Ralf Rangnick’s reign at Manchester United got off to a winning start thanks to a stunning strike from the much-maligned Fred to beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday.
A bright start from the Red Devils fizzled out without reward and the German looked like he might have to settle for a disappointing draw in his first match since taking charge until the end of the season.
But Fred, who had been a target for much of the criticism towards the end of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s time as manager, produced a moment of magic with a curling effort on his weaker right foot 13 minutes from time to snatch a crucial victory.
United move back to within three points of the top four and up to sixth in the Premier League table.
There were no immediate changes from Rangnick in the line-up as he named an unchanged side from Thursday’s 3-2 win over Arsenal.
But there was an instant change in approach as United pressed Palace into coughing up possession deep inside their own half twice in the first five minutes.
However, there was a lack of precision to match United’s intensity.
Cristiano Ronaldo took his tally of goals for club and country to 801 with a double in midweek, but his long wait to net from a free-kick goes on as his effort from the edge of the box did not dip in time.
Ronaldo also had a shot blocked by Marc Guehi after deciding against hitting Bruno Fernandes’ dinked pass first time.
United’s best chance of the first 45 minutes fell to Fred, but his goalbound effort was bravely diverted behind by James Tomkins.
Fernandes finally tested Vicente Guaita from Ronaldo’s knockdown before Diogo Dalot fired wastefully over on his weaker left foot with the last kick of the first half.
However, United’s early enthusiasm to impress their new boss drained away as the second half performance more closely resembled the final days of Solskjaer’s reign.
Palace should have gone in front 15 minutes from time when Jordan Ayew somehow turned Tomkins’ header back across goal and beyond the reach of Guehi at the back post.
Rangnick comes with a reputation of putting his faith in young players and showed that as he sacrificed Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford for Mason Greenwood and Anthony Elanga in search of a winner.
Greenwood made a telling contribution as it was from his layoff that Fred looped the ball over Guaita.
After a promising start to Patrick Vieira’s time at Palace, the Eagles have now failed to win in their past four and the Frenchman’s caution helped United towards a first clean sheet at Old Trafford in 16 games.
Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze were only introduced off the bench with six minutes remaining, but had little time to make an impact as a nervy United held out.
The Brit wasted no time invoking his rematch clause, with the fight estimated to take place next spring.
Following his epic win over Deontay Wilder in October, Fury, who appeared to be facing Dillian Whyte next, now has Usyk in his sights with the intention to become the undisputed heavyweight chanmpion.
Should a blockbuster fight between Usyk and Fury take place, the winner would defend all the heavyweight titles against Joshua.
Usyk’s promoter has also claimed his man would ‘be happy’ to fight Fury if Joshua agreed, while Hearn has admitted that could happen to Boxing King Media – but only for a significant fee.
TORONTO – The reeling Toronto Raptors could be getting some much-needed help.
Gary Trent Jr., who’s missed two games with a deep bruise in his right calf, practised on Wednesday and could return to the lineup when the Raptors host the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.
The bad news however is that OG Anunoby — whose excellent play was abruptly halted by a hip injury that has seen him sit out seven straight games — did not participate in practice, nor did Khem Birch (knee swelling).
“OG is not ready for tomorrow,” coach Nick Nurse said in delivering the bleak news.
The Raptors have been hit hard by injuries already this young NBA season, missing Pascal Siakam for the first 10 games, and now Anunoby and Birch.
The pair of big men are sorely missed as Toronto (9-13) has tumbled down the standings to 12th in the Eastern Conference. They’ve won just three of their last 13 games, and are an uncharacteristically terrible 2-8 at home this season.
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Nurse has no explanation for why his team has fared better on the road.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We have in general some really good road players. Kyle (Lowry) was a great road player. We’ve had a real band-together mentality on the road, a real grittiness on the road. I guess we have this year too more times than we have at home, that’s for sure.”
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“I think it can be,” Nurse said. “Once the ball goes up it should seemingly be harder with the crowd and all that stuff. Things leading up to the game may be more difficult at home.”
