EPL: Man City Overcome Fatigue, Beats Sheffield United 2-0
Manchester City shrugged off a tight turnaround from defeat at Wolves to beat Sheffield United 2 – 0 on Sunday thanks to second half strikes from Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne .
City boss Pep Guardiola had lambasted the scheduling that saw the English champions kick -off less than 48 hours after playing the majority of Friday ’ s 3 -2 defeat at Molineux with 10 men .
Fatigue seemed to get the better of City in the first half as the Blades enjoyed the better of the chances and had a goal ruled out after a VAR review for offside
However , the greater individual quality at Guardiola ’ s disposal decided the game as De Bruyne teed up Aguero to smash into the roof of the net seven minutes after the break .
De Bruyne then rounded off another excellent display by scoring the second himself with a fine finish eight minutes from time to inflict United’ s first defeat away from home for nearly a year .
Despite claiming the Premier League and broadcasters “ don ’ t care” about player welfare given the schedule his side were handed over the festive period , Guardiola made just three changes to the side that started against Wolves .
City ’ s sluggish start should have punished by the visitors with Lys Mousset particularly wasteful .
The Frenchman spurned a glorious early chance to put United ahead when he get on the end of a floated Callum Robinson cross but headed wide .
The hosts were restricted to long -range efforts early on but De Bruyne , Rodrigo and Raheem Sterling were all unable to work goalkeeper Dean Henderson .
United thought they had claimed the lead on 29 minutes when Mousset raced onto a long ball from John Fleck and fired home.
City were furious because they thought Aguero had been fouled in the build -up but, while their complaints were brushed aside by referee Chris Kavanagh , VAR came to their aid by ruling Mousset was marginally offside .
It was a let- off for City but they were caught out by a long ball again as Oliver Norwood picked out Mousset from just outside his own box .
This time Mousset was onside but could only shoot into the side – netting .
The lack of a clinical finisher has been the only thing holding back a stunning return to the Premier League by Chris Wilder’ s men and they got a lesson in taking their chances from City ’ s all -time record scorer soon after the break .
De Bruyne picked out the Argentinian with a fine through ball and Aguero blasted high past Henderson from a narrow angle .
Riyad Mahrez then teed up De Bruyne to wrap up the points in the closing minutes as the Belgian finished powerfully after taking a nice touch inside the area.
Billy Sharp went close to grabbing a late consolation but his header rebounded off the post .
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