EPL: City thrash Watford; Maddison fires Leicester to win over Spurs

Bernardo Silva gets hat-trick as Manchester City thrash Watford 8-0 

A Bernardo Silva hat-trick helped Manchester City to secure the joint second-biggest Premier League victory in history with an 8-0 thrashing of a bewildered Watford on Saturday.

The champions, responding to their first league defeat since January at Norwich City last weekend, blew Watford away by becoming the first side to score five goals in the first 18 minutes of a Premier League game.

David Silva got City up and running after finishing off a delightful pass from Kevin De Bruyne in the first minute, before Sergio Aguero’s 100th Premier League goal at the Etihad Stadium doubled the hosts’ advantage from the penalty spot.

Riyad Mahrez curled a brilliant free kick into the net in the 12th minute, with a Bernardo Silva header and a Nicolas Otamendi tap-in completing the 18-minute rout.

Watford brought on an extra defender just after the half-hour mark to try to stem the tide, seeing themselves through to halftime without further damage, before Bernardo Silva added a sixth goal three minutes into the second period.

Bernardo Silva completed his first top-flight hat-trick with a close-range finish to make it seven, before De Bruyne hammered home a superb eighth as City came up one short of Manchester United’s record 9-0 victory over Ipswich Town in 1995.

“We can lose the games [Norwich match] but the important thing is the approach and how we react,” City manager Pep Guardiola said.

“What I like the most is normally when it’s 5-0 at halftime the second half is not serious, it’s boring, but we did the opposite and we were more aggressive and made a very good second half.”

With Liverpool top of the standings by five points coming into the weekend — the biggest lead after five games at this stage in Premier League history — City were under pressure to close the gap ahead of their title rivals’ Sunday trip to Chelsea.

Fifty-two seconds in and De Bruyne had unlocked Watford with a fantastic pass for David Silva to score and six minutes later, after Mahrez had been fouled in the penalty area, Aguero scored and the match was effectively over as a contest.

Watford looked stunned as the goals rained in but it could have been much worse, with City firing a total of 28 shots — 14 in each half — at Watford keeper Ben Foster’s goal.

Aguero had six shots alone in the 90 minutes but it was Bernardo Silva who took home the match ball for the first time in his career.

City were five minutes away from matching United’s record after De Bruyne’s pick of the bunch, but he and Mahrez missed good late chances to complete a perfect day.

“It’s probably a bit of shock, embarrassment,” Watford’s Foster said. “I think we let ourselves down today and the fans a bit.

Maddison fires Leicester to win over Spurs amid VAR drama

James Maddison scored a brilliant winner to help Leicester City come from behind and beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the Premier League in a match dominated by VAR drama.

The Video Assistant Referee was heavily involved early on after Wilfred Ndidi had bundled the ball into the net, only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.

There was no question over the opening goal in the 29th minute as Harry Kane finished superbly past Kasper Schmeichel to give Spurs the lead.

Serge Aurier thought he had doubled the visitors’ advantage only for VAR to intervene again, much to the home fans’ delight, with Son Heung-min adjudged offside in the build- up.

That proved crucial as Ricardo Pereira levelled things up in the 69th minute from 12 yards, swinging the momentum in the home side’s favour.

Maddison completed the turnaround with a superb strike from 25 yards five minutes from time, drilling the ball past the despairing dive of Spurs goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga to move Leicester up to provisional second in the table.

“If we score the second the game is over,” Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino said. “It gives belief to a team that could have been dead."

“It is true to concede two goals every game makes it difficult to win”

There was a reshuffle in the Spurs ranks for their trip north, with Hugo Lloris absent from squad after his wife had given birth to their third child, and Dele Alli was also absent.

As a result of the changes, Spurs looked sluggish from the off, with Harvey Barnes going close in the first minute.

Gazzaniga then spilled an effort from Youri Tielemans an Ndidi pounced, wheeled away to celebrate, but the referee, after a short delay, gave an offside to deny the hosts.