Missing Anunoby, Birch and Trent, the Raptors had trouble generating any offence in an ugly 98-91 loss to Memphis on Tuesday night that saw huge pockets of empty seats in Scotiabank Arena before the final buzzer sounded.
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Always excellent on the defensive end, Anunoby had developed into a key cog in Toronto’s offence this season. He led the team in scoring with 20.1 points before he injured his hip in practice on Nov. 17, a day after scoring 29 points against Portland.
Making matter worse, the hip pointer — pain and/or bruising over the top or front of the hip bone usually caused by a direct blow — appears more serious than perhaps originally thought. He “hit a wall” in his recovery, Nurse said earlier this week, and the hip isn’t healing as well as the team had hoped.
Fred VanVleet, who had 15 points and nine rebounds in Tuesday’s loss, was asked how tough it is to generate offence with key players missing.
“I’d love to have an answer for you,” VanVleet said. “I would say it’s a long season. It’s five-, six-month season, playoffs is even longer. So you just worry about ‘can you create the shot?’
“There’s going to be nights when they go in, there’s going to be nights where we score 140 points. There’s going to be nights when you score 80, or 39 in a half. It’s going to happen.”
VanVleet said the sting of losing at home wasn’t significantly sharper than a loss on the road.
“It’s just disappointing to lose, it doesn’t really have anything to do with playing at home to be honest with you. We could play on Pluto for all I care, it’s just disappointing to lose any time,” he said. “We expect to win around here, we have high standards and that’s not going to change.”
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The Raptors, who rank 13th in the league in offensive efficiency and a lowly 24th in defensive efficiency, have to hope they can turn things around at home, since 10 of their 13 games in December are at Scotiabank Arena.
On the plus side, the season is still young, and the Raptors are only two-and-a-half games out of the play-in tournament.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2021.
LOS ANGELES — LeBron James said his brief stint in the NBA’s health and safety protocols left him feeling “confused,” “frustrated” and “angry” after his first game back in the Lakers’ 119-115 loss to the LA Clippers on Friday night.
James missed the Lakers’ game against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday after returning a positive test for COVID-19 on Tuesday morning that required him to isolate from his team and fly back to L.A. solo on a plane chartered by the team.
“I knew I was going to get cleared because I never, ever felt sick at all,” James said after finishing with 23 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two steals against the Clippers. “I just thought it was just handled very poorly.”
James said he initially tested negative on Tuesday and then tested positive in a follow-up test. The league reintroduced more rigorous testing to its teams following Thanksgiving, hoping to catch any cases that could have arisen from players expanding their circles around family and friends for the holiday.
“Usually when you have a positive test, they’ll test you right away to make sure,” James said. “There was not a follow-up test after my positive test. It was straight to isolation and you’ve been put into protocol. That’s the part that kind of angered me. I had to figure out a way to get home from Sacramento by myself. They wouldn’t allow anyone to travel with me, no security, no anything, when I traveled back from Sacramento.
“And then I had to put my kids in isolation for the time being, the people in my household in isolation for the time being, so it was just a big-time inconvenience. That was the anger part.”
James was cleared to return to the lineup on Thursday afternoon after returning a second negative PCR test within a 24-hour window. James returned eight negative tests in total from the time he returned to L.A. until he was cleared on Thursday, sources told ESPN.
Much like how the league did not require its players to receive the COVID-19 vaccine but enforced stricter testing and social-distancing rules for those who were unvaccinated compared with those who were, the NBA will be rolling out similar enforcement later this month when it comes to COVID-19 booster shots, The Athletic reported on Friday.
James gave a roundabout answer when he was asked if he had received a booster shot and if the process he went through over the past several days affected his thinking on getting the booster shot if he hadn’t yet.
“No, this process … we’ve all been doing exactly what the protocols have told us to do and taking the tests and things of that nature,” he said. “It’s unfortunate when you get a false positive and you get put right into isolation. That’s just the unfortunate part. But we’ll see what happens.”
