PL: Manchester City 6-3 Leicester City

It was a thrilling Boxing Day afternoon at Etihad Stadium

Manchester City clinched a ninth successive Premier League win in thrilling style. They have now moved six points clear at the top of the table.

It looked like City had wrapped up the points after only 25 minutes as they led a depleted Foxes side 4-0, with a penalty apiece by Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling in addition to strikes from Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan.

Leicester had other ideas and came back thrillingly. They scored three goals in the space of 10 second-half minutes from James Maddison, Ademola Lookman and Kelechi Iheanacho giving them hope.

A header by Aymeric Laporte restored order and gave the home side breathing space. Sterling's second goal made sure of the points late on.

Pep Guardiola was talking about the Manchester City website about the remarkable second half: “No (I didn’t expect such a second half comeback).

"But even in the first half, we spoke about this at half-time, it was 4-0 and we were creating - but every time they had the ball they arrived in the final third and created chances.

“The game was open. They are a big team with a lot of quality. Then they changed to 5-4-1"

Premier League news (eurosuperfootball.blogspot.com)

Looking at the Leicester City perspective, they will be pleased with the fight on display in the second half but there will be some concerns about their defensive display.

Ademola Lookman said:"When it was 4-3 we felt the energy from the fans, they got louder and louder and you could feel the home support getting nervous. It was a shame we couldn't get the fourth goal to make it 4-4."

"When it was 4-3 we felt the energy from the fans, they got louder and louder and you could feel the home support getting nervous. It was a shame we couldn't get the fourth goal to make it 4-4." - 𝗔𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗮 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗺𝗮𝗻 💬 pic.twitter.com/m7GC28RGCp

— Leicester City (@LCFC) December 26, 2021

Brendan Rodgers also spoke about the game with the club website:"They started bright, which you would expect, they had nine shots, we had eight. We arrived in good positions and their ‘keeper has made some really good saves. But at 4-0 down we had a huge mountain to climb and I said to the players: 

"We need to go out [in the] second half and see if we can win the half and see if that brings us closer to them'."