The home fans’ fury was compounded as Kane, despite being totally off balance after forcing his way into the box, somehow hooked the ball into the net — his 13th career goal in 12 starts against Leicester.

Jamie Vardy came close to an equaliser early in the second half, before Aurier scored what he though was his first goal since January for Spurs.

The effort was again checked by the VAR, who ruled that Son was offside. Replays showed the decision was marginal.

“It’s what happens with VAR, you have to get your head round it,” Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers said. “It works for you and against you. Worked both ways for us today.”

Pereira arrived right on cue three minutes later to convert Vardy’s low cross to equalise.

At the death, Maddison got the ball out of his feet to fire in the winner, sending the King Power into raptures.

Sheffield United shock sloppy Everton

A first-half own goal by Yerry Mina and a late Lys Mousset effort gave Sheffield United a smash-and-grab 2-0 win at Everton in an entertaining Premier League match.

The result lifted the Blades to eighth place on eight points from six games while Everton slipped to 14th on seven points after they failed to convert several chances at Goodison Park.

United manager Chris Wilder was delighted with the outcome although he acknowledged it flattered his team.

“That’s possibly the worst we’ve played all season,” he told the BBC. “We didn’t play anything like our best today but managed to win the game.

“We won’t be jumping from the ceiling tonight – I might be, but my players won’t be. It’s great for our supporters, who travelled in numbers again today and were unbelievable in their support of the players.”

Colombia defender Mina put the ball past his own goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in the 40th minute after the first purposeful move by the visitors resulted in a corner.

Everton dominated the opening half and their Brazilian forward Richarlison curled a fine shot inches wide before visiting keeper Dean Henderson kept out a stinging low drive by Lucas Digne.

Everton pressed after the break in search of an equaliser but were caught cold again in the 79th minute when Mousset latched on to a defence-splitting pass and beat Pickford with a clinical finish to delight the away fans.

Sheffield United held out comfortably in the last 10 minutes as Everton manager deployed Theo Walcott in a desperate attempt to salvage something from a disappointing performance.

Everton manager Marco Silva conceded the Toffees paid for their sloppy defending.

Wood double as Burnley bring Norwich down to earth

Burnley striker Chris Wood scored a superb first-half brace to help them outclass promoted Norwich City 2-0 at Turf Moor and return to winning ways in the Premier League.

The result snapped Burnley’s winless run of four games since they beat Southampton 3-0 on the opening day of the campaign and gave Daniel Farke’s Norwich a reality check following their 3-2 upset of champions Manchester City last weekend.

Forward Wood put Burnley ahead in the 10th minute with his first league goal since April, guiding his header past Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krul at point-blank range after Ashley Westwood whipped in a perfect ball from a corner.

Norwich paid the price for giving away possession cheaply as New Zealander Wood doubled Burnley’s lead four minutes later by meeting midfielder Dwight McNeil’s drilled pass from the left with a crisp left-footed shot that gave Krul no chance.

“I feel very happy with the display, not just with the win. It was a very dominant performance from the first whistle to the last,” Burnley manager Sean Dyche told the BBC.

“We broke their play up early and scored two good goals. We didn’t look in any trouble and a small gripe would be that we should have scored more on the counter.

“There is a lot of competition for places up front. Ashley Barnes has been among the goals, Chris has probably been a bit unlucky but I’m really pleased for him. His second today was an excellent goal after a great run and finish.”

Midfielder Moritz Leitner, who came on in the opening half for the injured Alexander Tettey, had Norwich’s best chance in the 23rd minute but his fierce shot from distance rattled the post with Nick Pope beaten.

“We always knew this would be tougher than City. The two (Burnley) strikers are really hard to play against but we will learn from it,” Norwich defender Ben Godfrey said.

“It is never great to concede but we go again. We play out from the back, that philosophy has got us here so why change it? If we get punished, we get punished. We’ll stick to it.”