Meanwhile, the Lakers saw their meager two-game winning streak snapped against a Clippers team that came into the night having lost six of its previous eight games.
James, who said he didn’t pick up a basketball from the time the Lakers’ game against the Detroit Pistons ended on Sunday until shootaround on Friday, admitted his rhythm has been affected by the stop-and-go nature of his season. He played in the Lakers’ first three games, then missed two games because of an ankle injury. Then he played in the Lakers’ next three games after that, then missed the next eight games because of an abdominal strain. Then he played two games before missing a game because of the first suspension of his 19-year career. Then he played three games before he missed the Kings game.
“Going into Sacramento, I was getting into the rhythm — a really, really good rhythm — like offensively, defensively,” James said. “It’s just been very frustrating either dealing with the groin or the abdomen, and then having to deal with the false positive that knocked me out a game, then knocked me off the floor and not being able to keep my rhythm. It’s just … it’s been a very challenging year to start a fourth of the season for myself. But, only good things ahead.”
Friday’s loss dropped the Lakers to 12-12, seventh in the Western Conference, with their next game coming Tuesday at home against a Boston Celtics team that beat L.A. soundly at TD Garden on Nov. 19.
“It’s just tough when you’re in and out of the lineup, especially when you, I guess, don’t really have a reason to be out,” Anthony Davis said, looking back at the James saga. “We were playing well. So it’s just frustrating a little bit, but no one is feeling sorry for us. We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves. We got to go out there and play basketball games with whoever is available.”
Teofimo Lopez has been told he’s “lucky not to be dead” by a doctor after his medical reports revealed he fought George Kambosos Jr with extensive air in his chest. The Brooklyn star lost his undisputed lightweight world titles last Saturday night in a rollercoaster clash with George Kambosos Jr at Madison Square Garden after several cancellations due to COVID-19.
After Matchroom Boxing won the purse bids to stage the bout, Eddie Hearn was lucky enough to stage one of the best fights of 2021.
Lopez, who went into the fight as the heavy favourite, was surprisingly dropped in the first round before he fought back and floored the Aussie in the 10th.
But Kambosos battled back to win the last two rounds and edge a narrow split decision victory on the scorecards.
Yet it has now been revealed following Lopez’s post-fight medical examinations that ‘The Takeover’ should not have been deemed fit to fight.
Per ESPN, Lopez was diagnosed with “pneumomediastinum” with “extensive air in the retropharyngeal space” by emergency room doctors at Bellevue Hospital after the fight.
“He’s lucky he’s not dead,” said Dr. Peter Constantino, executive director of the New York Head and Neck Institute. “I mean, really lucky.”
Dr Peter Constantino, executive director of the New York Head and Neck Institute, reluctantly admitted Lopez was lucky not to be dead.
“He’s lucky he’s not dead,” he said. “I mean, really lucky.”
He was scrutinised for showing a lack of sportsmanship and interrupting the Australian’s post-fight interview with Chris Mannix on DAZN.
But as he left the ring and headed back to his dressing room, it became clear Lopez was not his usual self.
The doctors who later saw Lopez later discovered a small tear in his esophagus.
That is likely to have been the cause of the loose air in his chest during the bout.
After contracting COVID-19 back in June, the American began to experience a shortening of breath.
Lopez did not declare that during his pre-fight medical examination as he believed it was due to his asthma.
“I thought it was just my asthma,” he said. “I fought through asthma before. If I told everybody, they would’ve canceled the fight.
“But I chose not to, because of the amount of pressure I was under. I didn’t want to hear people say, ‘Oh, another postponement.'”
The 24-year-old, who will not get his shot in a rematch, is now expected to move up to super-lightweight after struggling to make weight.
When rehydrating, Lopez suffered a swollen throat and neck and struggled with breathing but once again, he believed that was due to his asthma.
NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods joined the broadcast booth for his Hero World Challenge, and what he saw from Collin Morikawa must have looked familiar.
Morikawa carved up Albany Golf Club to build a five-shot lead Saturday over Brooks Koepka, and too many pursuers faded from contention with a series of mistakes that only made another victory look inevitable for Morikawa.
With an 8-under 64 — the first bogey-free round of the week — Morikawa took a big step toward reaching No. 1 in the world.
“You love being in these spots and you don’t get them every week,” Morikawa said. “You wish you did. But when you do, you want to take advantage of them. So hopefully, we can take advantage tomorrow.”
Morikawa chipped in for eagle on the par-5 third hole. His 10-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole gave him the lead. And then he shifted into another gear with a series of smart shots he executed flawlessly, a few par putts to keep momentum and par save from the bunker on the final hole to keep his distance.
Koepka fell back with a soft chip that didn’t get up the hill on the par-3 eighth and led to double bogey. He was bogey-free the rest of the way for a 69 that at least got him into the final group.
“Just keep doing what I’m doing, play good and hope for the best,” Koepka said.
Morikawa would stay at the top of the ranking with a victory, but only for only a week based on the two-year rolling formula. Even so, only 24 other players have reached No. 1 since the ranking began in 1986.
Morikawa was at 18-under 198 as he tries to win his second straight start. He is coming off a Sunday rally in Dubai to win the DP World Tour Championship, making him the first American to be the No. 1 player on the European Tour.
“It’s not like I’m playing crazy or I’m playing stupid,” he said. “I’m playing to my strengths and that’s what I have to stick with. I’m going to keep doing what I do and if I don’t feel comfortable on a tee shot, maybe play back, but overall I feel really good about the game so far.”
Not long after Morikawa finished the opening hole in the final group, a dozen or so spectators lingered behind and headed to the back of Albany’s practice range to watch someone who is not part of the 20-man field: Woods.
He spent another day hitting balls, this time with a driver, fueling speculation that 10 months after his car crash that badly damaged his right leg, he might tee it up in two weeks at the PNC Championship with 12-year-old son Charlie.
Tournament organizers are holding a spot in the field for him.
Woods wasn’t quite ready to commit to that, and a return to the PGA Tour remained just as uncertain as when he spoke to the media earlier in the week.
“I can hit it,” he said in the NBC booth during the tournament. “It just doesn’t go very far.” Leaning on another joke, he said he’s not hitting it so short that “I can hear it land.”
But he said he has a lot of work to do on his health, and playing against the best in golf remained a long way off.
Bryson DeChambeau started the third round with a one-shot lead and that was gone quickly. He hit a spectator at the back of the green, a good break for him when it caromed back and rolled off a slope onto the putting surface about 15 feet. And then he three-putted for bogey.
He shot 73 and now is eight shots behind.
Sam Burns made a big run with an eagle on the par-5 11th followed by four straight birdies to get within two shots of Morikawa. But he took bogey on the par-3 17th and finished his round with a double bogey for a 68 that left him six behind.
Daniel Berger recovered from a lost ball and double bogey on the par-5 third hole by making two eagles, only to drop two shots on the last three holes, including a tee shot in the water hazard on the 18th. He had a 69, also six behind.
They were joined in a tie for third with Viktor Hovland and Patrick Reed, who each had 67, and Tony Finau, who bogeyed two of his last three holes for a 70.
Rory McIlroy, who began the holiday event with a share of the lead, never had a chance to get into contention after taking a quadruple-bogey 9 on the 11th hole. He had a 75.
The only other round over par belonged to Jordan Spieth, playing for the first time since becoming a father. His ball moved on the 18th green, and he forgot to replace it, leading to a two-shot penalty and a 75.
Daniil Medvedev can send Russia into the Davis Cup final for the first time since 2007 if he wins his singles rubber later on Saturday after Andrey Rublev thrashed Germany’s Dominik Koepfer 6-4, 6-0.
