in the last third to neutralize the numerous attacks from the men in sky blue. Nevertheless, the Wolves, as Tottenham had done in the middle of the week, tried to make the locals doubt, without having the same success as the Spurs, finally overthrown in the second half (4-2). We had to wait until the end of the first act to see Haaland, discreet on the field, come and find the way to the net with his head on a one-touch cross from Kevin De Bruyne (1-0, 40th), author of his 11th assist in PL, his 5th for the Norwegian.

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In the second half, the number 9 of the Cityzens did not seem to want to stop and first transformed a penalty obtained by Gundogan shortly after the return from the locker room, taking José Sa on the wrong foot (2-0, 49th). The latter, author of a risky recovery for his defense, saw Riyad Mahrez emerge to offer his prolific teammate his fourth hat-trick in the Premier League, beating the record of a certain Ruud van Nistelrooy (number of matches for 4 hat-tricks) and going look for Alan Sherer’s (5 hat-tricks in one PL season). After this afternoon in Mancunian lands, EH9 largely dominates the ranking of scorers with their 25 achievements in the league. Despite a goal from Mahrez (67th) and a suspected penalty for the Wanderers (70th), both refused by the VAR, the score did not change (3-0). City are temporarily back two points behind the Gunners, with Wolves still level with relegation-first Bournemouth.

In the other meeting of this duplex of the championship across the Channel, Brentford, 9th in the standings before this trip to Ellan Road, was forced to share the points with Leeds. A duel however dominated by the men of Jesse Marsch, also close to the red zone (17 points, tied with the Cherries and Wolverhampton). Rodrigo Moreno was checked on a fine shot at the entrance to the area by his compatriot in the opposing team, David Raya, (39th), who won his second duel in the second half (57th). The Spanish goalkeeper also won against Wilfried Gnonto, author of a well-placed helmet shot (68th). A score of parity which allows the Bees to pass Liverpool and climb to 8th place, Leeds gives themselves a little air and takes a unit lead over the relegated teams.