Manchester City: Four Key Matches That Defined Their Season
4. September 21, 2019, Watford at Manchester City
The mood around The Etihad had been a mix of gloom and shock going into Matchday 6 of the Premier League. Manchester City had drawn against Tottenham in a match many thought they should have won on the second day of the campaign.
What was most worrisome was their shock defeat to newly-promoted Norwich City, 3-2 the week before coming back home against Watford. What was worse was that they had already fallen behind Liverpool by five points at the top.
The main question was: How is City going to respond?
It took seventeen minutes to get the answer.
What happened to Watford in the first seventeen minutes was similar to what happens when a bowling ball is thrown out of a tenth story window onto the back end of a thirty-year-old pick-up truck.
Manchester City scored goals in the first, sixth, eleventh, fourteenth, and seventh minute of the game. The Hornets were down by five goals and were broken in two by then.
The onslaught continued as City knocked in three more goals to seal an 8-0 scoreline. Bernardo Silva got a hat-trick and even Nicolas Otamendi got a goal in the demolition. Pep’s charges had an expected goal ratio (xG) in the match of 6.63.
This included the penalty kick converted by Sergio Aguero in the initial blitzkrieg. City displayed unparalleled, clinical ruthlessness in attack while shutting down the Hornets on the defensive end as their xG was 0.34.
It was City at their very best.
This game sent a signal to the rest of the Premier League that Manchester City was still fully capable of dismantling opponents at will and that the loss at Norwich was just a fluke… For the moment.