Medvedev, the world number two, faces 51st ranked Jan-Lennard Struff. Germany’s number one Alexander Zverev opted to miss the finals.
The Russians would probably rather not let it go down to the doubles as German duo Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz are unbeaten through the tournament.
Rublev ruthlessly exposed the gap between himself, ranked fifth in the world, and the 54th-ranked Koepfer.
Rublev delivered nine aces, won 54 points — opposed to 32 for his opponent — and took all four break points.
“I was focused from the beginning to the end,” said 24-year-old Rublev.
The winners will face two-time champions Croatia in Sunday’s final.
The organisers were denied the mouthwatering prospect of Medvedev potentially facing world number one Novak Djokovic as the Croats ousted Serbia 2-1 on Friday.
The 16 members of Yorkshire’s coaching and backroom staff who were sacked this week are expected to seek legal advice on Monday, as a club that has long specialised in internal strife braces itself for the deepest crisis in its history.
Even allowing for the widespread acceptance that change at Yorkshire was necessary in the wake of Azeem Rafiq‘s allegations of institutional racism, the purge of the club’s coaching and medical staff has left many in the county in a state of shock. Where there was briefly talk of a brave new world of inclusivity and enlightenment, there is now more division, hurt and punishment. Legal action, or potential pay-offs running into millions of pounds, and player departures in protest are all possible outcomes as the affair spirals out of control.
The charge levelled against many of the 16 sacked staff members is that they jointly wrote a letter to the Yorkshire board on October 14. In that letter, seen by ESPNcricinfo, they deplored the reputational damage being done to the club, questioned why Rafiq’s claims had not been rebutted, and further accused Rafiq of being “on a one-man mission to bring down the club and, with it, people of genuine integrity”. They spoke of the “grossly unfair” criticism of the former chief executive, Mark Arthur, and director of cricket, Martyn Moxon, and said that the allegations were “having a profound effect on us all, physically, emotionally and psychologically”.
The letter makes no concessions as to Yorkshire’s treatment of Rafiq, who told ESPNcricinfo last year that he had been driven “to the brink of suicide” during his time at the club; in fact, it doubles down on his reputation as a troublemaker (“problematic in the dressing room and a complete liability off the field”), and seeks to defend the name of Yorkshire cricket and the “White Rose” culture that Rafiq called into question during his emotional testimony to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee last month.
For the likes of Lord Kamlesh Patel, the county’s new chairman, and the ECB – for whom the Yorkshire crisis is a direct threat to their attempts to promote diversity and to ensure that the game is universally recognised as offering fair opportunities for all – this private appeal to the board appears now to have been regarded as evidence of an unwillingness to change. However, in the event of legal action, it may fall well short of constituting gross misconduct.
The best-known names on the redundancy roll are the club’s coach, Andrew Gale, and the director of cricket, Moxon, who has been a popular character in Yorkshire cricket for most of the past 40 years, and who was on sick leave before his sacking. Moxon has been deeply affected by general allegations of racism, and there is general fury within Yorkshire cricket circles that despite his illness, he was labelled “a coward” by Julian Knight, chair of the DCMS committee, for not appearing before their investigation last month.
Among the other casualties are Paul Grayson, the batting coach who returned to the club less than three years ago, when Rafiq had already left, and so unless other evidence comes to light he can hardly be implicated in his allegations; and Dr Nigel Mayers, the club’s medical officer, who has served the club for most of the century and who has committed much of his life to working in Kirkstall, a diverse Leeds ward. Wayne Morton, head of sports science and medicine, has gone, too – a man who once had to be pulled out of the crowd at Scarborough for his own safety after confronting a group of spectators who had been throwing bananas at the black Gloucestershire fast bowler, David ‘Syd’ Lawrence.
By midweek, an emergency director of cricket is expected to have been appointed – there is even talk of Darren Gough, who has minimal coaching experience and who has spent the past decade as a sports radio host – supported by a skeleton staff which is being assembled with the help of the ECB.
