City beat Baggies to close on Liverpool
April 23, 2014 00:00:00
MANCHESTER: Manchester City\'s Argentinian defender Martin Demichelis (C) celebrates after scoring his team\'s third goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion at the Etihad Stadium here Monday.
MANCHESTER, April 22 (AFP): Manchester City narrowed the gap to Premier League leaders Liverpool to six points with a comfortable 3-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion at Eastlands Monday.
Pablo Zabaleta, Sergio Aguero and Martin Demichelis all scored for City as three different Argentinian players netted in a Premier League match for the first time.
West Brom showed brief moments of skills and had pulled the score back to 2-1 through Graham Dorrans, but ultimately City had too much quality.
City will close further on Liverpool should they win their game in hand, although they still need the Merseyside club to drop points in their remaining three games if they are to take the title themselves.
Manuel Pellegrini, the City manager, responded to his side's 2-2 draw with Sunderland with three changes as Gael Clichy, David Silva and Edin Dzeko came in for Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner and Alvaro Negredo respectively.
The hosts were also still without influential midfielder Yaya Toure, who is recovering from a groin injury, while West Brom recalled Craig Dawson and Billy Jones to their defence.
But it did not take a much more fluid City side long to assert their authority in the game and they took the lead in the third minute with a header from right-back Zabaleta.
A weak header from West Brom defender Liam Ridgewell fell to Aguero who struck a powerful first-time volley which was parried by Ben Foster, but Zabaleta anticipated the rebound to head into the vacant net.