the times | Monday July 27 2020 2GG 11
thegame
Silva’s City career did not get off to
the best of starts when he joined from
Valencia in a £24 million deal. He
confessed to being “f*****g rough”
when he did his medical because he
had partied so hard with the Spain
squad after winning the World Cup.
He departs a decade on with four
Premier League winner’s medals and
309 appearances under his belt. He
scored 60 league goals and set up 93
during that time.
It was an emotional afternoon for
Silva but there was no farewell goal forTen years and 16 days after landing in
England with a sore head and a lot of
pressure on his shoulders, David Silva
waved goodbye to the Premier
League. But Kevin De Bruyne stole
the magician’s thunder on an
entertaining afternoon at the Etihad
Stadium.
There was a humorous moment in
the dying moments of this emphatic
win, one that edged City over the
100-goal mark for the third time in
seven seasons.
In injury time, it was announced
over the public address system that
Silva had won the man-of-the-match
award. Benjamin Mendy, the unused
substitute who was sitting near Silva
in the stands, rose to his feet and
started clapping the 34-year-old
midfielder. Silva looked a little
embarrassed. He had played well, but
he knew it was a token gift on his last
Premier League appearance. He knew
he did not deserve the accolade. It
belonged to De Bruyne.
Although Phil Foden is an
incredible talent, City will miss Silva
De Bruyne’s
solo show
sends Silva
off in style
next season. Indeed the Premier
League will be poorer for his absence.
But De Bruyne is one of the reasons
that City will get by without him.
Yesterday the Belgium midfielder
equalled Thierry Henry’s assists
record, which has stood for 17 years.
He took his tally for the season to 20
when he played in Raheem Sterling
for City’s third.
De Bruyne cheekily said that he
had actually broken Henry’s record.
He is still smarting from having two
assists against Arsenal chalked off for
deflections. “I have got two more,” De
Bruyne said in an interview with
Premier League Productions.
“You guys took two away from me.
I’m still claiming that one. For me I
was already there.”
Such is De Bruyne’s magnificence
that his assist was not the most
impressive aspect of his display. He
scored two stunning goals as well.
The first, a curling, dipping shot from
20 yards, was so good that as soon as
it hit the back of the net, Sterling
started clapping. De Bruyne’s second
was a thunderous whack from inside
the area that smacked Tim Krul’s
woodwork before rolling into the net.
“He made one assist but could have
broken the record easily,” Guardiola,
the City manager, said.
“Instead he’ll share it with Thierry
Henry and he played really well. We
all know about his assists but we need
his goals too. The two he scored were
really special.”
It was a day of impressive statistics,
all of which augur well for City ahead
of next week’s match against Real
Madrid. Ederson’s 16th clean sheet of
the season meant he pipped Burnley’s
Nick Pope to the Golden Glove
award. Sterling became the first
Englishman to score 20 goals in a
top-flight campaign for City since
Brian Kidd scored 21 in 1976-77.
City ended the season in second
place, which is not good enough in
Pep Guardiola’s eyes. He is a serial
winner, but at least he knows that his
team are looking good going into the
second leg of the Madrid game a
week on Friday.50
Jesus 11
De Bruyne 45+1, 90
Sterling 79
Mahrez 83RATINGS
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson 8 — K Walker 8,
E García 6 (Fernandinho 45min, 7), A Laporte 6,
J Cancelo 8 — K De Bruyne 9, Rodri 6 (I Gündogan
45, 6), D Silva 7 (B Silva 85) — P Foden 6 (R Mahrez
45, 8), G Jesus 7, R Sterling 8. Booked Cancelo.
Norwich City (4-2-3-1): T Krul 5 — M Aarons 5,
B Godfrey 6, C Zimmermann 5, J Lewis 5 —
K McLean 5 (A Famewo 90+2), L Rupp 4 —
T Cantwell 5 (J Thomas 90+2), M Stiepermann 5
(M Vrancic 77), O Hernández 7 (J Martin 87) —
T Pukki 5 (A Idah 87). Booked Zimmerman.
Referee C Pawson.Manchester
City
Norwich
Citythe Spaniard despite his best efforts.
Krul saw to that with an expert finger
tip save in the second half.
When the fourth official raised the
board to indicate his substitution,
Silva received a hug from each of his
team-mates and the few who were in
the stands, including the Norwich
substitutes, rose to their feet and
clapped. Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the
City chairman, phoned Silva when he
was in the dressing room after the
match to thank him for all he had
done for the club.“It was the smallest standing
ovation ever,” Guardiola said with a
smile. “I also want to say thank you
for all he has done for this club.”
The doubters said that a man of
such diminutive stature could not
endure the hustle and bustle of the
English game. How wrong they were.
City’s opener came when Max
Aarons and Lukas Rupp made a
comic attempt at a clearance and
Gabriel Jesus swooped to score.
De Bruyne then came close to
getting the assist he needed. This time
he fed Foden but he shot at Krul.
De Bruyne showed Foden how to
do it, shuffling the ball from his right
to left and back again before curling
into the far corner.
Riyad Mahrez volleyed over De
Bruyne’s cross. It seemed like the
midfielder’s attempt to catch Henry
would fail, but a few minutes later, he
played Sterling through to roll past
past Krul. City were not done there.
Mahrez added a fourth and then De
Bruyne rounded it off with a fine shot
that flew in off the woodwork.KEY MOMENT
De Bruyne finally gets
the record-equalling
assist when he picks
out Sterling in the
inside left channel
and the forward
beats Krul.Match briefing
Raheem Sterling
plays a one-two with
Kevin De Bruyne and
crosses into the box.
Norwich fail to clear
and Gabriel Jesus
scored t to put City
ahead.11 mins 79
CITY’S CENTURY OF GOALS
Raheem Sterling
Sergio Aguero
Gabriel Jesus
Kevin De Bruyne
Riyad Mahrez
David Silva
Bernardo Silva
Phil Foden
Rodri
Nicolas Otamendi
Ilkay Gundogan
Aymeric Laporte
Kyle Walker
Own goals20
16
14
13
11
6 6 5 3 2 2 1 1 2Stat of the season
20
Kevin De Bruyne assisted his 20th goal
of the season, equalling the Premier
League record set by Thierry Henry for
Arsenal in 2002-03SHAUN BOTTERILL/GETTY IMAGES45min 2-0, De Bruyne
11min 1-0, Jesus
79min 3-0, Sterling
83min 4-0, Mahrez
90min 5-0, De Bruyne
PAUL HIRST
Marco Stiepermann
tries to stand up De
Bruyne but fails. The
Belgian taps the ball
with his heel on to his
right foot and curls
the ball into the top
corner.45