Rafiq’s claims of racial mistreatment have taken a wrecking ball to Yorkshire cricket, with sponsors abandoning the club in the wake of the allegations and the ECB suspending the county from hosting major matches. Many within the club suspect that the imposition of an ECB-approved emergency staff could be a means of ensuring an early return of international cricket to Headingley.
Either way, the dismissal of individuals with not far short of 300 years’ service to Yorkshire, and the county’s apparent scapegoating as English cricket’s bad apple, would appear to draw attention away from the sport’s long-term failures in the development of minority-ethnic cricketers, a widespread and complex issue. But in a febrile social media world, with a culture war at its height, general postures are adopted in an instant with little care for specific facts.
Yorkshire’s playing staff have held an emergency meeting with Lord Patel, but his conciliatory remarks upon taking up the role, including assurances that the club was seeking a quick return to stability and normality, now seem very much at odds with the mass dismissals. Players’ talk of finding new counties are often not followed up – and many counties’ budgets are already spent – but the mood is an unhappy one.
Lord Patel is not the only person in this drama to now be accused of duplicitous behaviour. The former chairman of Yorkshire and the ECB, Colin Graves, whose family trust is owed nearly £20 million by Yorkshire, has an investment to protect. And Roger Hutton, the former president, and the one person who gave evidence on behalf of Yorkshire to the DCMS committee, is also facing renewed accusations that he mishandled an investigation that should have been settled in weeks, but has now stretched for well over a year. Hutton, for his part, told the DCMS hearing that he felt the club’s culture had been “stuck in the past”, and that his resignation back in August, in the wake of the club’s “profound apologies” to Rafiq, would not have helped to bring about change.
Many people have bought into the view that Yorkshire’s systems were institutionally racist, more by obstinate refusal to change than design, and that this had contributed to the failure to bring through Muslim cricketers from Yorkshire’s inner cities. Many were appalled by the details of Rafiq’s relationship with Gary Ballance, which had racial overtones at its heart. Many, too, watched Rafiq’s evidence to the DCMS committee and, even those who argued that he was a far from perfect individual, felt the need for change, to rid Yorkshire of this stain once and for all.
But many of those same people had signed up for a vision of a better way forward, of a vision of fairness for all, not a full-scale coup d’etat. To express deep misgivings is uncomfortable, and risks echoing the views of the far-right, who are now sniffing round this story with a growing realization that here is a chance to sow division and disunity. Rifts could now deepen. That, in itself, is a tragedy.
Lord Patel, whose family relocated to Bradford in the early 60s when he was an infant, has an impressive CV, but his approach – endorsed how much by the ECB? – is now giving grave cause for concern. Uncompromising, implacable, adamant that only his way is the right one, and supremely confident in his own moral compass, he has revealed many of the Yorkshire attributes that over generations have caused the county so much pain.
David Hopps writes on county cricket for ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps
The stage is set for a mega pole position shootout this evening’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying as little separated Formula 1 title contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the end of FP3 ahead of qualifying.
In the wake of Friday practice when Hamilton dominated proceedings, Red Bull unearthed handy pace overnight which allowed Verstappen to take top spot at the end of FP3 with Sergio Perez third-fastest albeit half a second down on his teammate’s best effort.
Sandwiched between the Blues on the timing screens was Hamilton, a couple of tenths shy of title rival Verstappen, but there appears to be more in that Mercedes.
But it was not a clear cut session for the World Champion who was caught dawdling on the racing line baulking the AlphaTauri of Pierre Galsy and then Nikita Mazepin’s Haas, both on hotlaps.
hamilton was summoned to the FIA race stewards to answer for his actions.
Nevertheless, the stage for a humdinger qualifying this evening at Jeddah Corniche Circuit between the Lewis and Max with cars that appear to be on par at this formidable venue.
Odds are one of them will be on pole.
Perez and Bottas in particular have a lot to do to be close to their teammates
Unexpected stars of the show thus far have been the AlphaTauri pair, with Yuki Tsunoda astounding with the fourth-best time, half a tenth up on teammate Pierre Gasly making it four Honda-powered cars in the top five.
Need in the battle for the title, Valtteri Bottas has work to do to find the second or so he is lacking relative to the top time. Sixth is not good for the Mercedes cause.
Next up in seventh and eighth were the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc, who recovered from Saturday’s crash, and Carlos Sainz a few hundredths shy of the sister car.
The best their third-place F1 constructors’ championship rivals McLaren could do was tenth for Lando Norris albeit just over a tenth down on Leclerc with Daniel Ricciardo lacking half a second, down in 14th.
Esteban Ocon was ninth fastest, a quarter seconds up on fellow Alpine driver Fernando Alonso in 11th. That midfield is very tight with half a second between half a dozen cars.
In closing, it can be said that FP3 and qualifying will be different scenarios in terms of track temperature and atmospheric conditions.
Nevertheless expect Max and Lewis to battle it out for that important top spot start, with the front row likely to be theirs to share, however, anything can happen at this all-new, untested venue.
Bernardo Silva backed up Pep Guardiola’s claim he is the best player in the Premier League right now by scoring twice as Manchester City cruised to the top of the Premier League with a 3-1 win at Watford.
Silva’s sumptuous cushioned volley against Aston Villa in midweek earned Guardiola’s glowing praise and he produced two more fine finishes to take his tally to seven goals in his last 12 Premier League games.
“Thanks to Bernardo because he made me not wrong,” said City boss Guardiola. “I know he’s so humble, there are top players in the Premier League and he is doing so well.”
In stark contrast to Manchester United’s 4-1 humbling at Vicarage Road a fortnight ago that ended Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign, City virtually killed the match as a contest within four minutes.
Manchester City’s Spanish manager Pep Guardiola (C) reacts as Manchester City’s German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan (L) and Manchester City’s Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson leave the pitch after the English Premier League football match between Watford and Manchester City at Vicarage Road Stadium in Watford on December 4, 2021. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP)
Phil Foden picked out Raheem Sterling at the back post for the simplest of headers to open the scoring.
Silva slotted home from a narrow-angle to double the visitors’ lead and produced a stunning strike into the top corner after the break.
“The game could have been over after 15 minutes,” added Guardiola, whose side took advantage of Chelsea’s 3-2 defeat at West Ham to move one point clear of Liverpool at the top of the table.
“The most important thing is that we won. We played in a consistent way, controlled, we played a good game again.”
Guardiola also has a clean bill of health for his squad heading into the hectic festive period as Foden and record signing Jack Grealish returned to the starting line-up, while Kevin De Bruyne made his comeback from coronavirus as a second-half substitute.
Foden made an immediate impact by picking out Sterling, who was given an incredible amount of space to head in his 99th Premier League goal.
A slick City move soon doubled their lead as Silva fed Ilkay Gundogan and when the German’s effort was saved by Daniel Bachmann, the Portuguese international followed up to slot in at the near post.
Silva made clear his desire to leave City in the summer, but the 27-year-old is back to playing some of the best football of his career.
Mohamed Salah’s free-scoring form for Liverpool may deny him individual awards come to the end of the season, but Silva is also putting together his best goalscoring campaign in the Premier League.
His second of the game was a thing of beauty as he turned onto Kyle Walker’s pass and curled the ball high into Bachmann’s right-hand corner.
City has now won seven consecutive games with their form looking ominously like the beginning of a similar run to the 21-game winning streak that started last December and saw their streak towards the title.
But Silva warned they face a tougher challenge this season from Liverpool and Chelsea.
“Liverpool and Chelsea are doing an amazing season, it is going to be tough for us and them to compete with each other,” said Silva. “We know the level is very high, we know how hard it is to win this most competitive league in the world.”
City was denied a clean sheet to round off a fine performance when Cucho Hernandez slotted home at the second attempt after his initial effort came back off the post 16 minutes from time.
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